04-04-2021, 09:19 PM
In my research of Old Polish / Silesian lexicon, I came across an interesting verb that may possibly explain the strange apparent topic of the bathing / floating women section of the Voynich manuscript (from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ).
Those who are familiar with any Slavic language will recognize the root of the common Polish word żona. It means 'wife' in modern Polish, but formerly it also simply meant 'woman'.
Well, it so happens that there is an Old Polish verb żonąć, which apparently had a variety of meanings, including 'to rush', 'to seize', and 'to swim/flow/float violently/abruptly/sharply' ! Those who read Polish can review these various definitions of this Old Polish verb at this link: <https://pl.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C5%BCon%C4%85%C4%87#pl> .
Thus, "women floating/flowing/swimming rapidly/abruptly/sharply" could have been a kind of pun or play on words in an Old Polish / Silesian dialect: żony żoną.
According to my Slavic VCI interpretation of the phonetic values of the Voynich ms character inventory, the root of each of these Old Polish words could have been expressed by a vord combination such as EVA [shey qo-]. (In my interpretation, [qo/qok/qof] represents <n>. According to this system, Voynich vords often represent syllables rather than complete Old Polish words.)
And in fact, I find the vord combination [shey qo-] occurring rather frequently in the bathing / floating women section of the Voynich ms: I count it occurring 8 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , 9 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , 9 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , and then 9 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , 9 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , 4 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , and 7 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. . This vord combination occurs multiple times on other pages of this section as well.
[Note: The vowel <e> that I interpret from EVA [shey] is not necessarily inconsistent with the roots and words discussed here, since /e/ was the original phonemic value of this vowel in this root in Proto-Slavic, and even within modern West Slavic languages and dialects there remains a substantial split between žena/zena in Czech, Slovak, and Polabian, vs. żona/žona in Polish, Kashubian, and Sorbian. Likewise, the Old Polish verb discussed here appears to have exhibited o/e ablaut within the conjugation itself: 3rd person singular żenie, 3rd person plural żoną. Naturally, the particular dialect or dialects represented in the Voynich ms text may have exhibited different variations of these vowel qualities in various forms of these roots.]
Geoffrey Caveney
Those who are familiar with any Slavic language will recognize the root of the common Polish word żona. It means 'wife' in modern Polish, but formerly it also simply meant 'woman'.
Well, it so happens that there is an Old Polish verb żonąć, which apparently had a variety of meanings, including 'to rush', 'to seize', and 'to swim/flow/float violently/abruptly/sharply' ! Those who read Polish can review these various definitions of this Old Polish verb at this link: <https://pl.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C5%BCon%C4%85%C4%87#pl> .
Thus, "women floating/flowing/swimming rapidly/abruptly/sharply" could have been a kind of pun or play on words in an Old Polish / Silesian dialect: żony żoną.
According to my Slavic VCI interpretation of the phonetic values of the Voynich ms character inventory, the root of each of these Old Polish words could have been expressed by a vord combination such as EVA [shey qo-]. (In my interpretation, [qo/qok/qof] represents <n>. According to this system, Voynich vords often represent syllables rather than complete Old Polish words.)
And in fact, I find the vord combination [shey qo-] occurring rather frequently in the bathing / floating women section of the Voynich ms: I count it occurring 8 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , 9 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , 9 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , and then 9 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , 9 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , 4 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , and 7 times on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. . This vord combination occurs multiple times on other pages of this section as well.
[Note: The vowel <e> that I interpret from EVA [shey] is not necessarily inconsistent with the roots and words discussed here, since /e/ was the original phonemic value of this vowel in this root in Proto-Slavic, and even within modern West Slavic languages and dialects there remains a substantial split between žena/zena in Czech, Slovak, and Polabian, vs. żona/žona in Polish, Kashubian, and Sorbian. Likewise, the Old Polish verb discussed here appears to have exhibited o/e ablaut within the conjugation itself: 3rd person singular żenie, 3rd person plural żoną. Naturally, the particular dialect or dialects represented in the Voynich ms text may have exhibited different variations of these vowel qualities in various forms of these roots.]
Geoffrey Caveney