Quote:First, there is nothing the VMS itself that remotely suggests that it is in cipher. The only reason people even think of cipher is because of that mistaken conclusion that the language must be "European". Once you accept that the language is an East Asian monosyllabic one, there is no reason to suspect that it may be encrypted.
You know, a script vs a cipher thing is one of my "fixations" that I developed while working with Rohonc Codex
So let me share a few ideas.Quote:Second, any complicated cipher (like the Naibbe one, or even a simple Vigenère) would be a pain to write and a pain to read.I agree. But cipher doesn't have to be complicated. A cipher may be simple substitution, a sign for a letter. In such case when you memorize the signs you can write with the same fluency as when writing in standard script.
It is not a level of complication that makes something a cipher.
A cipher is a notation that is supposed on purpuse to hide the meaning of the text from some people.
You develop a cipher despite having some standard way of writing because your standard script is known to your enemies (or more generally to some random people that you want to hide the meaning from).
On the other hand a natural script is something that some group of people (in extreme cases just one man) uses because they don't know anything else or it is just the best option for them. People writing with natural script aren't afraid that someone may understand the text, in most cases (a book, a newspaper, a legal paper) they want that everyne could understand it.
Why Linear B, Cherokee Syllabary or even Rohonc Codex (if I am right) aren't ciphers? Because just like you have a first language so you have a first script and it was the first script for their users.
And If I understand the Chinese theory correctly, Voynichese wasn't a first script for anyone there.
As I understand in this theory some European traveller wanted to have a copy of some Chinese treatise.
Somehow he didn't chose the most obvious options:
- he didn't write it down translated to his own language
- he didn't write it with original Asian letters
- he didn't write it transliterated with Latin letters
But he decided to invent a totally new notation for that.
People are usually "lazy" and do their job with as little effort as possible. Here he seems to break this rule.
Some explanation could be that he wanted to hide the meaning. It would make the text a cipher.
But you say it isn't a cipher but a natural script. Yet someone invented it even if he had easier, already available options. Why?
And why is it a script?