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Hapax Legomena - A Word Game

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• Hapax Legomena - A Word Game

• Hapax Legomena - A Word Game

  HermesRevived > 15-05-2024, 08:48 AM

  Here is a simple word game for Voynicheroes. I'II call it HAPAX LEGOMENA.
  
  It is based entirely on the DAIIN text that runs throughout the Voynich manuscript. This text is based on the paradigm CHOLDAIIN, without any elements from the other paradigm, QOKEEDY. So there is no Q or gallows glyphs or E or Y. 
  
  The DAIIN text dominates in the sections of the text called Currier A or Text A. How well do you know the A Text? 
  
  The objective is to find rare words that appear in - are attested in - the Voynich corpus. 
  
  The best outcome is to find a hapax legomenon. Finding these is the direct object of each turn of play. 
  
  Play proceeds by selecting sequences of bigrams from the following key:
  
  

     

  
  
  Rule: The last glyph of each bigram must be the first glyph of the next bigram, but you can stop at any point.
  
  The word CHOLDAIIN therefore is made by selecting: CHO + OL + LD + DA + AIIN
  
  As it happens, this word - even though the paradigm - is a hapax legomenon. It occurs once and once only, on f17v. CHOL and DAIIN are prolific, but there is only one attestation of them together as a single word.
  
  Can we find other hapax legomena?
  
  To this end the bigrams in the KEY are arranged from common to rare going left to right. OL is common. OD is less common. OIIN is less common again. OA is even less common, then OCH and finally OO which is valid but very rare. 
  
  The words created by our selections are either ATTESTED or UNATTESTED. The fewer attestations - without encountering an unattested combination - the better. We are seeking attested words that are rare. 
  
  Play might start by selecting any of the bigrams by chance - tiles from a hat. 
  
  An example:
  
  We start with the bigram LO.
  
  Since O is the final glyph in the bigram we have the options: OL, OD, OIIN, OA, OCH, OO.
  
  We know that if we select OL, this will be a common combination. If we select OA, this will be relatively rare. 
  
  We select OD. So we have: LOD.
  
  Now what glyph joins with D?
  
  Our options are: DA, DO, DCH, DL, DD.
  
  We know that if we go too wide and select, say, DCH, and our word becomes LODCH we are in danger of combining too many rare combinations and will hit a 'Does not occur in the manuscript.'
  
  We decide to play safe and select DA.
  
  Now we have LODA.
  
  At this point we decide to finish it off and select IIN to follow A, even though we know that this is a common combination. 
  
  It is a good strategy to combine relatively rarely bigrams with common ones. 
  
  Our word is: LODAIIN. 
  
  Attestations: Three.
  
  This is an excellent result - a valid but very rare word. 
  
  If we had overplayed it and gone further to, say, LODCHAIIN, we would have found a word that is unattested in the corpus. Fail. 
  
  

  * * *

  
  This is Round One. It uses only the standard glyphs of the CHOLDAIIN paradigm.
  
  In the second round, though, substitute glyphs are permitted in the search for rare but attested combinations.
  
  At any point we can choose to call the glyph CH the glyph SH instead, or S. And L or N can be R or M.  
  
  For example, if our selection is the bigram CHO, we can nominate to call it SHO instead. If our selection is OL we can call it OR if we choose, or OM (realising that OM is rarer than OR.) . 
  
  This strategy will always make our word less common. 
  
  As a third round, it is permitted to introduce ONE glyph from the QOKEEDY paradigm that can be substituted for any glyph in the Key. 
  
  In our example, LODAIIN, we can substite any one glyph from QOKEEDY. So we might decide to substitute Q for the L making QODAIIN. But this has 42 attestations - not a common word, but not as good as LODAIIN with only three. 
  
  (We know that LOQAIIN or LODAQ and so on are unattested. To avoid this it is a good strategy to substitute glyphs in the same place. Use Q at the start of words and Y at the end.) 
  
  Seasoned players know that substituting EE for CH is a good move, and so is substituting Y for O. 
  
  

  * * *

  
  The game can be played as a solitaire or by two competing players. In that case, players take it in turns. 
  
  If a player hits an UNATTESTED they are forced to play again. If a player happily hits a HAPAX their opponent is forced to play two rounds. 
  
  Scoring is like in golf. A HAPAX is like a hole-in-one!
  
  The player with the lowest score at the end of a set number of rounds wins.
  
  

  * * * 
  
  

  While I have cast this as a game for fun, it does demonstrate a way to isolate the DAIIN text and a useful template of bigrams. As Rene has remarked, in some ways the Voynich text can be characterized as the DAIIN text, into which another stream intrudes. I also suspect there is some significance to hapax legomena and this game draws attention to that phenomenon. The game is a device to help us learn Voynichese. 
  
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  R.B. 
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