One of the reasons a Constructed Language Hypothesis has not had more air-time in Voynichese research is that, like hoax scenarios, it tends to be an argument of last resort. Researchers turn to a constructed language scenario in despair, when everything else fails. It is where we arrive by a process of elimination. And then it invites crazy speculation, so it is best avoided if possible.
But since this is where many seasoned researchers have ended up, it deserves more consideration in its own right.
Here is an idea - bordering on crazy speculation - I have explored for Voynichese as a constructed language (of sorts). I think it has more merit than meets the eye.
The model for it is the SATOR magic square, the mystique of which was certainly current in our historical window.
I take it that this square demonstrates that - if you put the right letters in the right stations - the movements of the Sun spell Latin words and make a Latin sentence.
Admittedly, not quite grammatical Latin, and you can read the 'sentence' various ways, and the square requires a mysterious neologism to work, but the 'magic' of it is that it shows, in principle, that there is a celestial text and that Latin has celestial roots and so is an adequate tool for capturing the celestial text.
Voynichese, then, is an extension of this idea.
If you ascribe a creative scheme of Latin letters, bigrams and abbreviations to the right stations (see f57v) - and, like the SATOR square, you have a bedrock of consonant/vowel alternation - then the movements of the heavens can be shown to spell out a text.
The text is not nearly grammatical, but it is impressive enough that it makes lots of Latin words, along with Latinish neologisms.
I propose that the way this is done is - like the SATOR square - to create keywords (palindromes) that are templates containing all the necessary letters and so are pregnant with possibilities.
Additional to your creative ensemble of Latin letters, you set up a framework of four (eight) markers for the quarters of the year, directions etc. (Like the four corners of the square.) In Voynichese, the system of gallows glyphs.
Again: the text is generated by the movements of the heavens, and - magic! - it is full of Latin words or forms that suggest or could be construed as Latin words depending on the abbreviations etc. (which are flexible and easily manipulated into words by design.)
As we know, Voynich words are very suggestive. They are short and tend to have CV alternation. People from Latinate languages see meaningful words everywhere! This ambiguous property could be by design.
An extra level, allowing far more creative results, (not in the SATOR model). would be if the system was alphanumeric.
We don't find the SATOR square in the manuscript, but then the magic square was regularly conceived as a wheel (ROTAS) and we find various letter wheels in the Voynich.
It would be a bold experiment, but perhaps not altogether succesful? Perhaps what we see in Currier A and B, and scribal variants, are attempts to "tune in" the system - to make the correspondences create more and better Latin?
Perhaps, in any case, it is an adventure in the Humanist fetishization of ancient Latin and rests on the conviction - implicit in the SATOR square, which offers a model for the construction - that Latin, like Greek, Hebrew and Arabic - is a sacred or primordial language that came from On High. Voynichese is an experimental constructed language meeting that need? The constructed language might be styled as "original celestial Latin."
But since this is where many seasoned researchers have ended up, it deserves more consideration in its own right.
Here is an idea - bordering on crazy speculation - I have explored for Voynichese as a constructed language (of sorts). I think it has more merit than meets the eye.
The model for it is the SATOR magic square, the mystique of which was certainly current in our historical window.
I take it that this square demonstrates that - if you put the right letters in the right stations - the movements of the Sun spell Latin words and make a Latin sentence.
Admittedly, not quite grammatical Latin, and you can read the 'sentence' various ways, and the square requires a mysterious neologism to work, but the 'magic' of it is that it shows, in principle, that there is a celestial text and that Latin has celestial roots and so is an adequate tool for capturing the celestial text.
Voynichese, then, is an extension of this idea.
If you ascribe a creative scheme of Latin letters, bigrams and abbreviations to the right stations (see f57v) - and, like the SATOR square, you have a bedrock of consonant/vowel alternation - then the movements of the heavens can be shown to spell out a text.
The text is not nearly grammatical, but it is impressive enough that it makes lots of Latin words, along with Latinish neologisms.
I propose that the way this is done is - like the SATOR square - to create keywords (palindromes) that are templates containing all the necessary letters and so are pregnant with possibilities.
Additional to your creative ensemble of Latin letters, you set up a framework of four (eight) markers for the quarters of the year, directions etc. (Like the four corners of the square.) In Voynichese, the system of gallows glyphs.
Again: the text is generated by the movements of the heavens, and - magic! - it is full of Latin words or forms that suggest or could be construed as Latin words depending on the abbreviations etc. (which are flexible and easily manipulated into words by design.)
As we know, Voynich words are very suggestive. They are short and tend to have CV alternation. People from Latinate languages see meaningful words everywhere! This ambiguous property could be by design.
An extra level, allowing far more creative results, (not in the SATOR model). would be if the system was alphanumeric.
We don't find the SATOR square in the manuscript, but then the magic square was regularly conceived as a wheel (ROTAS) and we find various letter wheels in the Voynich.
It would be a bold experiment, but perhaps not altogether succesful? Perhaps what we see in Currier A and B, and scribal variants, are attempts to "tune in" the system - to make the correspondences create more and better Latin?
Perhaps, in any case, it is an adventure in the Humanist fetishization of ancient Latin and rests on the conviction - implicit in the SATOR square, which offers a model for the construction - that Latin, like Greek, Hebrew and Arabic - is a sacred or primordial language that came from On High. Voynichese is an experimental constructed language meeting that need? The constructed language might be styled as "original celestial Latin."