(17-05-2026, 08:44 PM)Dunsel wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I think you're missing the point. This is not about generating perfect Voynichese. This is about demonstrating a possible method for it's production.
You are right, I do miss the point of all copy and modify approaches because to me they look like imitation with extra steps. None of the copy and modify proposals that I know suggest a specific set of rules that I can just follow to generate Voynichese. The rules just provide a few of "you can do this, you can do that" and then you still have to use extra steps to ensure the result is good enough, and even then it's obviously not good enough to pass as real Voynichese. I think I can generate some plausible Voynichese from the top of my head just following CLS and adding some variation.
Let's try:
Shedy.chol.or.daiin.olkedy.chor.odam
dchedy.ytoair.chey.dar,choldy.saiin.okain
qoty.odaiin.Shor.cheody.opchey.ar.okchy
okeedy.sair.lol.tcheody.or.Shody.otaim
No algorithm, no copy and modify, just attempting to imitate Voynichese and more or less following known visual patterns. I don't think this will pass the statistical test, but given that copy and modify creates a lot of weird words, it won't pass some tests either.
So, my main question about copy and modify methods - why bother? What's the advantage of writing down some specific rules and then adding more and more complexity, when just asking a scribe to imitate existing script and making sure that curves mostly start and sticks mostly follow (and don't mingle) produces the same result?
Edit: BTW, this made me think a bit. I know that some artists are very good at identifying and extending visual patterns. What would happen if some artist is given a few lines of Voynichese as a sample and then asked to continue the pattern in a similar visual style. What would the result look like? Will it be worse or better than other proposals for generating meaningless Voynichese.