[Article] Pardis Motiee, "First Page of Voynich Manuscript: The Unheard Story" (LingBuzz)

[-JKP-]

I took a break and went through the paper. If I understand it correctly, some of the common letters and patterns are removed before attempting a translation (e.g., terminal y, leading o, dar). What is left is treated as a mixture of Sanskrit (95%), Arabic, and Persian derivatives from Arabic.

The grammar was rhetorical. In this way, the components of speech are shifted at the discretion of the author and for greater impact (Shirzadeh Taleghanki, 2013).

I can't comment on the basis of language because I don't know enough about Sanskrit/Arabic/Persian to judge. I do know that when I was trying to find a natural language that was as close to Voynichese as possible (on one of the challenge threads), I chose an example from Sanskrit because of the prevalence of repetitive short phrases (somewhat syllabic) and the vowel "a" but going from natural language to Voynichese is easier than going from Voynichese to natural language because you can pick-and-choose the phrases.

I don't have time for it right now, but one of the first "litmus" tests I do to gauge a translation is to look at letter frequency and position in the language of choice and see how that compares to the letter frequency and position in the solver's translation. This test does not require an in-depth knowledge of the specific language, only a basic knowledge (the ability to recognize basic words and grammar). If there is substantial deviation between the two, then the discrepancy needs to be explained by the person offering the solution.