13-04-2026, 01:00 PM
I looked at pairs of very similar words (Levenshtein ≤1). For each pair, I compared how similar their contexts are on the left and on the right. If a system is directional, you expect differences between “prev” and “next”. If it is more balanced, both sides should behave similarly.
First result: the Voynich text is unusually symmetric. In this table:
- Mean abs asymmetry (fuzzy): the average absolute difference between how similar two words are in their left context versus their right context, allowing approximate (Levenshtein ≤1) matches.
- Median abs asymmetry: the median of those absolute left–right differences, giving the typical asymmetry while being less affected by extreme cases.
In the Voynich text, when two words look similar, their left and right environments also look similar, and to almost the same degree. The difference between left and right is small.
In natural texts, this is not the case. Similar words often behave differently depending on direction. That is normal. Grammar is directional, and words do not play the same role before and after.
Timm sits in between. It does show similar-looking words with similar contexts, but the symmetry is weaker. There is more difference between left and right. A reasonable explanation could be in how the text is generated. If you generate step by step, each new word depends more on what comes before than on what comes after. That alone can create left-right asymmetry. I think Timm is consistent with that.
The Voynich result points to something more balanced. Not necessarily language, but not a simple left-to-right (or right-to-left) process either. More like a local system where choices are constrained by both sides, or where direction matters less.
This does not prove anything on its own, but I think it is a clean difference.
First result: the Voynich text is unusually symmetric. In this table:
- Mean abs asymmetry (fuzzy): the average absolute difference between how similar two words are in their left context versus their right context, allowing approximate (Levenshtein ≤1) matches.
- Median abs asymmetry: the median of those absolute left–right differences, giving the typical asymmetry while being less affected by extreme cases.
| Corpus | Mean abs asymmetry (fuzzy) | Median abs asymmetry |
|---|---|---|
| voynich | 0.055 | 0.045 |
| timm_generated | 0.103 | 0.080 |
| ambrosius_latin | 0.100 | 0.083 |
| chinese | 0.127 | 0.086 |
| docta_ignorantia | 0.142 | 0.118 |
| tirant_cat | 0.162 | 0.133 |
| culpepper_en | 0.187 | 0.157 |
| materia_medica_en | 0.220 | 0.199 |
| simplicissimus_de | 0.223 | 0.236 |
| alchemical_latin | 0.257 | 0.214 |
In the Voynich text, when two words look similar, their left and right environments also look similar, and to almost the same degree. The difference between left and right is small.
In natural texts, this is not the case. Similar words often behave differently depending on direction. That is normal. Grammar is directional, and words do not play the same role before and after.
Timm sits in between. It does show similar-looking words with similar contexts, but the symmetry is weaker. There is more difference between left and right. A reasonable explanation could be in how the text is generated. If you generate step by step, each new word depends more on what comes before than on what comes after. That alone can create left-right asymmetry. I think Timm is consistent with that.
The Voynich result points to something more balanced. Not necessarily language, but not a simple left-to-right (or right-to-left) process either. More like a local system where choices are constrained by both sides, or where direction matters less.
This does not prove anything on its own, but I think it is a clean difference.