VMs: The Eva alphabet

[Rene Zandbergen <r_zandbergen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all,

first of all, thanks to Jim G. for his quick action
to keep the list running. 

This mail is clearly prompted by some (valid)
remarks by Glen Claston, but should be of interest
to all the newer members.

The Eva transcription alphabet is a method of 
representing the text in the Voynich MS in a 
computer-readable form. One of the aims of it is
to be able to represent the entire MS in a consistent
way. That is: the so-called weirdoes, for which
none of the previously existing alphabets had a
complete answer, are also covered in a consistent
manner.

The alphabet does not pretend to answer the question
of what is one character in the underlying text.
I would bet a very, very large pizza on the fact
that it is probably wrong in that area. This also
means
that analyses of the text (independent of whether one
does belong to one of the cipher/language camps
or not) should best not be done using the Eva
alphabet.

However, there already was, at the time that the Eva
alphabet was conceived, a tool called BITRANS,
which allows one to change the transcripion alphabet
to any one that one desires to use.
(It was written by Jacques Guy and runs on
literally every type of PC.)

The real shortcoming of Eva is not in that the way
to represent weirdoes and ligatures is inelegant.
It is in the fact that a choice had to be made on
which
character variations should be ignored. (E.g. on the
Eva character 'sh', where the shape of the plume
is not considered).

The real strength of Eva is that it is easy to learn,
easy to use for transcription and a good way to
communicate on the list.

I would advise all who have never heard of BITRANS
before, to find out about it. Translation tables from
Eva to Currier or to FSG already exist. Tables to
translate to your favourite alphabet, or your test
alphabet of the day, are extremely easy to make.

Cheers, Rene

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