31-01-2021, 07:42 AM
I am also concerned about giving too much weight to appearance 'by itself'.
Looking at the Latin alphabet may help to underline this:
Obviously the letters "O" and "Q" appear very similar, and so to "E" and "F", but they have nothing to do with each other. A "B" is not two "D"s on top of each other, etc.
However, there is a tendency in Voynichese for similar shapes to have similar contexts, and that is the part that should matter.
Furthermore, these similar contexts are only similar 'to a point', and there are clear systematic differences. Some of these systematic differences hold throughout the MS, but others depend on the Currier language.
Looking at the Latin alphabet may help to underline this:
Obviously the letters "O" and "Q" appear very similar, and so to "E" and "F", but they have nothing to do with each other. A "B" is not two "D"s on top of each other, etc.
However, there is a tendency in Voynichese for similar shapes to have similar contexts, and that is the part that should matter.
Furthermore, these similar contexts are only similar 'to a point', and there are clear systematic differences. Some of these systematic differences hold throughout the MS, but others depend on the Currier language.
![[+]](https://www.voynich.ninja/images/collapse_collapsed.png)