Notes on the Voynich Manuscript - Part 14 [1992 January 31] ----------------------------------------- A Cursory analysis of the opq- Phenomenon This analysis was done on one folio - f82v, the nymphs again. If I have time, I'll write a program to repeat it on the whole text. But the results are interesting. What I did, was do a statistical count of the pattern "o" The following table gives the counts of the major forms: olp 71 64% oqp 25 23% oxlp 11 10% oxqp 1 ol; 0 oxl; 1 ocqpc 1 In addition, a gallows letter appeared without a prefix 8 times, and with some other prefix 16 times, the only one worth noting being "aqp", which occurred 4 times. So the above represents 82% of the occurrences of the 8 letters. (As a digression, the page has 8 other occurrences of the infamous 4. Three of them are "4oxct" and the others are 4c't 4oxa 4oxc't 4o8 4l; ) If "olp" is the definite article, are these numbers reasonable? Well, in Islam there are 99 names of God, 97 of which begin with a definite article, thus: Al 55 Al- 24 Ar- 4 Ar 3 As- 3 An- 2 As 1 Ash- 1 Ash 1 'Al 1 Ad- 1 Az 1 Hmmm... interesting. [Note: no, not at all interesting. Just another manifestation of Zipf's Law] ----- I did another experiment with the text. I made some wild guess letter substitutions, just to get it largely pronounceable. I then removed the word breaks (but not the line breaks). I then added word breaks after a "medial" 9 and before every occurrence of "4". This is the result. As before, majuscules and digits are Currier Voynich; the rest is guesswork. (Hmm, the last 5 lines seem to be missing, but I don't think I need chase them up, the example is big enough.) PoFououVtesa 4oFysa 4oFesauthou 4oPauoPsausououthesa 4oFesauthesa 4oPousoutesathesasasanoPesatePesauoFaJ saToutesa 4oPesa 4oPesatesa 4oPau 4oPa 4oFau 4oFesauo 4oFaNtheou 4oPysatesa 4oFea 4oFesa 4oFoutesatesauta 2outesautesasouthesa 4oFautheXatheaPyouoPysa 4oFesa 4oPea 4oFautheFa 4oFautesa 4oPautesa Bteousan 4oFyatyFa 4oFausautesaBtsanou 4oPesanou sauthousanou 4oFa 4outesa 4oFan 4oPeaPa 4oFatQa 4oFa Ptesa 4oQe2 4oFantXa 4oFaNtouFaitXsa 4oFousa soutesauteanounoutya2aNtea PantheXa 4oFau 4oFaNteouPesantesaBtesantheousau 4oFesauteatyanaithe2 4oFtea 4oFaNoFausautesL onaNthesa 4oFyanoFan 4oFysantya 4oPesatPesante2aua a Fysa 4oFysatesa 4oFansFyauFesa 4oFauouFysa 4oFysaoFa 4oFoutesateautesaoPatsasateXaoPautu2 Poutheou 4oFesa 4ouFesanthesa 4oFesanthysanoNoua saNtea 4oFyea 4oFaoFaioFaNouFaNoPaNoFanaua 4oFaNtesa 4ouFthea 4oPauthea 4oFaNouteXaua 4thesa 4outea 4ouaioPaNouFysa 4oPthesaouu stesa 4oFaioutesa 4oFautesa 4oPausa Pana uJu 4oFtheouFetea 4oFanauPtsanouthea Ptsa 4oFau 2aithea 4oFoutou 4outhysa 4oFauthesa 4oFai 4oFaNtheau 4outesa 4oFaUouFaithesa PtauouFaTthyFa 4outea 4oFantea 4oFaNoPthesa saitea 4oFathesa 4oFaiouFysa 4oFetesa 4oPU Bououontea 4oFaNthesa 4oFeisutenaounaNsan 4oFyanaNtea 4ouFaNoFaoPaua 4oFauthouthau2a 2anouuonaitea 4oFaNono3 4osathanaQea 4oFteaFteaouFaNoBtesa 4VouthPaonau This is beginning to look like words run together. In fact, I could almost have a shot at breaking them up. Here's the first two lines again: PoFou ouVtesa 4oFysa 4oFes authou 4oPau oPsausou outhesa 4oFes authesa 4oPous outesa thesasasan oPesate Pesau oFaJ Probably wrong, since I'm obviously looking for cyno-greek here. But hey, doesn't it read like language? Real language? Robert