VMs: Re: Hamptonese

["Jeff" <jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have written all sorts of whacky algorithms for scanning the VMS. Looking
for all sorts of patterns. I can try a transcription scan if you want.

Jeff

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dennis" <tsalagi@xxxxxxxx>
To: "VOYNICH-L" <vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 08 April 2004 05:09
Subject: VMs: Hamptonese


> Great news on Hamptonese:  I am not alone!
>
> Dr. Mark Stamp at San Jose State University
> (California, USA) picked up on my work.  Here is his
> website on Hamptonese:
>
> http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/faculty/stamp/Hampton/hampton.html
>
> Best of all, he made a poor unsuspecting grad student,
> Ellen Le, transcribe all Hampton's diary!  The
> transcription and images of all the diary are there.
>
> Here is his paper on Hamptonese:
>
> http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/faculty/stamp/Hampton/hamptonHMM/hamptonese.pdf
>
> I'm digesting it all.
>
> What I would like from someone here.  I think the next
> step is to try to identify words in Hamptonese, since
> Hamptonese doesn't have word divisions.  Does anyone
> have software to identify and catalog repeated strings
> in such a text?  Even better, to do that with
> wildcards, since I'm quite sure Hampton's "spelling"
> isn't consistent.
>
> VMs relevance.  He has used a Hidden Markov Model
> (HMM) to analyze Hamptonese.  I don't recall that
> anyone has tried this on the VMs.  I myself don't have
> experience with HMMs.
>
> In the paper he discusses what the HMM showed for
> single glyphs.  It seems to show that there are in fact
> no vowels and consonants in Hamptonese.  The Sukhotin
> algorithm shows vowels and consonants in Hamptonese,
> but Jacques reminded me that it does not find "vowels";
> it separates symbols into two sets, the member of each
> tending to occur next to the members of the other.  But
> it seems to me that is also what the HMM would find!
> The results aren't completely unambiguous, so I am
> thinking it over.
>
> Those are first order results.  He also did runs for
> higher orders but doesn't discuss the results.  Since
> we have already done many morphological studies, of the
> structure of Voynichese "words", I don't know what an
> HMM would tell us.
>
> Dr. Scott observes that the time period over which
> Hampton wrote his diary is unknown, but may span a
> decade.  The script becomes much clearer and much
> easier to transcribe as the diary proceeds.   (Hampton
> himself wrote page numbers, so there's no question of
> subsequent rearrangement.)  Could there have been a
> similar progression from Voynich B to Voynich A by the
> same author?
>
> Finally.  Note that Hampton most likely did not intend
> concealment for whatever he wrote.
>
> Dennis
>
> PS - For our newcomers, and those who don't remember.
> "Hamptonese" is the secret writing of James Hampton, an
> African American visionary artist.  He left behind a
> diary of writing in a script for which I have found no
> precedents that are all definite.  There are also some
> loose sheets in Hamptonese which are of considerable
> interest.  Finally, he tagged each item on his
> sculpture in English and Hamptonese - a potential
> Rosetta Stone!   Here is my website on Hamptonese:
>
> http://www.geocities.com/ctesibos/hampton/index.html
>
> His diary is an obvious VMs analogue.
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