Discussion of "The Voynich Manuscript: Symbol roles revisited"

[RenegadeHealer]

Why do I find the overabundance of integer frequencies and common divisibility by 40 or 160 interesting?  Because I am on constant look out for the VM's "Period 17" data.  A seventeen-based periodicity is what began the process that finally broke the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher.  Granted, it took a while, but without that initial clue, I'm sure Dave and company would still be running tests.

Could this periodicity of the Fourier Discrete Transform frequencies as integers (first) and then being divisible by 40 and 160 (second) be routes in to better understanding the text creation process?  My understanding is what Fourier Transforms do to time series data is essential act as filters to separate noise from non-noise in the data sets.  It is commonly used in electrical engineering to "pull out" regular signals when the time series data is messy.

For example, this is how it is discussed in Brockwell & Davis, a book cited as "an excellent introduction to the theory" of time series analysis in the cited reference -- Venables & Ripley (2013).  Here's a link to the whole book if anyone's interested -- 
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Hi Michelle. In addition to reading the source you provided, I'm going to have to pick my father-in-law's brain about Fourier transformations. He's an electrical engineer and ham radio fanatic, who invented and produces a machine called the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. As best I understand it, the linearizer is a radio signal clarifier, that greatly increases the signal-to-noise ratio of an amplified transmission. This allows for greater bandwidth and more efficient use of power in transmitting information over radio waves. (I'm probably getting a lot of this wrong, so anyone who knows this better than I do, don't be shy about correcting me. I fix people, not machines.)

In any event, yes, the paragraph you quoted from Matlach et al. caught my attention as well, and I hope that someone more mathematically inclined than me can use it as a starting point for statistical analysis.

The number seventeen occurs in (at least) two interesting places in the VMs that I've noticed. It's the number of glyphs in each quarter of the middle ring of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , as well as the number of single glyphs before the beginnings of lines on each half of the text of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. . Interesting that these two pages are next to each other on the same side of one bifolio. It seems you were the first on this forum to bring up Patrick Feaster's blog, where he plays with the idea that You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. relates to the process by which Voynichese was created. Granted he's not the first to think of this, but he fleshes out the idea better than most.