What language do nymphs speak?

What language do nymphs speak? Nymph mythology is profoundly abundant across the European landscape, but when we take an overview of it there are three answers to this question:

1. Nymphs speak whatever the local human language might be. Nymphs are regularly said to interact with humans – especially those nympha who occupy waterways and fountains that encroach into urban settlements.

2. Nymphs might also speak old languages from their landscape. This is because they are typically long lived. They are not immortals, but they are long lived. There are cases in English folklore, for instance, of nymphs supposedly speaking Latin or old Welsh or other lapsed tongues.

3. Otherwise, nymphs are often reported to have a language of their own which is not comprehensible to humans (except perhaps through the agency of magic.)

When I stylize the language in the Voynich manuscript as the “language of the nymphs” therefore, it might mean any one of three things. It might mean:

1. A natural contemporary language.

2. A lost or remnant language.

3. An artificial language.

In any case, I believe that the text in the manuscript is directly connected to the nymphs depicted therein. And moreover, the text is not so much about them as by them. It is, as it were, a record of the teachings (or reports) of the nymphs.

While this might seem an outlandish proposal, it is only to say that a body of herb and astrological lore has been presented as the spoken utterances of the nymphs, the relevant nature spirits of the particular landscape. It is only to say there has been personification. This, in any case, is how I want to consider the text, as part of a comprehensive reading of the work as a whole.

As I see it, the work concerns the alpine landscape of the Dolomites – the Rosengarten mountains specifically – populated by the Ladin people. I see the work as concerning their herb gathering traditions as well as aspects of their distinctive mythology. This tradition includes myths of nymphs who reside in the mountains, controlling the waters of the rivers, lakes, streams, waterfalls, etc. This is what we see in the Voynich manuscript.

In that context, it might readily arise that the activities of the nymphs are presented as a record of things spoken by the nymphs themselves. The author, I contend, claims to possess the knowledge of the nymphs. This is the central claim of the book. This knowledge might well be presented as the expositions of the nymphs, the nymphs own words.

But what language is it that they speak? They might conceivably speak a natural language, or an old language, or else a language has been invented for the purpose.

The natural language, in this scenario, would most likely be Ladin – which is to say a Vulgar Latin. (An alternative might be German?)

An old language might be some remnant tongue, but also Greek or Hebrew or Arabic or Latin – they all qualify as old. (Long lived nymphs could retain them from some previous age.)

Or else, their language is presented as some type of artificial, synthetic language, either a priori or based on a natural language.

So “language of the nymphs” does not, in fact, narrow things down much. It is not nearly as dramatic a proposal as it sounds. But even if it strikes modern readers as odd, I consider it to be the right conceptual framework for approaching the Voynich language. I think that is what the author had in mind.

R. B.