Paradigm developed

Here is another possible development of this vord paradigm. 

The paradigm vord QOKEEDY is unsatisfactory at both ends. A high proportion of vords end in a consonant and a good proportion begin with a vowel. 

I propose, therefore, not merely QOKEEDY but a cycle of four variations on that vord. The variations are:

qokeedy
qokaiin
olkaiin
olkeedy

The consonants and vowels go like this:

A: CV CV CV
B: CV CV VC
C: VC CV VC
D: VC CV CV

The full cycle goes:

CV CV CV CV CV VC VC CV VC VC CV CV

A sequence of twelve syllables. 

The sequence is continuous because:

Qokeedy – qokaain = the word break is [y.k]

Qokaiin – olkaiin = the word break is [n.o]

Olkaiin – Olkeedy = the word break is [n.o]

Thus: qokeedy.qokaiin.olkaiin.olkeedy. And so on. The line of least resistance.

This allows four models for parsing, with every Voynich vord conforming as nearly as possible to one of the four. QOKEEDY (and a cycle of its variations) is the paradigm. 

Nabbing some vords at random, we find:

QOKEEDY

qopchy
sheedy
opchdy
shotchey
otedy

QOKAIIN

shosaiin
ytaiin
chodar
tchar
opal
shokal
cheedar

OLKAIIN

lkaiin
olkeees
olcham
chtaiin

OLKEEDY

lkchedy
olky
lkeeeody
arshey
alkedy

PROBLEMATIC 

tolos
okaral
pokar
kedshedy
alodar

Once again, the problematic ones are the vords of interest.

The question of why QOKEEDY might cycle through variations is a bit like Epicurus’ swerve: an atom just gets it in its mind to swerve and suddenly there’s a universe. Minimum deviation. 

The reason here seem to be that [y] is a ‘soft’ ending, being a vowel, (or vowelish) and a consonant is a more emphatic ending. 

The hard ending then provokes a vowel at the vord break: [n] is followed by [o] and the prefix [ol] appears. 

The usual pattern of CV is reversed at both ends. 

In the process, the stem vowel [ee] hardens to [a] in sympathy with the final emphatic consonant and the [q] in the prefix (being quite strictly initial) softens into [l] and its group of consonants. These are harder than [y] but softer than [q]. 

The reason for the ‘swerve’ then would be a preferred euphony.

R. B.