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geoffreycaveney's Middle English theory
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RE: geoffreycaveney's Middle English theory
geoffreycaveney > 19-04-2021, 09:50 PM
(19-04-2021, 08:05 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I called the thread "Middle English theory" so it still covers more ground in case you change your mind
I understand and appreciate that, Koen. But at this point I can say that I believe it is more likely that the "Middle English" part may possibly expand to "Middle English/Anglo-Norman" than it is that the "Yorkist" part will change. -
RE: geoffreycaveney's Middle English theory
geoffreycaveney > 20-04-2021, 05:31 AM
I think I can read and interpret the center ring of text on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -- which David Jackson identified as representing the House of York in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -- but it is complicated and I will need help to complete the reading and interpretation with complete accuracy.
This reading and interpretation would not be possible without David's brilliant analysis of the imagery of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. in his 2013 blog post. So first of all, allow me to quote two critical excerpts from David's analysis:
"Crossbow – loaded but not cocked (the string is less than halfway down the barrel). No visible winding mechanism. The man does not have his right hand on the crossbow, (indicating that he is not preparing to use it?). Is the man protecting the women? He is not in an aggressive stance. However, it is aimed at the only two women not carrying a rose on the page , is he looking for the traitor? (There is an article about the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. here which ties into my theory)."
"The House of York (represented on 73v) was commonly identified by the White Rose (which is why the women all have a rose with a golden heart, which apes the common symbol which is clearly seen in prints from that era). The central figure wears a white hat, again standing for the symbolism of his political alignment. Two women in the circle carry no star, and the crossbow points straight at these two. Is the man protecting the House of York by force of arms, reminding these two aristocratic families that they must continue to pay him their dues?"
[boldface type emphasis added by me in the above quotations of David Jackson's analysis]
Before I continue with the reading and interpretation of these 10 words of text, I must inform readers that this text will include not only Middle English but also Anglo-Norman (French) and possibly simply Old French words. It also apparently includes one Latin word.
The justification for this multilingual mixture is that the syntax, the word order, and the grammatical forms and structure fit together in an appropriate way. The Old French infinitive form of the verb appears where it naturally should, as far as I can determine. The Latin ablative singular form of a noun appears where it should and has the ablative meaning that it should in the statement, as far as I can determine. The Old French preposition+article contraction word form appears in precisely the right place in the statement.
A couple points about the cipher or cryptographic aspects of this statement: In this 10-word statement, the 5th and 10th words are read backwards. They are also the two words that end with the letter "b", and thus are really meant to be read as beginning with the letter "b". I am not yet sure whether it is their placement in the statement or their final (read: beginning) letter that is the decisive criterion for reading them backwards in this cipher.
Further, it appears that the character EVA [y], at least in these 10 words of text, may not merely be a "wild card" character as I had hypothesized previously. Rather, it may represent "k/c", possibly along with an unwritten vowel in some places. I am surprised by this possibility, since I would never have expected the letter "k/c" to appear in almost 44% of all words in the entire ms, as the character EVA [y] does! The only justification for this unexpected possibility that I can think of at this time is that "K" was a very important letter for the Yorkists as the last letter in "YORK". Furthermore, I now see that in addition to the backwards reading as "#ROY" = "King", there is the additional possibility of the backwards reading as "CROI", the root of the French verb meaning "to believe; to have faith in; to consider oneself as, to think of oneself as, to think oneself to be". For example, I note the Old French phrase "se croire li rois", meaning "to think oneself to be the king". (Source: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. )
However, I should state upfront that the 8th and 9th words of this 10-word statement, which are the words in which I now believe that this EVA [y] = "K/C" appears, at the beginning and end of each word, are also precisely the two words that I think I will need the most help in reading and interpreting with complete accuracy. (Of course this character also appears in the 7th word, [chory] = "YORK"!)
So, with this circumspect introduction, I now present my very tentative and provisional reading and interpretation of the center ring of text on folio page You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. of the Voynich manuscript:
EVA transcription:
[otedchor alar olkcho oto lam okees chory ytaly ylaly otasam]
reading according to my provisional letter correspondences:
"fesyour isir os[t?]yo fo/u sib [d?]ee[l?] YORK K[p?]isK KsisK fi[l?]ib"
My interpretation of this statement:
"Fes(i)our!, issir ostio, fou bis del YorK!, [KpisK?, KsisK] bilif"
Very rough translation of this statement:
""Criminal/Traitor!, to go out (by) the door, a particoloured (white & gold) noble cloth/garment (flower) of York!, understand?, to access a livelihood / means of subsistence""
Again, I can only even propose such an interpretation thanks to David Jackson's brilliant analysis and discussion of the imagery of page You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. that I quoted above.
Justification of the first seven words:
fesour (Anglo-Norman Old French) - "perpetrator (of a crime)"
alt. sp. feseeur
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issir (Old/Middle French) - "to leave, to go out; to get out, to escape"
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ostio (Latin) - dative/ablative singular form of ostium - "door; entrance"
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fou (Middle English) - "particoloured, variegated, spotted or streaked; a kind of particoloured fur"
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(perhaps meaning white & gold Yorkist flower, not all gold Lancastrian flower? -- see David Jackson's discussion of Yorkist white & gold vs. Lancastrian all gold flowers in his blog post)
bis (Middle English) - "a precious kind of linen or cotton cloth; also, a garment made of this fabric (as worn by the nobility)"
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(perhaps referring in this instance to the flower?)
del (Old French) - "of the"
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YORK
Now for the hardest part that I will need help with:
The 10th and final word I can analyze as follows:
bilif (Middle English) - alt. sp. of bi-live "the means of subsistence; a livelihood (as of food, clothing, shelter)"
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But I will need help with the precisely exact forms of the 8th and 9th words.
Again, I read them as "K[p?]isK KsisK".
To be perfectly honest, the inspiration to read and possibly interpret the 8th word as some form of "understand?" came from the famous phrase "capeesh?" or "capisce?" in gangster movies. The root and the meaning seem to fit the reading and the context rather well. But I do not know what precise form of this root, and in what language, could possibly have been current among the early 15th century English nobility, whether in England or in northern France.
As for the 9th word, I simply hypothesize that it may represent some form of a word meaning "access" in some language current among the early 15th century English nobility, since this seems to fit the reading of this word as well as my reading and interpretation of the following and final word, bilif, "means of subsistence; a livelihood (as of food, clothing, shelter)". Again, this interpretation seems to fit the threatening message of the man with the crossbow in the illustration in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. rather well, following David Jackson's analysis and discussion of the significance of the Yorkist imagery on this page.
That is as much sense as I can make of these 10 words of text in the center ring of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. at this time. I hope that others can offer their thoughts, comments, questions, and critical feedback on this provisional analysis.
Geoffrey -
RE: geoffreycaveney's Middle English theory
geoffreycaveney > 20-04-2021, 01:49 PM
To help explain the apparent trilingual nature of this line of text, as far as one can make sense of it, the following brief summary of "Trilingualism in Medieval England" may be helpful. David Jackson has already commented in this thread on much of this linguistic dynamic among the late medieval English nobility and upper classes.
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"Trilingualism in Medieval England[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.]
"Much of the earliest recorded You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is in fact Anglo-Norman French. In Northern You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. at that time,[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.] almost nothing was being recorded in the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. because You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. was the language of the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and consequently of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., and was thus used for the purpose of records. Latin also remained in use in medieval England by the Church, the royal government and much local administration, as it had been before 1066, in parallel with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. The early[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.] adoption of Anglo-Norman as a written and literary language probably owes something to this history of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. in writing.[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.]
"Around the same time, as a shift took place in France towards using French as a language of record in the mid-13th century, Anglo-Norman French also became a language of record in England though Latin retained its pre-eminence for matters of permanent record (as in written You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). From around this point onwards, considerable variation begins to be apparent in Anglo-French, which ranges from the very local (and most You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) to a level of language which approximates to and is sometimes indistinguishable from varieties of continental French. Thus, typically, local records are rather different from continental French, with diplomatic and international trade documents closest to the emerging continental norm.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. English remained the vernacular of the common people throughout this period. The resulting virtual You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. in spoken and written language was one of medieval Latin, French and Middle English."
[boldface type emphasis added]
Geoffrey -
RE: geoffreycaveney's Middle English theory
geoffreycaveney > 20-04-2021, 09:36 PM
Below: reading and interpretation of the first line of the Voynich manuscript, on folio page You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. .
The identification of the character EVA [y] as "k/c", possibly along with an unwritten vowel in some places, which I designate as [y] = "K", has simultaneously greatly reduced a large degree of freedom that used to exist in the interpretation ([y] as a "wild card", "null", or "anything") and also actually greatly facilitated the reading of the text. It was impossible to understand many words and lines without the presence of the "K", which was one letter value that I actually never considered for [y] before. In fact, though, there is a logic to it: now JKP and others who know more about medieval Latin manuscripts than I do will be able to sharpen the details, but my understanding is that the extremely frequent medieval Latin scribal abbreviation that physically resembles the shape of the Voynich ms character that is transcribed as EVA [y] is often used not only to abbreviate the Latin ending -us and certain other endings, but also to abbreviate the Latin word cum and the Latin prefix con-. This use of the symbol for Latin cum / con- may have been the motivation to use this particular symbol in this way in the Voynich ms script.
One refinement of the use of this "K" character in the first line of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. below: It is also used to represent word-final "-gh", as in the end of Middle English thurgh "through".
The backwards reading of words also occurs in the first line of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. : Again it is the last word of the line which is read backwards. I checked carefully for other words in the line that might have been intended to be read backwards, but I found none. The other 9 words in the line are all read forwards as normal.
And I have identified one new letter value of a Voynich character in this first line: EVA [cth] = "m". This actually also makes sense, since EVA [t] = "p" and EVA [ot] = "f" are also labial consonants.
With this one additional letter value -- which does not contradict any other readings of words up to this point, since the character combination EVA [cth] has not occurred in the previous readings -- the first line of the Voynich manuscript can be read and understood as follows:
EVA transliteration:
[fachys ykal ar ytaiin shol shory cthres y kor sholdy]
reading according to my provisional letter correspondences:
" tiyKl Ktis ir Kpo tho/us tho/urK [m?]rel K to/ur tho/ussK "
my interpretation of this line:
"tikel catis : ir capo thus thurgh mural cum tour : Cassytha"
rough literal translation of this line:
"sexual pleasure for the cunning : her capon thus through (her) wall with (his) tower : love vine"
real meaning:
Her man was a "capon" before/without the aphrodisiac "love vine" Cassytha, but he went "through (her) wall with (his) tower" after/with the aphrodisiac "love vine" Cassytha.
Citations for the forms and meanings of the Middle English, Latin, and Old/Middle French words used in this line:
tikel (Middle English) - "irritating tingling sensation; sexual pleasure, excitement"
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catis (Latin) - dative/ablative plural of catus "clever, intelligent; cunning, crafty, sly; shrill, sharp, clear-sounding"
Thus the dative/ablative plural form of this word means "by or for the clever/cunning ones".
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ir (Middle English) - alt. sp. of hir "her"
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capo (Latin) - "capon (castrated cockerel); rooster"
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capoun (Middle English) - "capon; eunuch"
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thus (Middle English) - "thus"
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thurgh (Middle English) - "freq. in phrases with verbs of cutting, stabbing, piercing, etc.: through"
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mural (Old French) - "wall; especially a large one"
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muraille (Middle French) - "(large) wall"
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cum (Latin) - "with"
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tour (Middle English) - "tower"
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Cassytha (translingual) - "love vine: any of various Cassytha species alleged to have aphrodisiac properties"
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This final word Cassytha is the Voynich word EVA [sholdy] = "tho/ussK" read backwards.
As a particular justification of this reading and interpretation of this word, I note the double "ss" written in the word, as according to my provisional letter correspondences, EVA [d] = Middle English "long s" and EVA [l] = Middle English "short s".
Geoffrey Caveney -
RE: geoffreycaveney's Middle English theory
geoffreycaveney > 21-04-2021, 03:57 PM
In this post I want to discuss how the Middle English / Anglo-Norman Yorkist theory may explain certain features of the Voynich manuscript text.
Dialects A & B:
It seems likely to me that one Dialect, I hypothesize A, may possibly have more of an English base with English function words, whereas the other Dialect, I hypothesize B, may possibly have more of a French base with French function words. In the first line of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , a page which is identified as written in Dialect A, key functions words such as the possessive pronoun "ir" ("her") and the preposition "thurgh" ("through") are Middle English. In contrast, in the center ring of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -- a page for which the Dialect has not yet been identified, as I understand it -- a key function word, the preposition+article contraction "del", is Old French. In the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. line, I identify 5 words as English, 3 words as Latin, and only 1 word as French (the plant name "Cassytha" is translingual). In the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. line, so far I identify 3 words as French, 4 words as English (if one includes "York"), and 1 word as Latin, but at least the first of the 2 words of uncertain origin that I have not completely deciphered yet ("KpisK") looks more Romance than English to me, if it is related to Italian "capisci". In any case, the line in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. has much more French in it than the line in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. does. This distinction may well be the explanation for the striking differences that have long been identified between the languages of the Dialect A and Dialect B pages and sections.
Line structure features:
The structure of the first line of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is quite revealing: it begins with a two-word epithet, then it contains a little message, then it ends with the name of a plant as the last word, which is intended to be read backwards. If every line or most lines, at least in the Herbal sections, are like this, then the author would have more control over the initial letters of lines, choosing these letters in some "acrostic" pattern (certain letters in a certain order), for example, or whatever pattern they wished to use. Likewise for the last word of each line, its final letter, etc. Based on the first line of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , it may possibly be the case that what appears to be the "last letter" of each line is actually the first letter of the last word, quite possibly the plant name, since in every example so far the last word in a line is intended to be read backwards.
Word structure features:
It appears that the cipher was designed so that certain words are intended to be read forwards and other words are intended to be read backwards. It may prove to be the case, I hypothesize, that word structure was designed so that words beginning or ending with certain letters would almost always be intended to be read forwards, and words beginning or ending with certain other letters would almost always be intended to be read backwards. In this way, the cipher designers were able to create the appearance of a certain set of characters and combinations almost always appearing at the beginnings of words, and another set of characters and combinations almost always appearing at the ends of words. In this way the cipher designers may have been able to create the appearance of extremely repetitive word structure if one reads all words in the same direction.
Example: I now read the second of the two Voynich script words on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. as EVA [sheey] = "theeK" = Middle English "geth", a past participle form of the verb "geten" (i.e., "get"). (See my most recent post in the "In pursuit of otol" thread for my analysis of the words on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. .) Middle English had many such verb forms with final "-th", most famously the 3rd person singular present tense verb ending "-eth". We never see such forms in the Voynich manuscript text with final EVA [-esh] = "-eth", because such word forms must all be written backwards according to the rules of the cipher. Therefore they rather appear in the text with initial EVA [she-] = "the-". This makes such word forms appear to look very similar to the words which actually do begin with "the-" in English, which are written in this cipher in the normal forwards order, not backwards. For English speakers who know the cipher rules, this does not actually create as much ambiguity as one might think at first, because English does not have many words with a structure such as "thek" or "theg", so when one sees a word written as "theeK", one knows it must be intended to be read backwards. Of course the occasional set of "Voynich English homonyms" is possible, such as "thick", "thigh", and "kith", all of which I hypothesize would be written in the Voynich script as EVA [shchy] = "thyK". (This word actually appears 5 times in the manuscript.) I note in passing that a preference for EVA [ch] = "y" over EVA [a] = "i" in such words would be consistent with the Yorkist theme of preferring the letters of the word "YORK" = EVA [chory].
Also, the "syllabic" nature of the EVA [y] = "K" character, since it may represent "k" or "c" or "g" or "gh" and since it may include an unwritten vowel, facilitates the appearance of identical "word endings" in particular: a large number of different letters and syllables may be represented by this one character, and moreover many of them are actually word-initial, when the word is intended to be read backwards, rather than actually word-final. On the other hand, other character combinations reflect features of a "verbose cipher", as indeed astute analysts such as Rene, Marco, Koen, and others have long suspected, if I have understood their analysis correctly. For instance, [ot] = "f", [ok] = "d", etc., are examples of such verbose cipher representations of single letters. I also observe here that it may not be an accident that the Yorkist cipher designers chose EVA [o], a letter in "YORK", to serve as the "verbose" additional character in such combinations. Indeed it appears they followed the same principle in the choice of EVA [ch], another letter in "YORK", to serve as the basis of character combinations such as EVA [cth] = "m". The purpose would be to make the characters of the word EVA [chory] = "YORK" appear in the text as abundantly as possible. Moreover, it appears that they chose the typical forwards/backwards directions of words so that [ch] would very frequently appear in word-initial position, as in "YORK", and [y] would very frequently appear in word-final position, also as in "YORK".
Geoffrey -
RE: geoffreycaveney's Middle English theory
geoffreycaveney > 22-04-2021, 02:16 AM
This may sound unbelievable to some people, but I now believe I have deduced the identity of the author of the Voynich manuscript.
It was the private personal diary of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (1373-1415).
It didn't have to be a practical cipher, since no one knew it except Edward. There was no apparent security risk if it fell into the wrong hands, since it would look like a nonsensical made-up script composed of meaningless artistic symbols. Edward could plausibly claim it wasn't a cipher or meaningful writing at all, but just a private artistic creative activity of his. By the way, there would be no need to make any corrections to the ms in a private personal diary. No one else needed to be able to read and understand it anyway. The lack of corrections would also bolster the claim that it was meaningless, if he were ever to be questioned about it for whatever reason--this was before the printing press, so back then everyone knew that real manuscripts had corrections.
Edward famously translated You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. from French into English, an activity he completed between 1406 and 1413. Clearly he had all the linguistic knowledge, skills, and talent necessary to write in all of the languages found in the text of the Voynich manuscript, as well as the skill to design such a complex yet beautiful cipher. Edward's clear mastery of hunting makes him a natural candidate to write about the subject matter of the herbal and pharmaceutical sections of the ms as well.
Edward was the 2nd Duke of York, but he had to serve as the Lancastrian king Henry IV's Master of the Hart Hounds. Imagine how much it must have enraged him to have to carry on in polite society showing respect for the ruler he surely regarded as the usurper of his own family's rightful crown! His private personal diary, now known as the Voynich manuscript, could have served as his private outlet and personal release for all the extraordinary frustration he must have felt in the course of performing his necessary courtly duties in the Lancastrian court of Henry IV.
The greatest objection to this theory will be that handwriting analysts have concluded that at least 5 different "Hands" wrote various different pages and sections of the Voynich manuscript. But this was a private personal diary, and Edward was after all venting his frustration by writing what he wrote in it--this much is already clear from the blatant "YORK"-themed design of the cipher itself. It is also becoming clear to me from additional lines of the ms that I am reading right now, although I have not yet had the time to finalize the analysis of these lines in a form that I am ready to present publicly in this forum yet. As a short example, the first four words of the first line of folio page You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. can be translated as "pledge: thou'ing of foe" (that is, to address him with the disrespectful familiar 2nd person singular pronoun "thou" rather than the respectful formal 2nd person plural pronoun "ye"). Note by the way that the third and fourth words of this line are identical: EVA [opaiin opaiin] = "fo fo". The first is read backwards; the second is read forwards: "of fo" (Middle English spelling of "foe").
So my analysis is that the 5 "Hands" simply represent Edward's various moods when he wrote in his diary. It is also natural to think that he may have had different handwriting when writing in English and when writing in French: there is a clear division of the "Hands" between the so-called "Dialects A & B".
Edward, 2nd Duke of York, was killed at the famous Battle of Agincourt in northern France in 1415. Edward was the highest-ranking English casualty of the battle. I propose that at some point in the confusion during or after the battle, after Edward's death, a Frenchman came into possession of Edward's diary and kept it as a sort of small spoils of war, a small consolation perhaps for the French side's defeat in the battle itself. That is how Edward's diary ended up in Continental Europe, eventually making its way into the possession of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, nearly two hundred years later.
Another potential objection to this theory is that according to some reports, Edward was killed at the Battle of Agincourt after he rushed forward to save the life of King Henry V. (Henry IV had died in 1413.) However, I believe the same person could have both written the virulently Yorkist Voynich manuscript in private while still acting loyally toward the Lancastrian King Henry V in public in an important battle. Edward dedicated The Master of Game to Henry V when the latter was still the Prince of Wales during his father Henry IV's reign. Perhaps this was all just a public act on Edward's part, or perhaps Edward simply despised Henry IV but did not necessarily blame Henry V for his father's crimes.
I do not know if the contents of the Voynich manuscript text will enable us to confirm or refute this theory one way or the other, but I believe that this theory explains many otherwise mysterious facts about the manuscript.
Geoffrey Edward Caveney -
RE: geoffreycaveney's Middle English theory
-JKP- > 22-04-2021, 05:38 AM
I dunno, Geoffrey. Hands are not moods. With enough practice, it's usually possible to tell the difference. Even John Doe's scribble writing (rough notes) are recognizable as his if you are super familiar with his more formal writing. There are certain directions, motions, shapes that are specific to him.
I don't know how many hands are in the VMS. I still haven't had time (13 years later) to look at it in depth. I am pretty certain there are two (and possibly three). I agree With Currier and Fagin Davis about Hand 2 and where it starts. It's different enough to be jarring and not in a "different time period" way, but in a hold-the-hand and move-the-hand in a different way. -
RE: geoffreycaveney's Middle English theory
ReneZ > 22-04-2021, 05:55 AM
I once argued that, if you look hard enough, you will be able to find evidence for every possible theory about the Voynich MS.
You may be surprised to know that there is an unexpected link between the Voynich MS and the house of York. This is related to the secret sale of the MS to Voynich. His colleague book dealer Tammaro de Marinis was one of the very few who knew some of the details of this sale.
He wrote in 1947 (17 years after the death of Voynich), that the selection of books acquired by Voynich originate from the collection of: "Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal of York, Bishop of Frascati, passionate collector of manuscripts".
Now before anyone gets excited about this: what he wrote may or may not be true, but either way it is just a coincidence. -
RE: geoffreycaveney's Middle English theory
geoffreycaveney > 22-04-2021, 06:46 AM
First of all, thank you JKP and Rene for the critical feedback. I appreciate it very much. An echo chamber is worse than a star chamber. Right or wrong, I need to know what people think. Thank you.
Let me make this next post in the form of an open question / challenge:
As I mentioned in the post about Edward, 2nd Duke of York, above, I am working on reading You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. . Now that is for several reasons. It is Dialect A (more English?), and it is substantial text, and it is not in the Herbal or Pharmaceutical sections.
Also, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. has a striking three-word phrase centered below the 1st (long!) paragraph:
EVA transcription:
[ okar sheey shekealy ]
By the way, I detected a possible additional subtlety to the Voynich ms cipher here:
Is it possible that [ke] = "tt" ?
Because if so, then the following reading is possible and logical:
reading according to my provisional letter correspondences:
" o/utir theeK the[tt?]isK "
my interpretation of this line:
" outir-geth ʒesitteth "
translation of this line:
" having completely conquered, he occupies a seat of authority "
outir- (Middle English) hyphenated form of outreli - "outwardly. superficially; publicly; openly, candidly; forthrightly, unashamedly; utterly, completely, quite; solely, exclusively; to be sure, certainly; positively, absolutely; without fail, without question; with verbs denoting intending, purposing, promising: firmly, assuredly, faithfully; diligently; actually, in fact; precisely, exactly; in negative clauses: at all, to any extent, in any way"
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"theeK"
backwards reading:
"Keeth"
geth (Middle English) - alt. past participle (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..) form of geten - "acquire, earn, buy, win, receive, find; obtain; gain; suffer; have (one's will); receive (one's sight); hear (a tale); catch, seize, get hold of; conquer; capture; take prisoner; win (a victory)", and many more meanings of "get", etc.
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"the[tt?]isK"
backwards reading:
"Ksi[tt?]eth"
ʒesitteth "he occupies a seat of authority"
isitten (Middle English) - (alt. sp. Also (early) ʒesitte, ʒesittan) "to occupy a seat of authority"
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archaic form deliberately chosen to have the final letter in the word as written be the same as the final letter in the word "YORK"
Ok, let me stop here and post this phrase, and then I will post the challenge word (the one I cannot read and interpret) in the next post.
yerffoeK -
RE: geoffreycaveney's Middle English theory
geoffreycaveney > 22-04-2021, 07:48 AM
Ok, here is my challenge word:
I am trying to read and interpret the first line of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , the page that I believe reads "outir-geth ʒesitteth" ("having completely conquered, he occupies a seat of authority") in the three-word phrase that is centered at the end of the 1st (long!) paragraph on the page.
EVA transcription:
[ tol shokchy opaiin opaiin chofaly ypar ypal opal opaldaiin ]
reading according to my provisional letter correspondences:
" po/us tho/utyK fo fo y[d~o/ut]isK Kpir Kpis fis fisso "
my interpretation of this line:
" pos : thouting of foe [] capir. capisi?/capise ... ]
translation of this line:
" pledge : 'thou'ing of foe [] to understand. You understand?/He/they understand ... ]
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pos (Middle English) - "pledge"
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thouting (Middle English) - "addressing someone as 'thou'"
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NOTE: the facility of the Voynich cipher to use the EVA [y] = "K" character to also represent English "ng" makes a lot of sense!! Now we can clearly see how 38% of the words in the ms end in [y]!
(The same letter that "YORK" ends in)
fo - "foe"
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[chofaly] = "ydisK" or "yo/utisK" ??
capir (Venetian) - "to understand"
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capisi (Venetian) - "you understand (?)"
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(At the link, you must click to show the conjugation table to see the 2nd person singular present form "capisi".)
capise (Venetian) - "they understand", "he understands"
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(At the link, you must click to show the conjugation table to see the 3rd person singular and plural present form "capise".)
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So here is the million dollar question:
What does [chofaly] = "ydisK" or "yo/utisK" ?? mean in this sentence??
yerffoeK