VMs: RE: Introduction

["Wieland Willker" <willker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Voynichists,
Here are some first thoughts:

It is clear to me that the script is that of an experienced writer. I would
not call him/her professional, but semi-professional at least.
Thus it is also clear that this is not the first thing (s)he wrote in this
script. He must have used this script before and often. (I know Greek quite
well but still cannot write very good in it and it looks not very regular.)
What does this mean? The writer wrote this script often. Therefore it is
quite improbable that a difficult code system is needed to create it. He
wrote many things in this script. It must therefore be some language, either
an artificial or a natural one that is dead now.

The experienced form of the script makes it also improbable that it is
nonsense. In this case the script would have been invented just to impress
someone, to make money. Would a just invented nonsense writing look like
this?

Is it an artificial language? Is it possible that a group of
monks/scientists created it for some reason? I doubt this. To create a
language you must also speak it to learn it. This would be way to difficult
and time consuming. Imagine you have to learn, say Russian to hide your
secrets, would you do that?

So we are left with two possibilities:
a) it is a natural language and a natural script of probably a quite small
population somewhere in Europe that left no other trace of its script except
this MS.
or
b) it is a natural language and an artificial script. It is possible that
the script contains additionally some strange elements, e.g.
- wrongly inserted spacings
- unusual pronunciation/spelling
- unusual word separation
- filling signs
etc. etc.
But overall it must be easy to read.

So far, so good.
Against this it can be argued that the statistical checks performed by some
of you do indicate strange things, incompatible with normal European
languages.
It is interesting that the script does not contain any accents and
breathings and no punctuation as far as I can see. This is quite unusual.

Best wishes
    Wieland
      <><
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Wieland Willker, Bremen, Germany
mailto:willker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.uni-bremen.de/~wie