The distinction between short vowel glyphs and tall consonant glyphs is not uncommon.
It is found in English where the vowels, a, e, i. o and u, are all short glyphs while many tall glyphs such as b or f or k are consonants.
So the distinction is not peculiar to Voynichese and in fact conforms to the expectations of a natural (Latinate) language.
But it is much more hard-and-fast in Voynichese.
For a start, the key tall glyphs, the gallows glyphs, never cluster together.
None of the tall glyphs double. We do not find [ss] or [dd] or [nn].
But the short glyphs cluster unnaturally. There are over 400 cases of tripled [eee] and cases of four [iiii] glyphs. There are words like [oeeees].
Compared to natural languages, there is a marked clustering of the short glyphs and a marked absence of clustering of the tall glyphs.
* * *
When we examine the short (vowel) glyphs we can group them as follows:
o (and y)
e ee ch sh
a iii
There are really only two groups: those based on the [e] glyph and those involving the [i] glyph.
The [y] glyph is a modification of [o].
We thus encounter the c-curve/backslash distinction at this level .
(Among the consonants, [s] and [r] belong at this level and participate in the curve-line system.)
It is primarily in the vowel clusters that we find the c-curve/backslash system.
When we talk about divisions of the [o] omicron, there are really only two: [e] and [i]. Then there are various configurations of [e] and [i].
* * *
Stolfi designated the letters [d], [l], [r] and [s] the ‘Double Dealers’ because their behavior is anomolous.
They require a much fuller account in my system.
But it is clear that they have the role of consonants. [r] and [s] are interchangeable, and [l] and [d] commonly combine.
* * *
Inexactitude and approximations are the norm, and permitted, in traditional (Platonic) cosmological systems:
They are based on the premise that the world is an inexact copy of its celestial model.
In the celestial model there are 360 solar days in a year.
The mundane reality of the fallen creation, though, is that there are 365 and a bit days in the year. There is a disrepancy between the ideal and the actual.
Similarly, there is play between the numbers 70 and 72.
* * *
Might the text be alphanumeric after all?
If Ptolemy’s Canones, Vaticanus graecus 1291, has been a direct inspiration for the Voynich project, it provides a model where numerical tables are recorded in Greek letters, since Greek is alphanumeric.
The starting point for a consideration of this would be the omicron glyph, which in Greek is the number 70.
* * *
The Great Year is not just the completion of all specific years but the model of all years.
Typically, in the annual year there are four seasons. In the Great Year there are four corresponding Ages.
The qualities of the 360 degrees of the zodiac can be assessed by their place in the Great Year.
* * *
The solstices are not directly elemental. They initiate the sequence: cardinal, fixed, mutable.
This is about the distribution of elemental resources.
The cardinal signs gather.
The fixed signs concentrate.
The mutable signs disperse.
This is the quarter divided by three.
The circle divided by twelve (zodiacal months).
The important points are the cusps.
The roots of the elements are the fixed signs, or kerubic signs: Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio, Taurus.
These are marked not by the solstices (or equinoxes) but by the half-quarter days.
This is the quarter divided by two.
The circle divided by eight.
The important points are the midpoints.
* * *
It seems highly likely that the manuscript employs the traditional categories of: hot, cold, moist, dry. There is evidence for this in illustrations.
Presumably, these qualities are communicated in the text in some way.
* * *
There is abundant evidence that the manuscript has, in parts, meteorological themes. This is somewhat neglected. No one wants to think the Voynich ms. might be about weather.
Meteorology is being understood as the effect of astrological cycles.
The astrology of the period was largely meteorological rather than natal or horary.
* * *
It has long been suggested that the series of glyphs may be numbers, or quantities.
I propose they represent divisions.
The subject of the language is: the year and its divisions.
* * *
Word breaks mark periods of time. Before the introduction of word breaks the text is an undifferentiated cycle of [o] glyphs.
Word breaks – which coincide with the introduction of the [q] glyph – the transition from the primitive cycle to the QOKEEDY cycle – cut off and isolate a distinct portion of the cycle.
The text is a continuous cycle: the word breaks isolate portions of the cycle.
The primordial word break is the solstice: stop, pause.
* * *
It is hard to find a suitable terminology to describe a cosmological language.
As for definitions, I’m calling the Voynich text: a unique fusion of linguistics and cosmology.
What I have called ‘paradigms’ are probably better described as CYCLES.
The Primitive Cycle
The QOKEEDY cycle.
The CHOLDAIIN cycle.
* * *
The solstices have extensive symbolism that might conceivably be encoded:
*A stop.
*The end.
*The beginning.
*A pause (as distinct from a stop).
*A turning point.
*Reversals.
*A foreshadowing of the year ahead.
*The resources of the year.
*Gates, doorways.
*The light lit in the darkness.
*The coincidence of opposites.
(For solstitial symbolism, see Coleridge's Christabel.)
R.B.
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