I would like to try to explain why I believe the Voynich manuscript to be Celtic based on certain grammatical structures. I deliberately use the word “Celtic” as a more precise classification is not yet possible. I personally believe the Voynich manuscript to be Hiberno-English, a Celtic language with Old English influences.
I have already uploaded documents on the derivation.
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
You will also find a comparison of
ch to
c+h in my link.
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
(I use voynichese.com to check frequencies and possibilities.)
Grammatical structure in the Voynich manuscript:
One grammatical or visually recognizable structure that we find in the Voynich manuscript is the vowel swift.
Specifically, from o to a (or vice versa).
Thus, a large number of words in the Voynich manuscript have an equivalent “partner” with the vowel swapped. This does not apply to all words, but to too many to ignore the system.
Here are a few examples:
Dom dam, chol chal, dol dal, pol pal, lol lal, cheol cheal, kooiin koaiin,
dain doin, Chor char, am om, or ar, oror arar, tol tal, chom cham,
kol kal, chaiin choiin, dar dor, daiin doiin, otchor otchar, taiin toiin,
saiin soiin, c+hol c+hal, aiir oiir, chory chary, dary dory, sal sol,
The list can be expanded many times over
The question now is whether these are words with the same meaning or not.
Given the frequency of vowel swapping, it is likely that these are the same words with swapped vowels.
I searched for vowel swaps or letter swaps in general in various languages that have the vowel swap system themselves and found examples in Middle Cymric and Cymric. In the Voynich manuscript, nouns also undergo vowel swaps, which I found very unusual, but this occurs in the same way in Cymric as a possible plural formation.
The University of Trier has a grammatical treatise on Welsh online.
However, it is in German.
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
There is also an article on Wikipedia that explains Middle Welsh and Welsh.
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
(Please also note the pronunciation of Welsh. )
An excerpt from the grammatical analysis by the University of Trier
Page 10:
The formation of plurals is very diverse and cannot be derived from the singular; plural forms must be learned separately, just like gender. There are derivations with
vowel changes, with endings, and with a combination of both features. Occasionally, there is suppletivism, i.e., two different word stems for singular and plural. The most important types are listed below (only the singular meaning is given):
Vowel change (common types) Plural formation for nouns
a to ei a-e march : meirch ‘horse, stallion
e to i/y maneg : menig ‘glove’,
or cragen : cregyn ‘shell’
o to y suffix ffon : ffyn ‘stick’
Page 11: Ultimate a-affection
Gender and number
Only a few adjectives have their own forms for gender and number. The feminine form can only be distinguished from the masculine basic form by umlaut: w → o and y → e (so-called ultimate a-affection). Commonly used are: hwn : hon ‘this’, hwnnw : honno ‘that’, crwn : cron ‘round’, dwfn: dofn ‘deep’, llwm : llom ‘naked’, tlws : tlos ‘beautiful’; trwm : trom ‘heavy’; byr : ber ‘short’, cryf : cref ‘strong’, gwyn : gwen ‘white’, melyn : melen ‘yellow’, (the feminine forms of gwlyb : gwleb ‘wet’, sych : sech ‘dry’ are no longer used). brith : braith ‘spotted’ is an isolated case
Plurals, which also exist for only a few adjectives, are formed with
vowel change and/or the suffix -(i)on. The following are used attributively: hwn, hon: hyn ‘this’, hwnnw, honno: hynny ‘that’, buan: buain ‘fast’, bychan: bychain ‘small’, ieuanc: ieuainc (or ifanc: ifainc) ‘young’; dewr : dewrion ‘brave’, du : duon ‘black’, coch : cochion ‘red’, gloyw : gloywon ‘bright’; glas : gleision ‘blue’, trwm, trom : trym ion ‘heavy’, tlawd : tlodion ‘poor’, tenau : teneuon ‘thin’. Nounified adjectives usually end in -(i)on, e.g. dall: deillion 'blind'
The Middle Welsh word
crwm – crom “bent” also belongs to the a-affection.
Let's move on to the comparison with the Voynich manuscript:
(From here on, it could become more difficult, as we are leaving the familiar EVA alphabet.)
You can find the used alphabet above.
Unfortunately, I cannot spare you this. Otherwise, the word parallels between the Voynich and Celtic/English would simply not be possible).
a –
a and y long and short spoken (typical in Celtic languages)
b –
d
d -
m
e –
e
f –
f
g –
ch
gh –
c+h
h –
s
i –
i
k –
k
l –
r
m –
iin eee
n –
iin ee
o –
o
p –
p
q –
q
r-
l
s –
n
t –
t
pq
Voynich Manuscript:
kaiin = pronounced kam = translated as jagged, curved
Welsh cam (“curved, crooked, distorted”), from Middle Welsh cam, from Old Welsh cam, from Proto-Brythonic *kam, from Proto-Celtic *kambos and Old Irish camm.
In Irish, we find the genitive singular masculine form of cam as caim. (We find the same in the Voynich Manuscript:
kam kaiin to kaim
kaiiin).
"word division in Old Irish: In Old Irish manuscripts all words grouped around a main accent are usually written as one, e.g. conjunctions together with the attached pronoun with the following verb, also the article together with the possessive pronoun with the following noun, the copula with the following predicate, prepositions with the attached pronoun or article and
a following verb or noun"
We also find the word
kaiin in the Voynich Manuscript as follows:
koiin kom
kaiiin kaim
ykaiin and ykoiin o
kam and akom
kokaiin kokam
chokaiin and chokoiin gokam and gokom
c+hkaiin ghkam
okaiin and okoiin okam and okom
qokaiin and qokoiin qokam and qokom
chkaiin gkam
sokaiin hokam
kekaiin kekam
tchkaiin tgkam
lkaiin rkam
olkaiin orkam
alkaiin arkam
you see that the word “kam” has a variety of prefixes, which is typical of Celtic languages. Of course, the question here is always whether it is actually the word “kam” with prefixes or whether these are different words. I am including a brief overview from Wikipedia on Irish, Welsh, and Gaelic grammatical structures, which reflect the structure of prefixes. Celtic languages are beautiful, but unfortunately they are also known for their complex grammar, word mutations, complex pronunciations, and word order.
Donkey = Irish: asal
the donkey = an t-asal
the donkeys = na hasail
eight donkeys = ocht n-asal
on the donkey = ar an asal
on the donkeys = ar na hasail
their donkeys = a Asal
Word = Irish: focal
the word = a focal
the words = na focail
the words = na bh-focal
Possessive pronouns Gaelic:
the foot: na coise
Before words beginning with consonants
my foot: mo chas
your foot: do chas
his foot: a chas
her foot: a cas
our feet: àr casan
your (pl) feet: ùr casan
their feet: an casan
the father: an athair
Before words beginning with vowels
my father: m'athair
your father: d'athair
his father: athair
their father: a h-athair
our father: àr n-athair
your (pl) fathers: ùr n-athair
their fathers: an athair
Here is a selection of prepositions from Cymric that we also find in the Voynich manuscript:
am
aiin/oiin – for, at
ar
al/ol - on
tan
tain/toin – under
o
o/y – from, of
gan
chain/choin – from, through
I would like to show you some more examples to illustrate that the initial sounds are typical in the Voynich manuscript and that repetition confirms the system.
Let's take the word ban –
dain, which translates as white in Irish.
We also find the word ban as follows:
doin - bon
adain – aban
odain – oban
oldain – orban
chkdain – gkban
chdain – gban
qodain – qoban
ldain – rban
For further comparisons, let's take the word bor/bar
dol/dal.
The word bor/bar stands for blossom, and we find the word bur or burr in Old English. There, the word bur was used for “rough, prickly husk around the seeds or fruit of some plants,”
as in the upper head of a thistle.
Here, too, we find the same initial sounds:
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
odal – obar
ydal – abar
oldal - orbar
Qodal – qobar
Chdal – gbar
C+hdal – ghbar
Chodal – gobar
odol – obor
Chedol – gebor
Chdol – gbor
Ldol - rbor
Next, we take the word kol - kor, meaning bud, from the Indo-European vocabular
kel/kol – cup, bud, calyx, sheath, flower calyx (Köbler Gerhard, Indo-European Dictionary)
We also find the word kol
kor as follows:
kar – kal
ykor – akol
okor – okol
qokor – qokol
chkor – gkol
olkor – orkol
lkor – rkol
okar – okal
dkar -bkal
ykar – akal
chkar – gkal
chykar – gakal
qokar – qokal
lkar – rkal
olkar - orkal
You can check the system for other words in the manuscript; the system repeats itself. Sometimes with more, sometimes with fewer initial sound variations.
Further examples: bal and bol
dar / dor the word kor and kar
kol kal
Bam and bom
daiin doiin kad and kod
kam kom, tor and tar
tol tal
gea and geo
chey cheo, rar and ror
lol lal, loiin and laiin rom und ram
A special feature is the letter ch and the words beginning with ch c+h. The variety is greatest with this letter. (see link above)
The letter itself exists as ch or c+h. I compared the words with ch and c+h in the Voynich manuscript, and around 88% of the words beginning with c+h also exist with ch. Given this value, I assume that they are the same word. With the letter ch, we have the same initial sounds as mentioned above, but it is noticeable that the gallow signs with the letter ch are particularly often connected.
as for example:
root word stam:
chor
char, c+hor, cThor, cPhor, cFhor, ckhor, kchor, pchor, fchor, tchor, qotchor, qopchor, qokchor, qofchor, cheor, c+heor, dchor, ochor, ychor, lchor, olchor, rchor
We find another peculiarity in the Voynich manuscript that we also find in Old Irish manuscripts:
"the words cluster around a main accent are usually written as one word"
(from Indo-European Library ‘Collection of Indo-European Textbooks and Manuals’ Indo-European Library ‘1st Series: Grammars’ by Rudolf Thurneysen, Heidelberg 1909)
Ydarchom is also mentioned as single words:
y and
dar and
chom
ocholc+hod also mentioned as single words as:
o and
chol and
c+hod
c+holteol also mentioned as single words as:
c+hol and
teol
choddal also mentioned as single word as: chod dal
otolodal also mentioned as single word as: o tol o dal
pcheodar also mentioned as single word as: p cheo dar
These are just a few examples to illustrate the process. In fact, there are many more examples in the manuscript.