Re: VMs: Re: Moot points, getting long

["Larry Roux" <LRoux@xxxxxxx>]

Correct-a-mundo!   

I would never discourage individuals from having different viewpoints
on how to write Voy themselves and analyze it, but the advantage to a
"common" script such as EVA is that we can all (well, many of us)
envision what it looks like short of sending gifs of the text.  For
instance, when I look at the Voy I see "maud" for EVA "daiin".  EVA 'n'
is just simply too close to the "d's" I write when I print, and I am not
convinced that all 'i's' are distinct characters.  (in some instances I
see maiw instead of maud for daiin)  

But I know that in order to communicate effectively with a large group
a consistent and descriptive font is necessary.  EVA does that for me.




Larry Roux
Syracuse University
lroux@xxxxxxx


>>> r_zandbergen@xxxxxxxxx 8/4/2004 2:38:15 PM >>>

--- Nick Pelling <nickpelling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I fully applaud GC's efforts to transcribe more of
> what is there to be seen 
> than does EVA. My caveat there is this would need to
> be built on a full 
> understanding of what strokes were made, when and
> why - the current thread 
> on how to write a <ch> is perhaps a case in point.

What GC writes and what you write all makes sense
from one viewpont or another. But it's all 
theoretical. In this approach, one can only
start transcribing after the MS has been
deciphered.

While that seems like an attempt to reduce ad
absurdum, better realise that this is really what
normal transcription of handwritten documents
is all about.
You can actually read the language so you know how
to decide which particular squiggle on the paper
is which letter.

Now imagine a Chinese or Arab, who is not
too familiar with handwritten Latin script,
transcribe a handwritten document. If he 
decides that all different variations in which,
say, the letter 'g' has been written, should all
be different, we may not be able to interpret
his transcription. If he does that for a big 
enough number of letters, one will be competely
lost with his output.

In transcribing, decisions have to be made.
It is a matter of taste how such decisions are
made. Two people transcribing the Voynich MS
will come up with two different sets of rules on
how to do it.

In reality, some letters which were meant to be
the same will look different. Making more 
distinctions is therefore not necessarily
better.

And right now we don't just know where to draw 
the line. If GC says that he is certain that the
different plumes were meant to be different,
I won't say that he is wrong. Because I know
just as little as GC what a 'sh' is meant to
represent.
Maybe it just indicates the mood of the author -
sometimes he just feels like drawing a nice one,
and sometimes just a plain one.

Who knows?

As long as we can distinguish between observations
and opinions, this discussion can lead somewhere.

Cheers, Rene



		
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