AAH: Virgo & Scorpio...

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bernd,

> Just some remarks on the missing letters for Virgo and Scorpio:
>
>                  In the 4th ring on f57v there is a Scorpio-like sign 
> (EVA avvn) between
>                  the suspected "letters" for Capricorn and Venus. Given 
> the frequent
>                  occurrence of "an" and "al", we cannot exclude the 
> possibility that
>                  sometimes two EVA letters stand for one astrological symbol:
>                  As the signs for Virgo and Scorpio are quite similar 
> (M-shape + tail
>                  vs. M-shape + loop), why not write them "ar" and "al", 
> with "r" and "l"
>                  as modifiers to symbolize the tail/loop? This would 
> render the text
>                  even more unintelligible to potential decipherers, and 
> on the other
>                  hand it would explain some of the low entropy effects of 
> Voynichese.

Your idea of modifiers is *extremely* close - add *mirror-writing* and 
you're there. :-)

Look at <EVA awn> upside-down, and you'll see that it looks as if the 
terminating loop pulls back towards the body of the m - I reckon that's Virgo.

Look at <EVA as> upside-down (it appears twice on the same line), and 
you'll that the end of the loop looks like the point of an arrow - I reckon 
that's Scorpio.

Another layer of the VMS may be starting to unfurl. :-)

However, this leaves one part of the AAH in a bit of trouble. I thought 
that, as the symbol for the moon in the 17 x 4 ring (EVA v) appears so 
infrequently in the VMS, and that Moon would appear as frequently as (say) 
Sun or Mercury, the more likely match for it would have been EVA a - but 
take away all the EVA awm and EVA as, and what remains?

So: whither the moon? What other frequent symbols are there that haven't 
been matched?

>                  (It would also mean that the infamous "8.a.m." turns out 
> to be
>                  Venus + Scorpio.)

Well, Venus + Virgo, but basically yes. :-))

>                  BTW, EVA a could also be a simplified Libra, but if all 
> zodiac signs
>                  map to consonants, this obviously does not hold.

EVA a looks like it does a number of different jobs. The next step would be 
to check in what two-letter combinations it appears, and see if the context 
suggests anything.

>                  I further suspect that there are more 
> "two-letter-variants" in the MS,
>                  and I also believe that the letter "o" maybe has even 
> more functions.

For example, a capitalisation function? Or my original idea of a one-letter 
"the" (like Greek)? Or a code-related function? Hmmm....

>                  Nevertheless, I think we're getting closer!

Foolishly, so do I!!!! :-)

Best regards, .....Nick Pelling.....