VMs: VMS evolving table encipherment

["Jeff" <jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Please view this in a fixed pitch font so that the table columns line up.
Otherwise it will make no sense at all!

The method:

We take our cipher alphabet to be acdefghiklmnopqrsty.

The phrase from Jacques Guy was:

"Could you take another shot at explaining your approach"

First we need some simple rules. So we will assume that f & p are
paragraph start markers. We now have two choices for start character.

Let us use f in this instance. We now have an output string that
starts with f...

At this point we need to make a choice for the second character.
This pair will make up the initiator. Let's choose fa as this starts
page one of the VMS.

Now we have fa. This will become the first element in our lookup table.

fa

We now need a character to complete the triplet to represent the c of
the word could. In this case we will NOT choose c so that we deviate
from the VMS. We can chose o instead. o now becomes the first letter
in the list of triplet endings for fa.

fa
o

As this represents c we will capitalise it place it in the list as
an output.

fa
o C

We now have a new pair, the ao of fao. This now automatically becomes
the second lookup entry in the list.

fa   ao
o C

To represent the o in 'could' we now need to complete this triplet.
Let's try i.

fa   ao
o C  i O

Now we get faoi. If we skip a few steps to complete the word we will
have a table and output thus.

fa   ao   oi   ii
o C  i O  i U  i L
               n D

faoiin

This shows the recursive nature of the algorithm as the pair ii can
complete to both iii & iin within the same word.

To start the next word we need to define an inter word initiator
triplet. This triplet CAN be mid word but because of language
structure may tend to only appear inter word. We already have the
start pair of this triplet using the in ending of iin.

As the form in.s seems to appear quite a lot in the vms we will
use this here

fa   ao   oi   ii   in
o C  i O  i U  i L  s
               n D

The second word of the plaintext is you so y will appear as the output
here. The table now becomes thus.

fa   ao   oi   ii   in
o C  i O  i U  i L  s Y
               n D

We have a word form .sho. in the VMS so we will use this to complete
the word you.

fa   ao   oi   ii   in   ns   sh
o C  i O  i U  i L  s Y  h O  o U
               n D

This now produces the output

faoiin.sho

To review a little. The combination fac initiates the sequence and
also represents the plaintext letter c at the start of a paragraph.
aoi will always represent the plaintext letter o, oii the letter u
and iii the letter L etc. These depend upon the sequence leading up
to the related letter. If a different path is taken through the table
then different triplets will represent these letters.

This is seen in the letter u in could and you. In could u is represented
by oii and in you by sho. The path to the plaintext letter is different
in each case.

Let's continue. We now have the words 'could you.' The next word is
'take.' We have ho as the new pair from the sho combination. This is
the next inter word triplet. A quick scan through the EVA sample shows
that c, k, s & t are the most popular cipher letters to complete
the inter word triplets. Let's choose k. If we want to reproduce a
four letter EVA word to represent take we could choose something
like kair or kshy. To improve the statistics for the ai pair and
increase recursion we will choose kair. We now get this.

fa   ao   oi   ii   in   ns   sh   ho   ok   ka   ar
o C  i O  i U  i L  s Y  h O  o U  k T  a A  i K  r E
               n D

faoiiin.sho.kair

This completes the encipherment for the partial phrase 'could you take.'

As an excersise try completing the whole phrase by mapping in existing
EVA words of the same length. dain, daiin, dair or any other EVA grouping
can be completed easily. These patterns should echo through other words
with the same endings later in the text (as long as the path that got you
there comes from the same initiating sequence.) A high degree of recursion
seems to be necessary to produce true voynichese, requiring a lot of short
loopbacks to previously used pairs.

Hope this helps. If not let me know. All comments welcome. BTW once a
plaintext
is entered into the table this also becomes a lookup. For instance if the
last
enciphered text ends oii and the next plaintext letter is L or D then it can
be
seen from the above table that the sequences iii & iin are already present
and
do not need to be compiled. The last letter is simply inserted as a
replacement.

This cipher method grows and evolves as the text is enciphered, but can be
restarted and subtly changed at will. This could be per page, per section or
at the whim of the author.

Jeff

P.S. In Nicks table he seems to use loopbacks too. Where certain letters can
appear
at ends of words as well as in the middle. This method simplifies the
ruleset used for
these mappings if nothing else.



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