A possible way to break down Voynich text

[ThomasCoon]

To Anton and ReneZ:

That last point I think is important in order to advance, namely to clearly separate the analytical part (how to separate the text into basic units) and the speculative part: what it means (cipher or language?, which language?).

The most important questions to answer at the start are, in my opinion:
- How much of the text (e.g. in percent) does this really explain? It is certainly not 100%, and it is also correct that one may assume that the text has some errors. If it can't (yet) be checked by a piece of software, it should at least be checked against some relevant pages, one herbal-A, one herbal-B, one bio or one recipes page.
- How can we know that this is the only method? Really, it is not likely to be, but how to find the 'most likely' method.

Hi Thomas,

Next, about the orthography decomposition. As I believe I already noted in my review of Brian's paper, if we speak of some rules or mapping, then the rules are there to be adhered to. So if one proposes a "rule" that is followed in only 50% of the cases, that is simply not a rule. Respectively, Brian is right about the testing of the pattern validity. Figures are needed to assess that. I'd say, 85% conformity is a must to ever begin any discussion and 95% would be good conformity to speak of a "rule" (providing 5% for scribal errors).

Regarding how often my rules are adhered to:
Here are the first 3 pages of the Herbal (pictures attached). With my method, here are the result:

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. Correct combinations: 228
Exceptions: 2
Rate of success: over 99%

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. Correct combinations: 249
Exceptions: 5
Rate of success: Over 97%

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. Correct combinations: 148
Exceptions: 1
Rate of success: over 99%

I do admit that I am making the (reasonable) assumption that cTh may be broken into ch t and likewise for cKh

ce and ee are definitely not the same thing, since that crossbar is met not only with e, but, e.g. with y. Wladimir provided examples of that.

The fact that c9 also appears is not a problem to me -
Actually, that may reinforce my idea that ch is just  ee:
ch = ee
c9 = ey
co = eo
(And all three are accounted for in my chart.)

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Sorry, pictures of the herbal breakdowns (as mentioned in the last post):