01-10-2016, 09:25 AM
This morning I was reading the wiki about the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. Like some other alphabets, it has interesting properties, like Voynich-resembling glyphs and a non-decimal system for writing numbers - but that is not the subject of this thread. It was the following sentence that made me wonder:
If Voynichese is the result of enciphering in the strictest sense, it is just a matter of finding the key. Like "oh the vowels have just been left out and then you can convert it to Latin". This can be found, if studied long enough.
However, what if Voynichese is a historically developed writing system that is only known from this one source? For example, Byblos script is known from a dozen of inscriptions, and as yet it remains undeciphered. So if Voynichese is not a "find the key" cipher - is it possible to ever understand it without external sources like a bilingual document?
Quote:Examples of Palmyrene inscriptions were printed as far back as 1616 but accurate copies of Palmyrene/Greek bilingual inscriptions were not available until 1756. The Palmyrene alphabet was deciphered in the 1750s, literally overnight, by Abbé Jean-Jacques Barthélemy using these new, accurate copies of bilingual inscriptions.
If Voynichese is the result of enciphering in the strictest sense, it is just a matter of finding the key. Like "oh the vowels have just been left out and then you can convert it to Latin". This can be found, if studied long enough.
However, what if Voynichese is a historically developed writing system that is only known from this one source? For example, Byblos script is known from a dozen of inscriptions, and as yet it remains undeciphered. So if Voynichese is not a "find the key" cipher - is it possible to ever understand it without external sources like a bilingual document?