The Red Text, f67r

What, and where, is the paradigmatic line? 

An obvious contender is the single line in red (rubricated) on page f67r. 

sshey syshees qeykeey ykchey ykchey qokeochy oaiin okalar ol??

There is an excellent post from 2018 on the blog Voynich Views discussing the rubricated text on this page: see here.

It covers all the important points, and makes the astute observation that the brown text on the same page is very different to the red text. 

There are a few questions about transcription but the Voynich Views version seems well-founded, except that the final word [ol…] is partly lost. (Two lost glyphs?)

The hypothesis at Voynich Views is that the red text might be a different plaintext language than the rest of the manuscript. 

* * *

There is much to be said about this text, and about the other red text on the page, and about that page in general, but here I will just make one observation:

The line displays palindromic symmetry. 

In the middle of the line the word [ykchey] is repeated twice. 

ykchey | ykchey

Either side of this mid-point we find a distinct symmetry. 

The first words either side begin with [q]:

qeykeey ykchey | ykchey qokeochy

Then, beyond them, the words to the left begin with [s] and the words to the right begin with [o]. 

sshey syshees qeykeey ykchey

ykchey qokeochy oaiin okalar ol

We can set it out with two poles thus:

S

sshey syshees

qeykeey ykchey

ykchey qokeochy

oaiin okalar ol??

O

* * * 

Note the gestures of the plumes in the top group. Note how all the words in the central group end in [y]. Notice the distinction between c-curves and backslashes. There is much else to note. 

* * * 

I cannot find this symmetry discussed previously, but it is a striking feature of this important line of text. 

To my mind, explorations of this text ought to begin here.

I will present an analysis in future posts. 

The wider point of interest is the notion of a paradigmatic line – a template for, or standard, line of text.

Certainly, this line is outstanding. Other than suggestions it might be a foreign language, it is generally agreed it must be important, and possibly a key.   

R.B.