Jorge_Stolfi > 13-06-2026, 12:14 AM
(12-06-2026, 04:35 PM)eggyk Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Are all of these sections later additions or would they have been present in the SBJ when this dictation took place?
rikforto > 15-06-2026, 08:40 PM
(12-06-2026, 10:24 AM)Jorge_Stolfi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.When you say "pronunciation" and "phonetic standard", I don't know whether you mean "accent" (like an Italian speaking French with a strong Italian accent) or "reading" (like an Italian reading aloud each printed French word as the equivalent Italian word: "il ne me plait pas de tout" --> "quello non mi piace niente di tutto").I mean closer to the latter, but the Italian there is using the wrong kind of equivalent. If I've traced the etymologies correctly, the Italian cognate of "il" is "il", while "pas" corresponds to "passo". Even though it is not the preferred Italian, "Il non mi piace passo de tutto," is the way to do this kind of reading. There may be some details I have missed, but the fact that the "Italian" has the "ne...pas" construction despite not being grammatical is illustrative, not in error.
(12-06-2026, 10:24 AM)Jorge_Stolfi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Again, the scenario we are discussing (with the Dictator reading the white-on-black text from the ZHB or similar book in the local language,while the Author writes it down with his phonetic script) is only my best guess for how Starred Parags section (SPS) came to be a transcription or translation of SBJ, approximately one-hanzi-for-one-Voynichese-word. If you think that scenario is unlikely, what alternative do you propose instead?I reject the premise of the question. I do not think the identification is sound and the statistical argument you've made is based on cribs you identified because there were qualitative similarities. It is no surprise to me that there were able to quantify that, but I don't think its a valid or sound identification. Even if I'm wrong, you're well aware of my position that the difficulties transcribing Classical Chinese like this and reading it later corroborate my criticisms of how you made the identification.
(12-06-2026, 10:24 AM)Jorge_Stolfi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I am quite sure! You cannot simply replace a passage of good Mandarin or good Classical Chinese with Cantonese cognates and call it Cantonese!Quote:It is sometimes hard to tell if they are glossing over the little hitch that Standard Chinese read this way is not mutually intelligible with Cantonese or genuinely in errorAre you sure? Again, are you confusing "read with Cantonese words" and "read with Mandarin words in a Cantonese accent"?
Jorge_Stolfi > 16-06-2026, 02:25 AM
(15-06-2026, 08:40 PM)rikforto Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I have a lot to say about your most recent response to me, but the summary is not very hard to state: Morpheme readings are constructed to be cognate, but they may not represent lexical correspondence in translation. Let's unpack that.
Quote:If I've traced the etymologies correctly, the Italian cognate of "il" is "il", while "pas" corresponds to "passo". Even though it is not the preferred Italian, "Il non mi piace passo de tutto," is the way to do this kind of reading.
Quote:There's an important consideration in the previous example. I realize you have edited the SBJ to remove 甘 because it did not yield a crib, but otherwise the formulaic way that 甘 appears and its technical meaning are the kind of thing I can imagine him learning, and the Dictator teaching.
Quote:Because most of the words in the descendent languages were cognates with the Classical language.
Quote:I do not think the identification is sound and the statistical argument you've made is based on cribs you identified because there were qualitative similarities. It is no surprise to me that there were able to quantify that, but I don't think its a valid or sound identification.
Quote:It is quite unfortunate that my source terms these "dialectical synonyms". This is commonly seen, even in academic contexts, and I have curbed my impulse to be pedantic when other people have indulged it, but as they fail the mutual intelligibility test, they are properly called "languages".
nablator > 16-06-2026, 10:05 AM
(15-06-2026, 08:40 PM)rikforto Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.If I've traced the etymologies correctly, the Italian cognate of "il" is "il", while "pas" corresponds to "passo". Even though it is not the preferred Italian, "Il non mi piace passo de tutto," is the way to do this kind of reading.
Quote:Its use as an auxiliary negative adverb comes from an accusative use (Latin nec… passum) in negative constructions – literally “not… a step”, i.e. “not at all” – originally used with certain verbs of motion. In older French other nouns could also be used in this way, such as ne… goutte (“not… a drop”) and ne… mie (“not… a crumb”), but in the modern language pas has become grammaticalized.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Koen G > 16-06-2026, 10:40 AM
Jorge_Stolfi > 16-06-2026, 11:02 AM
(16-06-2026, 10:40 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.It's even more bizarre knowing that "ne" is often dropped in speech. I understand step the manuscript Voynich.
This made me wonder about the etymology of "ne...rien", nothing. This "rien" part apparently comes from Latin rem (nom. res), "thing". So ne...rien is basically the same as no-thing.
Jorge_Stolfi > 16-06-2026, 11:22 AM
(16-06-2026, 10:05 AM)nablator Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The etymology of "pas" is too crazy to translate word for word.
Mauro > 16-06-2026, 12:08 PM
(16-06-2026, 11:22 AM)Jorge_Stolfi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. Italian happens to have the word "niente" that would convey about the same meaning in that context.
All the best, --stolfi
rikforto > 16-06-2026, 07:17 PM
Quote:(Notes: "illi" is strictly Vulgar, but I am not researching a more faithful Classical orthography for this illustrations; I may not have all the declensions right, but I'm reasonably sure "totus" is correct as "tout" is not descended from the ablative.)
- French, on the page: Illi non me placet passum de totus.
- French, from the mouth of a French speaker: Il ne me plait pas de tout
- French, from the mouth of an Italian speaker: Il non mi piace passo de tutto
Jorge_Stolfi > 16-06-2026, 09:47 PM
(16-06-2026, 07:17 PM)rikforto Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Seems I could have been clearer that the point of this example was that "Il non mi piace passo de tutto" is French with Italian readings rather than Italian translated from French.
Quote:I actually softened the example a bit because in this analogy French should have Latin spelling. To my best guess, this is what French with Latin orthography would look like, followed by French and Italian readings in French based on the real-world orthographies:
[quote]
- French, on the page: Illi non me placet passum de totus.
- French, from the mouth of a French speaker: Il ne me plait pas de tout
- French, from the mouth of an Italian speaker: Il non mi piace passo de tutto