"Leaf words"

[DFS346]

With thanks to Dr Andrew Steckley for the data: thoughts on what I call "leaf words" in the Voynich manuscript - "words" that abut plant drawings which break up the text. These data refer to the pages in the "herbal" section written by Scribe 1, as identified by Dr Lisa Fagin Davis.

https://goodreads.com/author_blog_posts ... leaf-words

v101~H1~D1 top 10 leaf words.jpg (76.47 KiB) Viewed 1560 times

Voynich manuscript, “herbal” section, Scribe 1: the most common “leaf words", and their frequencies in the section as a whole. Data by courtesy of Andrew Steckley; author's analysis.

f026r Ozymandias.jpg (223.55 KiB) Viewed 1560 times

A thought experiment; but the "leaf words" in the Voynich manuscript are not fragments of hyphenated words

[DFS346]

Further thoughts on "leaf words" in the Voynich manuscript; and on whether they are real words, or junk. This analysis is based on data kindly provided by Dr Andrew Steckley, and refers to "leaf words" (more precisely, "words" that abut an illustration) in all sections of the manuscript.

https://goodreads.com/author_blog_posts ... -revisited

Top ten leaf words.jpg (59.87 KiB) Viewed 801 times

The top ten left “leaf words”; the top ten right “leaf words”; and their frequencies in the Voynich manuscript as a whole. Highlighted frequencies denote cases where the “word” is much more common as a “leaf word” than in the manuscript as a whole. Author’s analysis, based on data kindly provided by Dr Andrew Steckley.