Re: Voynich (Left to Right or Right to Left text?)

["Dana F. Scott" <dfscott@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello ZOwen,
     While I am not a linguist, it seems to me rather unlikely that the VMS
text was written and meant to be read from right to left. The great majority
of the "words" or group of characters/symbols appear to end (when reading left
to right) with a very small set of "characters", primarily ending with what
looks like the lower case letter 'g' or the number '9'. There are two other
'characters' that appear frequently throughout the text at the end of 'words',
one that looks sort of like an 'x' with a closed rounded loop at the top and
the other looks something like a short \ or c with an up stroke somewhat like
) connected and extending back up to the left. One symbol which reminds me of
the Capricorn glyph seems to appear exclusively at the end of VMS 'words' and
frequently at the end of lines of text, which makes me think that there is a
specific reason why it is placed at the end of a line of text. In fact there
appear to be other groups of characters that are placed at the ends of lines
of text with a specific purpose in mind (e.g., f81r). What looks like the
number 4 is seen at the beginning of 'words'. It strikes me as unlikely that a
text written to be read from right to left would have most of its 'words'
starting with the same small set of 'characters'. Can you imagine what a
Romance language would be like if more than 50% of the words began with the
letter 'g'? For that matter, what is the probability that any language would
be structured in this format? One other thought here is that we could probably
create a rudimentary set of grammatical rules for writing Voynichese which may
help in the translation.

Regards,
Dana Scott

ZOwen@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Does anyone have any information about the astrological pages of the
> manuscript?  I believe the figures surrounding each central figure
> represent "spirits" or "angels" commonly associated with different degrees
> of the sign.  I think this would be a good place to do some background on,
> as the names have not changed much even though the languages have  (For
> example the angel michael retains pretty much the same pronunciation from
> hebrew to english).  Also I've thought of the possibility this language is
> right to left (Like Hebrew).  Also, is there anywhere online I can see a
> complete copy of the manuscript?  Mostly I'm seeing thumbnails..  Thanks
> for your time..