26-04-2021, 04:36 PM
I would like to provide here at this stage a provisional explanation of the correspondences of some of the most common Voynich MS words with some common Middle English word forms. I must state upfront that I believe this "YORK" cipher creates many complications with making and recognising such correspondences: In many places the letters of "YORK" (EVA transliteration [chory] or Currier transliteration [SOR9]) may replace similar letters in words (e.g., "K" for "hard c", "hard g", "gh, "ng"), and certain words are written backwards in order to make their first and/or last letters appear the same as those of "Yorkist" words such as "YorK" or "MortiMer", or to appear in the opposite direction of hated "Lancastrian" words such as "BolingBroke".
And I'm afraid that this may be just the beginning of the complications with this cipher. It appears to me at this stage that Language A of the MS text is primarily Middle English, while Language B is primarily Anglo-Norman French. But there is still plenty of English, French, and Latin in both Languages A and B. This makes comparisons of word frequency with known languages extremely difficult.
Another complication is that I am seeing some evidence of what I might describe as "playing with the grammatical structures of English and French". It is like word play, but more complicated, by people who were interested in the differences between the structures of the two languages of the early 15th century English nobility, Anglo-Norman French and Middle English.
For example, I believe that in many places, the author of the Middle English Language A sections may have deliberately omitted many if not all articles. Likewise, the authors of the French Language B sections may have deliberately omitted the relative pronoun in some places, which is not normally allowed in French grammar but is a feature of English grammar. So these curiosities may have an impact on the frequency of the most common words in the target languages and in the MS text.
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With all of those cautionary notes stated and explained in advance, I may provisionally offer a couple examples as a representative sample of how this "YORK" cipher may have represented some common Middle English words with the most frequent words in Language A of the Voynich MS text. Of course this is a provisional work in progress. The point is that the nature of the "YORK" cipher combined with backwards writing of some words makes it possible for each Voynich word to represent a variety of forms of English words or possibly French or Latin words. It was a form of word play that the authors engaged in with the "YORK" cipher. It was not intended as a very practical means of regular communication, but I believe it does have meaning to the small group of authors who wrote the text for themselves and for their little group to share with each other. One may think of the text as a collection of rebus puzzles of a sort, with each line possibly representing a kind of little rebus puzzle.
Below I provide an example of the possible meanings of the most frequent Language A words EVA [daiin] (Currier [8AM]) and EVA [chol] (Currier [SOE]).
EVA [daiin] (Currier [8AM]) has an extremely high 5.28% frequency in Language A, but only 1.56% frequency in Language B. I believe this form mainly represented Middle English word forms, and there is enough English in the primarily French Language B for this word to appear relatively frequently in B as well, although it is almost 3.4 times more frequent in A than in B.
EVA [daiin] (Currier [8AM]) : "so" =
(5.28% freq. in Language A; only 1.56% freq. in Language B)
The following are a representative indication of the possible interpretations of this word. Not all of these meanings necessarily appear in the text, and there may be other possible meanings that are not yet included in the list below.
read forwards
1. so (Middle English) - "so"
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2. so (Middle English) - chiefly Northern dialectal form of "she"
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3. so (Middle English) - "vat, large tub"
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4. so (Middle English) alt. sp. of various forms of verb "seen" - "to see"
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read backwards
1. os (Middle English) alt. sp. of "us"
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2. os (Middle English) alt. sp. of "as"
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3. -os (Middle English) alt. sp. of "-ous" adjective suffix
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4. os (Middle English) - "bone"
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============== ======= =
EVA [chol] (Currier [SOE]) : "YOs" =
read forwards
1. -ious / -ios (Middle English) - "-ious" adjective suffix
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2. jus (Middle English) - "juice, sap, liquid extract, liquid herb mixture; body fluid; (fig.) the meaning or spirit of words", etc.
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3. use (Middle English) - "to use"
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4. use (Middle English) - "tradition, customary law"
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read backwards
?
============== ======= =
Again, I provide these examples simply as a representative sample of how I believe this "YORK" cipher may represent common Middle English words with common Voynich MS words in the Voynich script.
Geoffrey
And I'm afraid that this may be just the beginning of the complications with this cipher. It appears to me at this stage that Language A of the MS text is primarily Middle English, while Language B is primarily Anglo-Norman French. But there is still plenty of English, French, and Latin in both Languages A and B. This makes comparisons of word frequency with known languages extremely difficult.
Another complication is that I am seeing some evidence of what I might describe as "playing with the grammatical structures of English and French". It is like word play, but more complicated, by people who were interested in the differences between the structures of the two languages of the early 15th century English nobility, Anglo-Norman French and Middle English.
For example, I believe that in many places, the author of the Middle English Language A sections may have deliberately omitted many if not all articles. Likewise, the authors of the French Language B sections may have deliberately omitted the relative pronoun in some places, which is not normally allowed in French grammar but is a feature of English grammar. So these curiosities may have an impact on the frequency of the most common words in the target languages and in the MS text.
============== ======= =
With all of those cautionary notes stated and explained in advance, I may provisionally offer a couple examples as a representative sample of how this "YORK" cipher may have represented some common Middle English words with the most frequent words in Language A of the Voynich MS text. Of course this is a provisional work in progress. The point is that the nature of the "YORK" cipher combined with backwards writing of some words makes it possible for each Voynich word to represent a variety of forms of English words or possibly French or Latin words. It was a form of word play that the authors engaged in with the "YORK" cipher. It was not intended as a very practical means of regular communication, but I believe it does have meaning to the small group of authors who wrote the text for themselves and for their little group to share with each other. One may think of the text as a collection of rebus puzzles of a sort, with each line possibly representing a kind of little rebus puzzle.
Below I provide an example of the possible meanings of the most frequent Language A words EVA [daiin] (Currier [8AM]) and EVA [chol] (Currier [SOE]).
EVA [daiin] (Currier [8AM]) has an extremely high 5.28% frequency in Language A, but only 1.56% frequency in Language B. I believe this form mainly represented Middle English word forms, and there is enough English in the primarily French Language B for this word to appear relatively frequently in B as well, although it is almost 3.4 times more frequent in A than in B.
EVA [daiin] (Currier [8AM]) : "so" =
(5.28% freq. in Language A; only 1.56% freq. in Language B)
The following are a representative indication of the possible interpretations of this word. Not all of these meanings necessarily appear in the text, and there may be other possible meanings that are not yet included in the list below.
read forwards
1. so (Middle English) - "so"
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2. so (Middle English) - chiefly Northern dialectal form of "she"
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You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
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3. so (Middle English) - "vat, large tub"
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4. so (Middle English) alt. sp. of various forms of verb "seen" - "to see"
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read backwards
1. os (Middle English) alt. sp. of "us"
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2. os (Middle English) alt. sp. of "as"
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3. -os (Middle English) alt. sp. of "-ous" adjective suffix
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4. os (Middle English) - "bone"
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============== ======= =
EVA [chol] (Currier [SOE]) : "YOs" =
read forwards
1. -ious / -ios (Middle English) - "-ious" adjective suffix
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2. jus (Middle English) - "juice, sap, liquid extract, liquid herb mixture; body fluid; (fig.) the meaning or spirit of words", etc.
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3. use (Middle English) - "to use"
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4. use (Middle English) - "tradition, customary law"
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read backwards
?
============== ======= =
Again, I provide these examples simply as a representative sample of how I believe this "YORK" cipher may represent common Middle English words with common Voynich MS words in the Voynich script.
Geoffrey