The Constructed Language Hypothesis

[merrimacga]

In all likelihood, the solution will be some combination of natural language, constructed language and/or cipher text. It is also possible, if not probable, that a macaronic/hybrid language, code-switching, plurilingualism or multilingualism is also involved. However, the greater the complexity of the language and script used in the VM, the less likely the author(s)/scribe(s) would have been fluent enough in it to be able to write it fluidly.

Can we all agree that the VM is written fluidly by more than one hand? If so, then we can also assume a high degree of fluency by each of those hands in a commonly used and mutually understood, if not completely identical, script and language.

So far as I have seen, no one has been able to fully equate the VM glyphs with any particular, known writing system, alphabet (including runic and Arabic), syllabary or logography/lexigraphy or combination thereof. Partially, yes, but fully, no. It is reasonable to start with the premise that Voynichese is not the product of one or more constructed scripts and one or more constructed languages. Otherwise, the VM's fluidity of multiple hands is at least improbable, if not impossible. Could it be the product of some yet undiscovered, or at least not yet considered, writing system but one using one or more known natural languages or a constructed one? Perhaps, though most known writing systems are not completely unique. Distinct, yes, but unique, no, as resemblances to each can be found in other known writing systems. Technically, one could argue that a cipher or code is also a constructed writing system, though this is not generally considered the case, however, the same questions would apply, perhaps more so since multiple persons are even less likely to be so practiced a hand as to write cipher or code fluidly.

Simplicity and fluidity and probability and the capability to research all suggest that we should first look at either a contemporaneous constructed script (or code or cipher) used with one or more contemporaneous natural languages OR a previously existing but currently discontinued, and perhaps undiscovered, contemporaneous natural script used with one or more contemporaneous natural languages. And when considering natural languages, we must consider all possible rural dialects and other variations. I would not expect us to exhaust these possibilities anytime soon as there are currently almost 300 known writing systems worldwide, including historical ones, at least 80 known constructed scripts (not counting ciphers and codes), and more than 7,000 currently spoken languages amongst a low estimate of about 31,000 total languages historically. Any of these that didn't exist at the time the VM is assumed to have been written, based on the radiocarbon dating, may be eliminated for the purposes of narrowing research but this only gets us so far. Once we exhaust all the possibilities of the one line of research, then we exhaust all the possibilities of the other before we move on to the more complicated, less likely to be fluent and fluid possibilities, including that of a constructed language.

If we could accurately and positively date and geographically pinpoint the VM and if we could accurately profile the VM's author(s) if not also its scribe(s), we could narrow this search significantly. Until then, we're looking for one very tiny needle in one very large haystack.