k/t gallows reduplication

[MarcoP]

Hi Marco,

A few plots based on the Zandbergen-Landini transliteration (ZL_ivtff_2b.txt)

Did you remove the alternates ([:])? I made a few mistakes in the counts because there are some complicated cases that I failed to remove. 

Hi Nablator,
I kept the first alternative, but I did this with a python script, not ivtt, so it's possible I missed the complicated cases as well. There are several [k:t] [t:k] ambiguities and from what I can see they were handled correctly. Anyway, this can only have a visible impact on the third graph.

---

The following are plots where I compare sequences of different lengths with their expected number in a randomly sorted text. As always, I may have made errors and things must be taken with a grain of salt. Each X value corresponds to sequences whose length is exactly X, e.g. 'kttktk' has 1 t-sequence with length=2, and one with length=1. I rendered a value of 0 as 0.1, so that I could use a logarithmic scale, which I find much more readable in this case.

Currier A and B (ZL transliteration, considering all text):

   
   

In the above plots, the values for length=1 and 2 are visibly lower than for a random distribution: this appears to be related with what Patrick wrote You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.:

In You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., I presented some statistical evidence that it's more likely overall for a [t] to be followed by another [t] within the next 4-6 glyphs, and for a [k] to be followed by another [k] within the same distance, than it is for a [t] to be followed by a [k] or vice versa.  That also seems consistent with a tendency towards "blocks," for whatever it's worth.

I also checked a few texts in different languages, picking consonants that a vaguely similar number of occurrences has 'k' and 't' in Currier B.

   

Shakespeare and Plinius (Natural History Book 2, prose) do not show much repetition and the curves basically oscillate around the expected value of 1; I include the results for randomly shuffling the words in Shakespeare's sonnets, which is not dramatically different from the original.
Dante's Commedia and (much more clearly) the Finnish Kalevala both show longer sequences than expected. Both texts are poems and (contrary to Shakespeare) make use of alliteration, in the Kalevala this feature is particularly apparent. Anyway, not even the Kalevala comes close to the repetition rates in the Voynich manuscript.