A family of grammars for Voynichese

[Jorge_Stolfi]

REVISITING MY OLD WORD PARADIGM

...

  The next filter parses the valid EVA strings into the /elements/ of the word paradigm.
   
    {q} {o} {a} {y} {d} {r} {l} {s}   
    {ch} {che} {sh} {she} {ee} {eee}
    {k} {ke} {t} {te} {p} {pe} {f} {fe}
    {ckh} {ckhh} {ckhe} {ckhhe}
    {cth} {cthh} {cthe} {cthhe}
    {cph} {cphh} {cphe} {cphhe}
    {cfh} {cfhh} {cfhe} {cfhhe}
    {n} {in} {iin} {iiin}
    {m} {im} {iim} {iiim}
        {ir} {iir} {iiir}
       

And here are the frequencies of elements in tokens that pass level 1 (parsing into 
the elements above):

  12443.625000  0.09984 {a}
  21543.125000  0.17285 {o}
  15120.250000  0.12132 {y}

  5192.000000   0.04166 {q}

  11388.500000  0.09137 {d}
   9220.250000  0.07398 {l}
   5792.375000  0.04647 {r}
   2081.750000  0.01670 {s}

   5664.500000  0.04545 {ch}   3906.250000  0.03134 {che}
   3842.250000  0.03083 {ee}    324.000000  0.00260 {eee}
   2085.500000  0.01673 {sh}   1869.250000  0.01500 {she}

   7295.000000  0.05853 {k}    1519.000000  0.01219 {ke}
   4173.750000  0.03349 {t}     786.000000  0.00631 {te}
    316.000000  0.00254 {f}       0.0       0.0     {fe}
   1197.375000  0.00961 {p}       0.0       0.0     {pe}


    452.500000  0.00363 {ckh}   169.500000  0.00136 {ckhe}
    591.000000  0.00474 {cth}   148.000000  0.00119 {cthe}
     36.000000  0.00029 {cfh}    14.000000  0.00011 {cfhe}
    104.500000  0.00084 {cph}    49.000000  0.00039 {cphe}

     16.000000  0.00013 {ckhh}    0.0       0.0     {ckhhe}
     25.000000  0.00020 {cthh}    1.0       0.00001 {cthhe}
      1.0       0.00001 {cfhh}    0.0       0.0     {cfhhe}
      4.0       0.00003 {cphh}    2.0       0.00002 {cphhe}

    113.500000  0.00091 {n}     868.250000  0.00697 {m} 
   1665.500000  0.01336 {in}     40.000000  0.00032 {im} 
   3779.000000  0.03032 {iin}    15.000000  0.00012 {iim}
    159.000000  0.00128 {iiin}    1.0       0.00001 {iiim}
     
    487.750000  0.00391 {ir}
    130.500000  0.00105 {iir}
      1.0       0.00001 {iiir}

Obviously some of the originally proposed elements hardly occur at all, and can be excluded from the "alphabet"  with little loss.

In particular, note that element {ckhhe} does not occur, while {ckh},  {ckhe} and {ckhh} do.  I take that as evidence that {ckhe} and {ckhh} are just calligraphic variants of each other, and should perhaps be mapped and counted as such.  Ditto for the other three gallows, including p and p.

Also note that while {cfh}, {cfhe},{cph} and {cphe} occur in reasonable numbers and proportions, {pe} and {fe} are completely absent.  This well-known anomaly may indicate that p and f are substitutes for te and ke.  Maybe the hook at the end of the arm is meant to be the e. 

(But beware that the frequencies of these characters and digraphs cannot be relied upon to reveal what p and f mean.  Word frequencies on parag head lines, where most p and f are found, are very likely different from the word frequencies in the other lines; and character frequencies depend entirely on word frequencies.)

And apparently we can exclude {iiir} and {iiim} from the element set.

All the best, --stolfi