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

[Jorge Stolfi <stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    > [Giddy Landan:] It reminds me a pet theory of mine: that P and F
    > are the real string spacers and token delimiters, and that
    > spaces are either nulls or an additional character. Any sense?

    > [Gabriel:] I don't think that p and f are the spaces and the
    > rest aren't. Of course I cannot prove it, but if so, then words
    > would be extremely long (unless an entire paragraph could be a
    > single word)
    > 
    > And why to write them at the beginning of a word in a paragraph 
    > (their most likely occurrence) where the token is already delimited?

Also, <p> and <f> seem to be much more common in the first line of a
paragraph, and at beginning-of-line. Also, they seem to be more common
whenever there is free space above the line, due to figures and such.

To me, these observations suggest that they are ornate versions of
other letters.  This theory seems to be consistent with scribal 
practices of the time, including the use of gallows in the example
shown by Cappelli.

It may be that a <p> or <f> stands for two or more letters. Perhaps,
even, different occurrences of <p> may stand for different letters;
and ditto for <f>.

Also, the sequence in page 66r suggests that the hook at the end of the 
horizontal arm of <f> (and <p>?) may be significant.  Perhaps, just perhaps, 
this overlooked detail will explain certain anomalies in the frequencies
of <c> and <e> adjacent to <p> and <f>...

All the best,

--stolfi