[quote pid='6290' dateline='1474399582']
Sam G
The main thing to me is that you have one set of consonants written with a straight stroke, and then a corresponding set of consonants written with a curved stroke.
[...]
j d
l y
r s
m g
The column on the left, with the straight stroke, follows a or i but not e. The column on the right, with the curved stroke, follows e but not a or i. o is neutral with respect to this system and may precede letters from either column.
Also, b and j are rare, and it's not clear what to make of these letters. We could remove them and pair d with n, but that would be slightly less symmetrical.
[/quote]
These are normal Latin abbreviations and this is how they happen to be written in Latin. The "r" with a tail is straight because it's based on Latin "r" with a tail. The curved-j is based on Latin abbreviation "-cis" and it's curved because a "c" in Latin is curved. The straight-j is Latin "-ris", so it follows that it will be straight.
I don't know what they mean in Voynichese, but the shapes were not invented by the VMS scribe, they were borrowed and thus the shapes already had these forms. I don't even think the VMS writer specifically chose letters that were straight or curved because the abbrevations appear to be selected based on the most common ones, not on specific categories of shapes.
Sam G
The main thing to me is that you have one set of consonants written with a straight stroke, and then a corresponding set of consonants written with a curved stroke.
[...]
j d
l y
r s
m g
The column on the left, with the straight stroke, follows a or i but not e. The column on the right, with the curved stroke, follows e but not a or i. o is neutral with respect to this system and may precede letters from either column.
Also, b and j are rare, and it's not clear what to make of these letters. We could remove them and pair d with n, but that would be slightly less symmetrical.
[/quote]
These are normal Latin abbreviations and this is how they happen to be written in Latin. The "r" with a tail is straight because it's based on Latin "r" with a tail. The curved-j is based on Latin abbreviation "-cis" and it's curved because a "c" in Latin is curved. The straight-j is Latin "-ris", so it follows that it will be straight.
I don't know what they mean in Voynichese, but the shapes were not invented by the VMS scribe, they were borrowed and thus the shapes already had these forms. I don't even think the VMS writer specifically chose letters that were straight or curved because the abbrevations appear to be selected based on the most common ones, not on specific categories of shapes.