Has anyone ever "deciphered" a paragraph?

[geoffreycaveney]

The fact that 'þe' is equivalent to 'the' is quite obvious, since the word is so frequent. Once you understand this, it's easy to see that (like in modern English) the article appears at the start of noun phrases and is typically followed by either a noun or an adjective (þe roote, þe flour, þe ȝonge sonne, þe Ram). Like in modern English, 'his' behaves similarly to 'the' (his schowres swoote, his swete breeth, his halfe cours). Like in modern English, 'and' connects two grammatical structures of the same kind (e.g. sentences or noun phrases). You can basically start from function words, which are almost identical to modern English, and work from there.
I can have trouble with the meaning of words like 'schowres',  'holte' or 'heetħ', but identifying part-of-speech categories is almost always straightforward, so it's easy to keep track of grammar, even when some of the meaning is lost.
The true Voynich translation will allow us to do just that: start from function words, identify basic grammatical structures and finally get to word meanings and translation.

The fantasy that language structure is a modern invention cannot possibly lead to anything interesting.

Also, even the word "the" will not necessarily be so easy and obvious to identify in every Middle English manuscript. As stated You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., "ẏ" was a Middle English scribal abbreviation for the definite article "the" / "ye" (note also the two spellings). See further the information You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.: "Middle English, y- (prefix) is often confused with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (pronoun) or with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) or You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (article, definite) and the thorn You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. due to typographic variation".

To make a speculative but logical comparison, the Voynich ms author (or one or more of its Hands) could have similarly used, let's say, EVA [ch-] prefixed to a noun to represent the definite article "the" / "ye". This word could also sometimes have been written out as EVA [chey] or [chy]. Incidentally, it so happens that this would be consistent with the idea of EVA [chedy] as English "yes".

Geoffrey