This is the strangest “word” in the Voynich text. It is on page 70, recto. Very little attention is given to it. For the most part it is not considered a word at all.
It consists of a series of nine glyph [o] with [l] then [a] then [r].
….ooooooooolar…
What is going on here? What does it tell us about the Voynich language and text?
These are clearly cases of the glyph [o] and it is presented as text. By a broad definition, it constitutes a word.
But it is unaccountable. Few researchers even hazard an explanation of what might be happening. And yet it demands an explanation as much as anything else.
I propose a simple reading, but one with wide-reaching implications. I suggest that it might be an important clue to the very nature of the text.
* * *
The accompanying illustration is meteorological, a depiction of nine rainclouds: precipitation.
The meteorological aspects of the Voynich ms. are, I note, often overlooked or misinterpreted. As well as stars, there are illustrations in the manuscript that concern weather. In this case, cycles of rain.
We have nine rainclouds and a series of nine glyphs
It is tempting to conclude there is an analogy between the rainclouds and the glyph [o], or between an [o] and a quantity or season of rain.
The text, we might say, is shown precipitating like rain.
By extension, this may suggest the text is analogous to the flow of water.
* * *
The word itself [ooooooooolar] is a permutation of the keyword CHOLDAIIN.
The flow of [o] glyphs arises out of a series of dots and is halted by the line-based [l] glyph, as it is in CHOLDAIIN, and the sequence ends abruptly with the final glyph [r], a variation of [n], and returns to a series of dots.
PROPOSAL
The text is analogous to flowing water. The [o] glyph represents a unit of water. The flow can be assisted or impeded by the various glyphs. This is what the curve-line system is. The curve-based glyphs assist the flow. The line-based glyphs (backslashes] impede the flow.
I suggest readers revisit Brian Cham’s 2014 study of the curve-line system, and how he tries to describe the way the text moves and flows, with this analogy in mind.
An analogy between text and flowing water – a fluvial text - would be consistent with a lingua nympharum. In myth and folklore the language of the nymphs has an obvious naturalistic basis in the babbling of brooks and the gurgling of streams. In the folk imagination, running water speaks, or whispers, or sings.
This strange textual phenomenon on page 70 might be a significant piece of evidence in support of such a reading.
SUMMARY SLIDES
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