Re: VMS -- '4o' Prefix

[Seth <sethm@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Sep 03, 2001 at 11:25:45PM -0700, Dana F. Scott wrote:
> I find it interesting that the familiar '4o' prefix is used 85 times on
> folio f83v? I wonder as to the significance of the concentrated,
> clustered use of this prefix? I am  inclined to think of these
> 'character' symbols more as a 'mechanical construct' than individual
> letters, perhaps being a reference to direction or place. It seems
> easier to think of the '4o' as representing a combination of words
> instead of distinct letters/characters. It is somewhat difficult for me
> to envision 85 'words' all starting with the same 'letters' on a single
> folio in the VMS manuscript.

It is these sorts of clusters that have always made me put
"glossalalia" at the top of my list of possible theories which can
explain the manuscript.  I'm more and more convinced that there is
really no meaning in the text whatsoever, that it is a very oddball
doodlebook of a bored (or perhaps slightly insane) person from the
early renaissance.

Of course, I have no hard evidence for this interpretation, other
than a general sense that to me the text does not look encrypted,
nor does it seem to be a natural language.  In order for me to be
more confident of the glossalalia theory, I would ideally like to
be able to compare the statistics of the VMS with those of several
known documents in glossalalia.

(I know that there is a term specifically meaning "the written form
of glossalalia", but for the life of me, I don't remember what it
is.  Can anyone remind me?  Was it scriptomania?)

> Regards,
> Dana Scott

-Seth