Pregnant words

If we were to construct an artificial language from English in the manner I propose the Voynich language was made, we would do the following:

We need to find two verbum potentiae. 

Together, they must include - be pregnant with - all the linguistic resources of the English language.

So, between them they must include the entire alphabet.

But it proves impossible to find two such terms. It can’t be done. They must be meaningful terms, not nonsense.

To make it easier, therefore, we can compact the linguistic resources into a smaller set. 

For instance, do we need a [z]? We could treat it as a variation of [s]. We could treat [z] as part of the resources of [s].

So we don’t need to find a word that includes [z]. If one of the words contains an [s] then [z] is covered. 

We can reduce the alphabet down to a set of core letters and their variations in this way. 

Then, with this much smaller set, we can find two suitable keywords. It might still be tricky, be it will be much easier. 

When we unpack our artificial language from the two keywords, we also unpack their inner resources. That is, [s] can change to [z]. A whole new vocabulary can be created by unpacking [s] to [z]. 

In this way – especially if we preserve consonant/vowel patterns – will can generate a store of permutating words, many of them English-seeming. 

* * * 

This is to sketch the process crudely, but I am proposing that the Voynich language was created by, and can be understood by, some such process. 

Start with two keywords: the verbum potentiae.

But they must contain all the linguistic resources necessary for the undertaking. 

In the Voynich text the two keywords are QOKEEDY and CHOLDAIIN. They are the primal and pregnant words. Between them they contain the whole of Voynichese.

R.B.