Character Classes

[Emma May Smith]

Some characters in the Voynich script behave like one another. For example, an instance of [ch] can usually be replaced with [sh]. We could consider them to be members of the same 'class' of characters. We might think of numerous tests by which such similarity could be measured. What are the character classes that have been proposed, or we could agree on?

The characters [ch, sh] look alike and act alike. Stolfi placed [ee] with them, but I'm not certain that is valid because they cannot always replace one another.

The 'gallows' characters, which themselves can be subdivided into smaller classes dependent on the presence of a bench and/or two legs. This is the most commonly referred to group, but is it really valid?

Stolfi suggested the 'dealers', [d, l, r, s], which often occur in similar contexts. Within that class I would suggest that [d, s] and [l, r] are natural subgroups.

Stolfi also suggested the 'circles', [a, o, y], which in his theory were highly mobile. I think that if we consider [a] to be a variant of [y], then [y/a, o] make a fairly coherent class of character.

I think that being able to see characters as members of classes helps in analyzing the text because it gives us another level of insight. If we take some or all of the classes mentioned above as valid, we can see that words such as [oteal] and [ykeeor] have some structural similarity.