Last edited on 2004-06-01 11:42:32 by stolfi

Zbigniew Banasik's alphabet for the VMS

This page presents Zbigniew Banasik's interpretation of the VMS alphabet, according to the letter list and phonetic chart sent to JS on 2004-05-07 and 2004-05-13, respectively. The data was entered by JS.

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č c-caronď d-caronř r-caronš s-caronť t-caron
ž z-caronł l-bar ħ h-bar η eta &theta theta

The alphabet

EVA{ASCII}SoundComments
d {b} b like "b" in German "bauen"
de {bh} bh like "bh" in Hindi "bhärat"
m {n} n like "n" in german "nacht"
g {f} f bilabial "f"
l {m} m like "m" in German "mein"
k {c^} č like "ch" in English "charm"
ckh {gh} gh like "gh" in Hindi "ghari"
ckhh {k.} k. velar, like "kh" in Arabic "t" in "t.alik." (divorcee)
ikh {c} c like "z" in German "zwei"
t {h.} h. like "h" in German "nahe"
cth {3^} j(3^) like "j" in English "just"
cthh {kh} kh like "kh" in Hindi "khänä" (to eat)
ith {3} 3 voiced "c" like "dz" in Polish "dzwon" (bell)
f {x} x like "ch" in German "brauchen"
cfh {t} t like "t" in German "Vater"
cfy(?) {t'} t' palatal "t" like "ty" in Hungarian "kutya" (dog)
cfhh {th} th like Armenian aspirant "t"
p {h} h voiced, like "h" in Czech "hlas" (voice) or "g" in Dutch "goed" (good)
cph {d} d like "d" in German "dort"
cpy {d'} d' palatal like "gy" in Hungarian "vagyok" (I am)
cphh {dh} dh aspirant "d"
*cphh {r.h} r.h like "r.h" in Hindi "par.hnä" (to learn")
E {s} s non syllabic (final sound) like "s" in german "das"
ch {s^} š like "sh" in "English"
i {r} r like "r" in Spanish "verdad" (truth)
ih {z} z like "z" in English "zone" or German "Suppe"
ihh {z^} ž like "j" in French "jardin"
ee {8} θ like "th" in English "thanks"
eee {t.} t. Emphatic "t", as in Arabic "t.alik.", divorcee
ech {ð.} ð. Emphatic "ð" as in Arabic "ð.uba" (arrow-head)
s {l} l like "l" in German "lesen"
?? {l'} l' palatal "l" like Italian "gli" (the pl.)
sh {ð} ð like "th" in English "that"
?? {s.} s. emphatic "s" like "s.ah.ra"(desert)
??h {d.} d. emphatic "d" like Arabic "d.abu" (Hyena")
n {g} g like "g" in German "fragen" (to ask)
q {ñ} ñ like "gn" in French "Pologne"
ii {n/} η like "ng" in English "long"
r {s} s like "ss" in german "Kasse" (bank, cash)
e {k} k like "c" in English "cash"
?? {k'} k' palatal "k"
?? {p(?)} p(?) like "p" in German "Partei:"
?? {e} e like "e" in English "empty"
y {i/w/y} i/w/y like "e" in English "enoughug", or "y"in English "yellow"; or "w" in Japanese.
o {o} o like "o" in German "Sonne"
a {u/ü/w/f} u/ü/w/f "u" in German "Suppe", "u"in french "une", bilabial "w", bilabial "f"

Note: the lines starting with "??" on the table correspond to Voynichese characters given in ZB's chart that do not have an obvious EVA transcription.

The pre-Manchu orthography

Source: messages from Z. Banasik to J. Stolfi, 2004-05-13 and 2004-05-19.

  1. The standard "a" is not written.
  2. The standard "e" is not written if it isn't necessary.
  3. Does a word include a velar or aspirant the missing vowels are "a".
  4. If a word doesn't include a velar or aspirant and includes "i", the missing vowels are "a" or "e" (if "i" stands for "ye").
  5. If a word doesn't include a velar or aspirant and includes "u" or "o", the missing vowels are "e".
  6. Sometimes pre-Manchu words are not similar to Manchu words, e. g. "bihaibi" (pre-Manchu) - "bihebi" (Manchu). It means the letter of "e" in the words including "i" originated from contraction of "ai". Compare it with Hindi and French : ai = e. The letter of "o" ending words you can read as "u" or "u" because of the contraction of "ao" to "u" and "eo" to "u", e. g. "eimebureo" - "eimeburu".
  7. The standard "a" or "e" beginning words are not written. You must understand the text to know if the letters there are. It is as if e. g. "the end" was written as "the nd" or "the animal" as "the nimal". It doesn't matter if the vowels are the same.
  8. The most difficult is using of "i / y / u" and "u / w", especially if a word doesn't include a velar or aspirant : e. g. "bi" you can read as "abai, abaya, abi, abiya, abu, bai, baya, bei, beye, bi, biya, biye, bu, ebei, ebeye, ebi" or "s^un" as "as^un, as^uwan, es^un, es^uwan, s^un, s^uwan, s^uwen". Compare it with Arabic.
  9. The pre-Manchu "wo", "wu", "wi" became "fo", "fu", "fi" in Manchu.
  10. The palatal "a" and "e" are written as "i"; the labial "a" and "e" are written as "u".
  11. The pre-Manchu word of "ungge" creating the nouns of the future tense is generally written separately. In Manchu it lost the letter of "u" and is spelt in one word.
  12. The pre-Manchu letters stand for the numbers. The letter of "b" stands for 2, the letter of "j" stands for 3, the letter of "th" (like in "this") stands for 4. I can't recognize the other numbers. Probably they are analogical with Arabic. Compare them to Armenian, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew or Roman alphabets, too.

When was the manuscript written

The manuscript was written probably some centuries B. C. We need take into account that :

We don't know if the Voynichese alphabet isn't older than the Greek one. We don't know, how long it was in the usage.

The possibility of the transcription and the translation

I'm afraid I can't do it because of the orthography. Maybe if I had a dictionary... My Manchu is very poor (I learn the foreign languages not to use (speak, write, read, translate) them but to compare them one with each other). We need the native speakers of Manchu or somebody who speaks Manchu as well as the native speakers do. For the present I'm sending this e-mail to Mr. Jerzy Tulisow, too. He is the best Manchu and Mongolian teacher in The University of Warsaw, Poland. I hope he'll be able to read the text of the manuscript.

Location of strange letters

Source: message from Z. Banasik to J. Stolfi, 2004-05-28.

I don't know if the letter "p" isn't a joke of the author (the overturned "b").

All the best.

Zbigniew Banasik