RE: VMs: Tironian notes

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi GC,

GC wrote:-
> More correct here is that "4o" almost exclusively appears at the start of 
> words, since "4" alonge has a more flexible useage.  There are also "4c" 
> groups to contend with, as well as the "4o" with "shorthand notae" 
> attached.  The "4o" combination is one of my three biggest problems, the 
> second being the "am" problem.

I believe that the structural difference between occurrences of "4" and 
"4o" is a key indicator of what is going on "under the hood" of the VMS' 
coding system. To my eyes, they function as autonomous letters - in the 
same way that "o8" and "89" function as autonomous letters, for example - 
which is why I've moved so strongly towards reading the bulk of the text in 
pairs.

EVA <ain> <aiin> <aiiin> have long looked like steganographic Roman 
numerals to me, so I'm not too worried about them. :-)

If you want a really paranoid theory about the text, you might consider the 
variations of "8", depending on where you start drawing the letter (I 
believe that the scribe wasn't consistent in this) -  the most paranoid 
variation would be like a recent programming language I saw that was 
written entirely in (the different forms of) whitespace, ie that the VMS 
text itself is meaningless but all the meaningful content is encoded as 
subtle variations in symbol formation.

Needless to say I don't believe this is true, but it's fun imagining 
ciphers just below the surface of normal perceptibility. :-)

Cheers, ....Nick Pelling..... 


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