Expert Opinions on 'daiin'

[Mark Knowles]

@ Rene – if you then add your list, you have a possibly complex number system.

I am not sure which list you mean?

However, your short list can be expanded if one allows (just as a thought experiment) that n and r are the same thing. Note that there are quite a few cases where the curl up is inaccurately placed and it is hard to decide which is meant.

an (rare) and ar (frequent):  1
ain (frequent) and air (relatively rare): 2
aiin (frequent) and aiir (rare): 3
aiiin (rare): 4

Essentially, 'r' is preferred without any 'i' and 'n' is preferred if there are one or more.
Since aiiin is so rare, perhaps 4 can also be written al. 
After all, l is how a 4 would be written at that time.

But what about ail , aiil?

In the 1424 Milanese cipher that I have discussed we see specific roman numeral representations substituted for given substrings, I think is the kind of thing we see here. The rarity is a function of how rare that substitution is. I don't think n and r (or l) are the same thing. We could have a large substitution key with many different substitutions. What is also interesting is that one sometimes sees something like  aii or oiiin or in.