(27-05-2017, 11:05 PM)Emma May Smith Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.This is exactly the kind of insight I'm interested in! We need an explanation which accounts for all the seeming 'mistakes' that we see, as well as the ordinary characters.
This example isn't a gallows and it isn't about stroke order, but it does relate to your comment...
Most of the VMS glyphs are based on Latin. I've insisted on this for years, I have many clips to demonstrate it, and the only problem is finding time to document it with examples so that those without paleographic experience can see it.
So... on the subject of Latin, Latin is not just about so-many-letters-of-the-alphabet. It's about an extended understanding of characters that are abbreviations which were just as intrinsic as the letters themselves. Just as we use an apostrophe in regular communications. they used many apostrophes/macrons and ligatures as though they were letters.
When I first saw these in the VMS, I recognized them as Latin abbreviations (the shapes, not necessarily the meaning):
In Latin, the one on the left is "-ris", sometimes "-tis" (depending on the writing style) and the one on the right is "-cis". Occasionally lazy scribes also used the first one for -rum or -rem instead of the more flourished -rum. These are not just variations of the pen. They are two distinct glyphs. The one on the left is more frequent than the one on the right.
I don't know whether they are ligatures or abbreviations in Voynichese. The creators may just have borrowed the shapes to make Voynichese look like Latin (there are many indications that the text may have been contrived to resemble Latin, but it's hard to tell because they knew Latin notation and may have chosen them because they were familiar and thus comfortable to write).
So... when I created my own transcription, I differentiated between long and short EVA-e, between round figure-8 and straight-leg figure-8 (EVA-d), and between -ris/-tis/-cis (and a few others). There are many glyphs, however, where it's difficult to tell whether pen variations or glyph variations are intended. I do think it's helpful, however, to look at Latin as a reference when trying to sort them out. It's clearly been used as a model for many of the shapes.