Cipher or unknown language - historical perspective

[Jorge_Stolfi]

I think the only single stroke characters are e and i. The rest appear to be executed at least in two strokes, apparent from the way strokes occasionally don't touch at their meeting point. I've collected a few samples of misaligned strokes from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. below.

Agreed.  And I think that Ch is two strokes, namely one e first, and then the h in one stroke.

My theory is that these glyphs were designed to minimize the strokes in the general NW direction.  For a right-handed Scribe (which seems to be the case for the VMS), writing is smoother if the quill is held tilted towards SE.  Then pressing down the quill lightly during each main stroke causes its two tines to spread apart, pumping ink down to the nib as needed.   But then pushing the pen in the NW direction, or even sideways, is risky because it may snag into rough spots of the parchment.   Strokes in those directions had better be light and short -- like the plumes of r, s, and n, the loops of d, m, l, gallows, and ligatures -- using whatever ink still remains in the nib.  Thus it is better to write an o as two strokes, both in the general SE direction, than as a single stroke.  Likewise, a t or k is better written as down the left leg in one stroke, then the loop(s) and down the right leg in another stroke.

All the best, --jorge