13-08-2025, 08:42 PM
This assertion that the Voynich script follows Zipf's law is starting to seem like dogma to me. It's like the idea that there's a biological or balneological section in the Voynich, something that must be accepted as a matter of faith.
The curious thing is that if the data does not support the theory that the script follows Zipf's law, then the data is discarded and the problem ends. Anyone familiar with Zipf's law for natural languages can see that it doesn't fit with the frequency of glyph groups we see in the Voynich. Following the most frequently used group, daiin, with 864 occurrences, are five groups in descending order, ranging from 538 to 396 occurrences. This doesn't fit with the theory at all.
The problem with Voynich research is that it continues to claim things that have no real backing. Although I fear that dissenting won't help much, since there will always be those who say he already told the truth about the VM script and Zipf's law in Cryptology magazine many years ago.
The curious thing is that if the data does not support the theory that the script follows Zipf's law, then the data is discarded and the problem ends. Anyone familiar with Zipf's law for natural languages can see that it doesn't fit with the frequency of glyph groups we see in the Voynich. Following the most frequently used group, daiin, with 864 occurrences, are five groups in descending order, ranging from 538 to 396 occurrences. This doesn't fit with the theory at all.
The problem with Voynich research is that it continues to claim things that have no real backing. Although I fear that dissenting won't help much, since there will always be those who say he already told the truth about the VM script and Zipf's law in Cryptology magazine many years ago.