[sedy] is an interesting character string. It does not appear as a stand-alone word, and only appears about fifteen times otherwise, always as a suffix.
It has a very specific distribution.
All (but one) instances are found in the zodiac and nymph pages, a band of a dozen pages between f72 and f85r.
Only one case, on f56r, is outside this group.
The greatest number of cases are found on f84r which has three words with the [-sedy] suffix.
The most common word is [csedy] - six cases, including on 84r.
Three of the zodiac pages feature [-sedy] words: Virgo 72v2, Aries 73r and Sagittarius, 73v. (Although some cases are debateable.)
In form, by my account, it is a variation on [-eedy], the suffix of the QOKEEDY paradigm. The initial [e] has taken an ascending plume and become [s].
* * *
The string is of particular interest because it appears to be deliberately prefigured in the centre of the wheel on page f69r.
We find a six-pointed star with glyphs.
What is notable is that one of the glyphs in the star is a bigram - [ed]. The glyphs (as I read them) are:
d o l s ed y
These glyphs combine our two paradigms in a typical way, with a prefix from CHOLDAIIN and a suffix from QOKEEDY. [dol] + [sedy] = CHOL + EEDY
But there is very definitely a bigram - [ed] - included in the set. The second [d] in the series is accompanied by a [e].
This, as far as I know, is the only explicit indication of bigrams, dual letters, being used as the building blocks of the text. It is clear that [ed] is to be regarded as a single unit here. There is the strong suggestion that the bigram [ed] is used in the compilation of words, if this is the implication of the letter wheel.
And thus the word [sedy] is suggested.
The full sequence of glyphs [dolsedy] is not a Voynich word. [dol] is a relatively common form - over 100 cases as a stand-alone word.
But the arrangement insists upon the string [s - ed - y]. Again: there is no such word. There is an abundance of [chedy] and [shedy] throughout the text, but not [sedy].
The bigram [ed] is especially notable because, ordinarily, we would assume [dy] to be a bigram.
Ordinarily, we would parse [sedy] as [se-dy] because [dy] is such a prolific suffix in Voynichese. But the parsing is [s-ed-y]. The [ed], not the [dy], is a single unit.
* * *
The string, as I say, is only found 15 times, and only in a very small band of folio pages - basically, we find it confined to pages concerning nymphs.
In the zodiac pages we find it as 'labels' adjacent to a nymph and a star. Then we find it in the running text on pages concerning the terrestrial (rather than zodiacal) nymphs. It appears to be a string of glyphs that in some way concerns the nymphs.
It is a case where a particular string of glyphs, or a word, seems to be specifically connected to a certain subject matter.
Again: the string is a variant on the paradigmatic form [-eedy]. It seems that if you change the first [e] into an [s] - and if you insist it is followed by the bigram [ed] - then it in some way concerns the nymphs: the celestial nymphs of the zodiac, and their terrestrial counter-parts and their hydrology.
It is the mutation of an [e] into an [s] that produces this.
It might tell us something about the nature and function of the glyph [s].
* * *
I suggest, in fact, that this string might be a variant of a triple [eee].
As we know, [e] tends to extend into sequences of two or three (or more). The [ee] of the paradigm QOKEEDY is sometimes (even often) extended to [eee].
The most common form of [-sedy] is the word [csedy] which makes the string look like a series of [e] glyphs.
So too does [scsedy] on 76v.
Even clearer is the word [esedy] on 56r, the one page (a herbal page) with this string not concerning the nymphs.
We need to see these words and strings in their Voynich characters.
These are strings of c-curve shaped glyphs, which is to say strings of [e] glyphs. One of them has been modified into an [s].
The intention, though, I suspect, is to extend the string of [e] glyphs.
But rather than [ee] becoming [eee], in this case it becomes [se], as if the plume of the [s] is the extra [e].
(An [s], after all - even in English - is formed of two c-curves, one facing left and one facing right, as the EVA attribution acknowledges.)
* * *
The circle on page 69r is - on my reading - meteorological.
Be that as it may, it shows the circle divided into 45 parts. That is 45 x 8 = 360.
There are other sub-divisions shown, but in the centre is a six-pointed star with the arrangement of free-standing glyphs - one of the "key-like" sequences found in the work.
How the glyphs relate to the circle, and what the diagram as a whole might mean, are open questions.
There is the suggestion, though - because of the distribution of [-sedy] - that the diagram might concern the relation between the celestial and terrestrial orders (personified as nymphs).
The diagram itself gives us the string [-sedy], which then has a very particular and topic-specific application in the text.
R.B.
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