Consonant/vowel - Part 2

 Further to the excercise I presented two posts ago, demonstrating consonant/vowel alternation in the Voynich text:

Using a fixed set of rules, we are able to show that the large majority of Voynich words conform to a basic consonant/vowel pattern. 

The interesting cases are the words that do not. 

Here are some from the samples I used previously:

qokchdy

cthres

kchy.

chkain

qokchory

polchedy.

olkeey.

lkey.

chcthy.

lkar

dsheeoteey

cholkeeedy

tcheo

olcheody

okchedy

rcheey

ald.

cheeokseo.

qorky

okolchy

otaldy

shckhey

We could resolve most of these cases by introducing one more rule:

The glyphs [ch] and [sh] can act as vowels or consonants. 

Typically, I have portrayed these glyphs (part of the CHOLDAIIN paradigm) as consonants formed – hardened – from the long vowel [ee] in QOKEEDY. 

[ch] is [ee] with a ligature. 

It acts as a consonant, as in CHOL. 

But if we allow that it may act as a vowel (and [sh] along with it) then we can resolve almost all instances where CV alternation is disrupted in Voynich words. 

Let us take the non-compliant word: qokchdy. 

It is obviously a variant on the paradigm QOKEEDY. 

All that has happened, in fact, is that the [ee] in QOKEEDY has been joined by a ligature to make [ch]. 

Here we could justifiably count [ch] as a variant of [ee], and so count it as a vowel in our sequence. 

Similarly, qokchory becomes qokeeory which complies. The difference is only the ligature. 

Similarly, kchy is keey. The difference is only the ligature.

If we do this we very often end up with strings of vowels which, by my rules, are all counted together as a single unit. 

I am very aware that this seems an exceedingly flexible rule. It eliminates all cases of double (or more) vowels in a single stroke, so only the placement of consonants remains in question. 

But vowel clusters are a feature of the text and it is a possible explanation that they represent single units. What are we to make of a word like [oteeeodar]? Might not the whole vowel cluster be a variant on [ee]?

By my account, it is a variation on the paradigm QOKEEDY. 

Thus the non-compliant word polchedy becomes the compliant poleeedy.

Besides, by my rules in this exercise we only allow two flexibilities: [y] and [ch] (and) [sh] can be either vowels or consonants. 

They are similar cases. [y] looks like an [o] but has a tail that seems to render it a consonant at times. [ch] seems like [ee] with a ligature that renders it a consonant but it seems to act as a vowel (or double vowel) at times. 

In any case, by this method we can bring the text close to full compliance. 

In the main, the only cases that remain are those involving the [ld] consonants from CHOLDAIIN as in [otaldy]. 

* * *

Please note that I am using ‘vowel’ and ‘consonant’ only loosely in these studies. They may or may not be vowels and consonants. They may not be linguistic at all. I am only describing how they behave. I could just as easily describe them as 'night glyphs' and 'day glyphs'. . 

R.B.