• Options
• Login
• Desktop Style

Possibility for an a-priori constructed philosophical mathematical language

• Index

  • The Voynich Ninja
  • Voynich Research
  • Analysis of the text
  • Possibility for an a-priori constructed philosophical mathematical language
• Possibility for an a-priori constructed philosophical mathematical language

• RE: Possibility for an a-priori constructed philosophical mathematical language

  qoltedy > 10-10-2025, 07:53 PM

  (10-10-2025, 06:52 PM)RenegadeHealer Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

  qoltedy Wrote:I think this supports the idea that if the VMS is a conlang, it's likely remarkably simple to learn, and fairly straightforward in its structure, as unintuitive as that may seem on the surface.

  
  I agree, and have had this fleeting thought before: that the VMS’s encoding of information is actually a lot simpler than many of us who’ve puzzled over minute details of the text have ever considered. This would obviate the endless discussions over how many glyphs there are, what to do about ambiguous glyphs, whether the shape and placement of the top curve on EVA=[sh] or the curvedness or straightness of the tail on EVA=[p], are meaningfully significant, and other little details we like to sweat, hoping to find some clue. Because if the VMS’s text is indeed a simple (but not intuitive) conlang that’s easy to learn (but not intuitive) by design I can’t imagine these minor details matter or carry any information. Such a scenario favors a writing system that can be learned easily, and is fairly forgiving of errors and ambiguities, when it comes to comprehension. A modern, popular, and highly user-friendly minimalist conlang like Toki Pona comes immediately to mind.
  
  This whole “Oh wow, that was it?! It was just that simple all along?!” kind of solution scenario also applies to @Jorge_Stolfi’s theory that the VMS text is an idiosyncratic conscript for a natural language, likely a wholly unwritten one, dictated by a native speaker to the scribes. I’ve studied Mandarin Chinese, and although I don’t think there’s a high chance the underlying dictated language was Sinitic, I have to say, the Voynichese writing system could easily be repurposed to phonetically transcribe Mandarin. Chinese is a highly isolating / analytical language, with most words one or two syllables, each syllable mappable to a Chinese character. Every Chinese syllable has four important properties:
  
  
  

  1. A rime, consisting of a simple vowel, diphthong, or triphthong, from a limited list
     
  2. One of four tones: high, rising, low, or falling
     
  3. An onset consonant, which can be absent, and when present, constrains which rimes can follow (but not which tone or coda)
     
  4. A coda, limited to -n or -ng, absent about half of the time, and not permissable after a triphthong rime.
     

  
  I could see how each of these aspects of a Chinese syllable could be encoded by one of the rigid properties of a vord. For example, could an initial EVA=[o] or [qo], absent about half the time, be the way to encode the coda -n or -ng? Could the combinations of upward and downward curves and horizontal bars be the way to encode the tone? The series of EVA=[e]s or EVA=[i]s ways of representing the vowel combinations of the rime? I’m making this up. But you get the idea. If the scribes were taking dictation from illiterate speakers of a fairly analytical and highly exotic language, whose phonology assigned four important and noticeable aspects to every syllable that needed to be encoded, one might come up with a way to faithfully represent it in writing in a way that looked a lot like Voynichese.
  
  
  

  quimqu Wrote:Arnau de Vilanova

  
  I’m not familiar with him at all. Thank you for the lead, I’ll definitely be doing some reading about this chap.

  
  I think you're very close to something significant that I have found also. You mentioned 4 fundamental properties, which could map directly to EVA in certain encoding schemes. In your example, you are mapping properties of syllables, the actual phonological sounds produced, as having this structure of 4 fundamental properties, which combine in various ways to make a variety of distinct results.
  
  I think of it similarly, but instead of thinking of it as different aspects of a syllable sound (which may still be the case), the more important thing to take note of it the morphology. As in, if there were 4 fundamental properties of meaning/morphemes, then those would combine in systematic ways to represent new ideas.
  
  The thing I find interesting about thinking in terms of 4 fundamental properties, is there seems to be a large emergent emphasis on dualities. In your example, in one of the 4 fundamental properties, it can either have the phonology of "n" or "ng". In Voynichese, there are very many cases of such types of dualities. "sh" vs "ch", "qo" vs "o" initial, "eee" strings vs "iii" strings, etc.
  
  What if these 4 fundamental properties, are essentially represented by 4 fundamental dualities? And what if those 4 fundamental dualities, map to units of morphology and meaning, in a structured, essentially mathematical sense?
  
  This is all speculative and exploratory of course, similar to your example.
  
  But it's certainly conceivable that if the VMS is a conlang, this could potentially be the philosophical structure underlying the creation and logic of its meaning.
• Next Oldest Next Newest