{"id":256,"date":"2014-02-22T11:40:21","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T11:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stephenbax.net\/?p=256"},"modified":"2014-03-14T11:20:17","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T11:20:17","slug":"minims-2-and-their-importance-in-the-voynich-script","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephenbax.net\/?p=256","title":{"rendered":"Minims (2) and their importance in the Voynich script"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following my earlier post about minims<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which you should read before reading this one \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I now want to extend the debate to suggest that this area could have a major impact on our understanding of the Voynich script and signs.<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s start with a quiz: Look at these five signs and groups and try to say which Latin sound or letter they stand for. They are taken from just two words in a 15th<\/sup> century manuscript in the Wellcome library – not the Voynich manuscript, though curiously it was also once owned by Voynich.<\/p>\n

\"minim<\/a>Minim quiz<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

How did you do \uc724\uc120\uc0dd \uc571 \ub2e4\uc6b4\ub85c\ub4dc<\/a>? Are they numerals? Or if they are letters, which ones? These are all made up of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcminims\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, and they illustrate one of the problems of reading Latin script from that period. The tricky part is that minims in different combinations can be used to make a variety of different letters, and we need two things to interpret them correctly:<\/p>\n

a)\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Context
\nb)\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Knowledge of the word<\/p>\n

Now, if I give you the context and meaning, the quiz becomes much easier \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the original words are \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCentaura major\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 meaning \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcGreat Centaury\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, the plant analysed in my Feb 2014 paper, and the signs can be interpreted as follows:<\/p>\n

\"minim<\/a><\/p>\n

\"centaura\"<\/a>Original word<\/em><\/p>\n

I think you’ll agree that unless you have the context and the word knowledge – which we don’t have with the Voynich script – it is a nightmare to tell if a letter is \u00c2\u00a0‘n’, ‘u’, ‘i i’, or in the case of three minims, \u00c2\u00a0‘i u’, u i’ , ‘m’ or even ‘w’ or ‘i v’. To some extent, in Latin and other orthographies of the 15th century, there were other clues to help, and some scribes added elements which helped to distinguish them, but the problem still remained windows 10 update<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Minims in the VM<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Why is this important for the Voynich manuscript? Well, although some analyses give \u00c2\u00a038 signs or clusters in the Voynich script<\/a>, with \u00c2\u00a022 common signs, some claim that this is very few for a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreal language\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00c2\u00a0and that therefore the VM cannot encode a real language at all, at least in a sign-by-sign way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, if we consider the above point about Latin carefully, and consider that the Voynich scribes might have adopted similar practices, and even borrowed the practice from Latin, the \u00c2\u00a0result for our analysis would be to increase the number of possible significations for the V signs considerably \uc990\ud1a1\ud1a1 \ub2e4\uc6b4\ub85c\ub4dc<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is because two very frequent clusters in the VM look like \u00c2\u00a0<\/span>ii<\/i> and <\/span>iii<\/i>. \u00c2\u00a0If the scribes were following contemporary Latin practice with minims, as seems possible, then these signs could in fact be intended to signify a wide range of different sounds\/letters in different parts of the text. Two minims in one word might mean ‘<\/span>ii’<\/em>, or it might mean <\/span>‘u’<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0or it might mean <\/span>‘n’, and so on<\/em> nisekoi 2nd term<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The example of the Wellcome Italian manuscript, roughly\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>contemporary\u00c2\u00a0with the VM, \u00c2\u00a0shows that this\u00c2\u00a0flexibility of signification, using the same minims, was very common. The reader needed to use content and word-knowledge to decide which one was correct.<\/span><\/p>\n

What this flexibility means for the Voynich script, then, is that we might then have to rethink completely the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcnumber of letters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the Voynich inventory. Instead of saying that it has just two clusters ii<\/i> and iii<\/i>, we would have to accept the possibility that they might, in different words, indicate a far wider range of sounds\/letters, even as many as 14, not including ‘v’, as follows:<\/p>\n

\"minim<\/a>Possible range of signification for Voynich minims<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Although to the modern eye this seems peculiar, it is clear from actual deployment of minims in mediaeval\u00c2\u00a0 scribal practice that this kind of flexibility did exist Chrome uninstalled download<\/a>. If this analysis for the VM is possible, the implication is important <\/span>\u00e2\u20ac\u201c as I said, it significantly increases the\u00c2\u00a0range of possible readings of Voynich signs. <\/span><\/p>\n

This could possibly add both consonant and vowel signs\/sounds to the mix, though of course I am NOT saying that we will necessarily find Latin n, m u and i letters matching n, m, u and i sounds in the text.<\/span><\/p>\n

Incidentally, this problem of how to deal with minims when transcribing the VM was recognised by Stolfi, obliquely, \u00c2\u00a0in\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>a posting in 2001\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>when he was talking about transcription meditation music mp3<\/a>. He concluded with the question:<\/span><\/p>\n

“What do you do with that? Nasty.”<\/em><\/p>\n

However, apparently the ‘minim problem’, as we can call it, was so ‘nasty’ (as I agree it is) that it wasn’t dealt with in Stolfi’s transcription system or, it seems, \u00c2\u00a0in later transcriptions such as\u00c2\u00a0EVA<\/a>. That seems to me to be potentially a big problem, for reasons we can now consider.<\/p>\n

Examples from the VM<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So far this is just speculative, so let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now look at some actual Voynich examples. Below are three words taken from the same Voynich page (2v, line 5, 6 and 1 respectively). The first has been transcribed (in the EVA system) as daiiin<\/i>, the second as daiin<\/i>, the third as\u00c2\u00a0 kooiin<\/i> more help<\/a>. Same two and three sign clusters, no?<\/p>\n

However, if you look at them closely, there is a significant different between the ways in which the minims are joined. In Example One the last three, or maybe four downstrokes, including the last character transcribed as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, are clearly joined together, looking in fact like three or perhaps four connected minims and an upward flourish.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\"daiin\"
\n<\/a>Example One<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In Example Two, by contrast, the minims are clearly separated, and also separated from the last character transcribed as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122:<\/p>\n

\"dain\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Example Two<\/em><\/p>\n

In Example Three, below, the two minims are clearly joined, whereas the last character (transcribed as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122) is clearly separate Nahimic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"kooin\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Example Three<\/em><\/p>\n

It is easy to dismiss this as accident or chance, but that would be poor analysis. It is essential methodology to assume that what the scribes did had a purpose.<\/strong> <\/em>The most likely explanation in this case is that they were conceptualising different sound sequences as they wrote, and therefore linking some minims and separating others to indicate different sounds, which by analogy with Latin could be i, u, n, m<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0and so on.<\/p>\n

This analysis raises an important problem for Voynich studies, because so far we have treated all ii <\/i>and iii <\/i>clusters as only two \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsigns\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, in our counting, in our statistics and in our thinking \uc804\uc124\uc758 12\uc7a5 \ub2e4\uc6b4\ub85c\ub4dc<\/a>. Our transcriptions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and therefore all of our computer analyses, entropy, Zipf and all the rest \u00e2\u20ac\u201c have been based on that assumption. If it is wrong, we need a major rethink, and a major recount. Nasty indeed.<\/p>\n

I would argue, then, that we need to take account of the possibility that these two minim clusters could hide a far wider range of signs<\/em>, following standard mediaeval scribal practice with minims in Latin and in other languages. This then means that we need to re-analyse our Voynich transcriptions significantly, and maybe then our statistical analyses, in order to take account of exactly when the minims are joined<\/em> and when they are separated<\/em> \uc9f1\uad6c\ub294 \ubabb\ub9d0\ub824 \uac8c\uc784 \ub2e4\uc6b4\ub85c\ub4dc<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If we do not, then we run the risk of drastically misinterpreting the number of signs in the script as a whole, firstly. Secondly, this could potentially undermine every statistical test we run on the script as a whole, if we continue with transcriptions which potentially understate the possible number of signs in the script. Unless we act on this, we could continue bumbling around in the Voynich fog for a while to come.<\/p>\n

References:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Good summary of the information on the V script: http:\/\/www.voynich.nu\/writing.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Herbal manuscript cited in the text:\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Wellcome Italian herbal <\/i>(Date: c. 1475 Origin: Italy, Language: Latin) (Once owned by Voynich) Wellcome Library London, MS.334<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following my earlier post about minims \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which you should read before reading this one \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I now want to extend the debate to suggest that this area could have a major impact on our understanding of the Voynich script and signs. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s start with a quiz: Look at these five signs and groups and … <\/p>\n

Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-voynich","category-voynich_script_and_language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenbax.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenbax.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenbax.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenbax.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenbax.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/stephenbax.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/stephenbax.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenbax.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenbax.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenbax.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}