About word length distribution

[kckluge]

So you're saying something like this?

1) encode source text verbosely (I'll say, any process that makes the cyphertext longer than the plaintext)
2) write this down separately
3) take dice or coins and do stuff with them to determine where spaces are inserted
4) write the line with these spaces, generated by chance, in the MS

How many spaces does the MS have? Like 20,000?

I don't want to drift too far off the underlying topic, so I'll just briefly say

* In response to Koen: I agree, but consider labor intensiveness a 2nd order issue compared to determining if such a method can replicate key properties of the Voynich vocabulary. If so, then it's time to worry about labor intensiveness; if not, then it's irrelevant. Your mileage may vary.

* In response to Marco: I was unclear -- I still think some of the spaces (i.e., before 'q', after 'ain/aiin/etc.' -- EVA 'y' is trickier) are mechanically inserted, but it's unclear that adding them on top of the underlying word breaks works to sufficiently shorten the vords and reproduce other properties of the vord vocabulary.

* Given the number of folks who seem inclined to like the verbose cipher idea in a vague, hand-wavy way I would really like to see (in a separate thread, it goes without saying) a vigorous discussion of ideas for addressing specific problems with it such as the word length issue and the "if 'ol' and 'l' (say) are both elements of the cipher, then why don't we see 'oll' in the text?" issue.

Unless someone is inclined to spin off a new thread, I'll leave it at that.