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Words beginning [a]
- Words beginning [a]
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Words beginning [a]
Emma May Smith > 10-09-2016, 05:26 PM
I recently made the remark in another thread that there is some relationship between [daiin] and [aiin], and words beginning [d] and [a] in general. Now that I've had time to check my notes I realize that I was somewhat wrong, and would like to here present a correction and an explanation. I hope that other will provide comments on my observations, which I present below in condensed form.
Problem
Words beginning [a] are common in the Voynich text. There are nearly 2,000 word tokens beginning [a]. But at the start of lines they are rare. Only around 25 word tokens beginning [a] are found at the start of lines. The most common word type beginning [a] is [aiin], which has 0 occurrences at the start of a line. Most such words are similar.
The statistics for the first characters of words at the beginning of lines are rather divergent as a whole. The characters [y, d, p, s, t, f] occur more often, the rest less often, than in the main text. For [p, f] and maybe partially [t], the cause is the well known phenomenon of Grove Words. For [y, d, s] the cause is unknown.
Although we should not expect the text of the manuscript to be completely flat and the same throughout, we should still seek to explain variations. That's the most likely place we will learn something new. So we should presume there is a reason behind the lack of words beginning [a] at the start of lines, and that the reason is discoverable.
Argument
An hypothesis for explaining both the lack of [a] beginning words and the high occurrence of [y, d, s] beginning words could be that those letters are added to the beginning of [a] words.
It is impossible that [y] is added to the beginning of [a] words, nominally because [ya] strings are rare but also theoretically because they are likely very similar characters.
The character [d] could be added, but words beginning [da] are not hugely overrepresented at the start of lines, though there is some tendency toward this in Quire 20. It could be partially responsible for our observations.
The character [s] is the best fit for this role. Of around 1090 word tokens beginning [s], about 470, or 43% occur at the start of lines. For words tokens beginning [sa] the figures are about 190 of 510 that occur at the start of lines, or 37%. These are obviously more common at the start of lines than we should expect, with an excess of around 120. Their occurrence in the main text suggest that they are also valid words normally.
Conclusion
The lack of words beginning [a] at the start of lines may be caused by an unknown process which adds [s] to their beginning. This would also explain the high number of words beginning [sa] in that position. The same process may cause [s] to be added to words beginning [o], as words beginning [o] are less common at the start of lines and those beginning [so] more common.
If the existence of a process of this kind is accepted we would look to generalize to explain the presence of words beginning [y, d] too. The character [d] is especially interesting as it has already been implicated in the lack of words beginning [a]. -
RE: Words beginning [a]
Sam G > 10-09-2016, 06:45 PM
There's definitely a process of some kind whereby an extra letter has been tacked on to the beginnings of lines, at least most of the time. I have not been able to figure out what purpose this letter serves or even to describe this process fully, but it seems that the scribe had some idea of which letter he wants at the beginning of the line, yet the extra letter must also depend on the first word since it appears certain combinations are not allowed. Sometimes words at the beginnings of lines do not appear to have an extra letter, which may mean that the letter of the first word was already "good enough" (for this unknown purpose).
I tend to think that this is basically something non-linguistic/non-phonetic and that the added letter serves some purpose secondary to the meaning of the rest of the text, like an "annotation" of some kind. Probably we should just remove the extra letter in order to read the first word. -
RE: Words beginning [a]
-JKP- > 10-09-2016, 07:04 PM
(10-09-2016, 06:45 PM)Sam G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.There's definitely a process of some kind whereby an extra letter has been tacked on to the beginnings of lines, at least most of the time. I have not been able to figure out what purpose this letter serves or even to describe this process fully, but it seems that the scribe had some idea of which letter he wants at the beginning of the line, yet the extra letter must also depend on the first word since it appears certain combinations are not allowed. Sometimes words at the beginnings of lines do not appear to have an extra letter, which may mean that the letter of the first word was already "good enough" (for this unknown purpose).
I tend to think that this is basically something non-linguistic/non-phonetic and that the added letter serves some purpose secondary to the meaning of the rest of the text, like an "annotation" of some kind. Probably we should just remove the extra letter in order to read the first word.
One should always be on the lookout for pilcrows/capitula in medieval text. -
RE: Words beginning [a]
Koen G > 10-09-2016, 07:30 PM
Emma May Smith - please don't leave us ever again
Any chance of [y] just being an ornate version of [a] in some cases - like an a with a flourish?
- this would explain why the scribe is allowed to put it at the beginning of a line without changing anything. -
RE: Words beginning [a]
Emma May Smith > 10-09-2016, 07:39 PM
(10-09-2016, 07:30 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Emma May Smith - please don't leave us ever again
Any chance of [y] just being an ornate version of [a] in some cases - like an a with a flourish?
- this would explain why the scribe is allowed to put it at the beginning of a line without changing anything.
I'm pretty convinced that [y] and [a] are either versions of the same character or closely linked characters. But the difference is not ornamental. They have complementary distribution and are seldom seen in the same environments. -
RE: Words beginning [a]
Koen G > 10-09-2016, 07:58 PM
Complementary differences can be ornamental if ornaments are only applied in certain context, like in the beginning of lines and at the end of words. -
RE: Words beginning [a]
-JKP- > 10-09-2016, 08:12 PM
(10-09-2016, 07:58 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Complementary differences can be ornamental if ornaments are only applied in certain context, like in the beginning of lines and at the end of words.
-aj is found at the ends of words and particularly at the ends of lines. -
RE: Words beginning [a]
Emma May Smith > 10-09-2016, 09:06 PM
(10-09-2016, 07:58 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Complementary differences can be ornamental if ornaments are only applied in certain context, like in the beginning of lines and at the end of words.
That's certainly true, but the environments for [y] and [a] are dependent on following letters. [a] is typically found before [r, l, m, n, i] and [y] elsewhere. It's not a perfect distribution other factors undoubtedly complicate it, but I'm certain that it is a real thing. -
RE: Words beginning [a]
Koen G > 10-09-2016, 09:18 PM
My current understanding of the glyphs includes the idea that whatever it was originally contined many ligatures, possibly even a cursive script. Some of these properties shine through in the current form, which on the surface looks like majuscule. For example, I believe cc might have originally been a cr ligature. So it's cursive presented as non cursive. That is why I don't believe in one to one substitution, and it is also why I am afraid statistical analyses wont be able to tell us the full story.
Edit: the reason why I tell this now is because it might explain complementary distributions based on surrounding glyphs -
RE: Words beginning [a]
Diane > 11-09-2016, 01:52 AM
Emma,
I hope this won't be considered off-topic. If it is, I'll start another thread, but a woman claims to have translated the text as Old Czech, and the announcement included a brief passage of 'plain text'. I wanted to ask if the linguists can comment, and especially if that language offers a fair match for the analyses by Stolfi, you and others.
The most recent post at Nick Pellling's site gives links to the journal/newspaper making the announcement.
- but again, if this is O-T, I'll start another thread -