Suggestions for decomposition of the Voynichese characters

[-JKP-]

mscheo, your chart is pretty close to how I perceive the shape combinations. I see them that way partly because it follows Latin scribal conventions that were used to write numerous languages.

These are common ligatures and abbreviations used in medieval scribal conventions:

y m g r s n k u b

For example, in Latin conventions, m = r  +  (is/es abbreviation)
                                                        k = i +  (is/es abbreviation, which is sometimes intepreted as "-em" or as "-tem" if it is "Item")
                                                        s = c + macron (written as a connected tail)
                                                        r = (i or r) + macron (written as a connected tail)

In other words, VMS glyph shapes are very similar to Latin building blocks used in ligatures and abbreviations.

But, I am (of course) not certain that the combinations are interpreted (parsed out) the same way they are in medieval conventions. What is two VMS shapes combined might represent several characters in a western language, but possibly one character in Voynichese. It's even possible that three or four basic shapes represent one character (or vice versa).