Re: VMs: Voynich analysis

if you want the text (I am thinking of the interlinear version 1.7) minus starting columns and comments, you could use grep, if you have access to a unix box to generate the text, I am willing to do this if required and email the file to you. If you want me to do this can you also say whether you want the currier or fsg text? Either currier or fsg will have the * for undecipherable character and the OR stuff like [a|b] where this means that the character could be interpreted as a OR b, would you want these left in? I normally work on the basis of, If there are two choices for a character then pick the first on the assumption that I will be right 50% of the time. I assume that you would want the spacing characters removed as well.

I have a couple of questions for anyone with any
knowledge of the following subjects.

1. Has a general dictionary of word forms been created by anyone. A sort of
Oxford Voynich dictionary, for want of a better phrase.

2. Have individual sections of the manuscript had their own dictionaries
created to use as a comparison with the other sections for word frequency.

This is exactly what I would do. Then the frequency of word patterns from
each section could be cross matched for frequency against the other
sections.
This way any topic specific word forms could be anchored to the section
topic. If all word forms in the dictionaries are evenly distributed across
topic sections then the probability is high that the content is a hoax and
is meaningless. Certain word forms such as the definite and indefinite
articles would be evenly distributed across topics whereas nouns such as
petal, leaf or stem would appear more regularly in the herbal section.

Has anyone thought of construction such a dictionary?

Also, does anyone know where the bare text can be obtained minus the
notes etc? I want to write a syntax parser that does not rely on
determination
of meaning, but rather word correlation and placement between sections. I
would also be willing to build the various dictionaries if they do not
already
exist.

regards

Jeff Haley.

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