Significant progress in solving the riddles of the Voynich manuscript has apparently been made—and the theory is that it's from New Spain and written in a forgotten Mesoamerican language or dialect. In the past, people have argued that the botany depicted in the manuscript was too poorly-done and clearly depicted the non-existent—but lo and behold, many of the plants depicted match items in the Codex Osuna from the 1560s. So much for eurocentrism!
press release
paper
And here we were assuming that Cortez just burned books full of hieroglyphs.
Any bets on language family?
press release
paper
And here we were assuming that Cortez just burned books full of hieroglyphs.
Any bets on language family?
Holy mother of...a cryptological legend reveals cracks...
Given this, and if the info on names given is reasonably accurate (ie general assignments if not all the specifics)...I'm throwing out a guess of an out-there dialect of Nahuatl. Very possible that's wrong tho.
Should link this to vlad when he shows, maybe he can shed a bit of light on it.
The plants, animals, and minerals identified so far are primarily distributed from Texas, west to California, and south to Nicaragua, indicating a botanic garden somewhere in central Mexico.
Given this, and if the info on names given is reasonably accurate (ie general assignments if not all the specifics)...I'm throwing out a guess of an out-there dialect of Nahuatl. Very possible that's wrong tho.
Should link this to vlad when he shows, maybe he can shed a bit of light on it.
Actually, I found his criticisms pretty solid; I think he said they reported loanwords, but didn't even have the script deciphered. Pretty sketchy.
... That being said, I haven't even read the damn thing; I just thought it looked promising at first glance.
... That being said, I haven't even read the damn thing; I just thought it looked promising at first glance.
They were upfront about not being linguists, and said that their work needed a lot of checking. That said, yeah they apparently didn't do anything more than guess at meanings; and the talk of loanwords from Taino (Caribbean islands) and Mixtec (betonèd highlanders), which according to vlad have no reason to be in a Nahuatl text (the objections hold equally well for every language possibility, really, except Spanish, which probably have already been deciphered).
But so long as they're close to or indeed right about the plants illustrated being New World-ese, this is still a pretty huge breakthrough.
But so long as they're close to or indeed right about the plants illustrated being New World-ese, this is still a pretty huge breakthrough.
There's already been some progress made on the Voynich manuscript — there are two separate 'languages', that much is known. (Though they may be different hands / conventions of the same language — my guess is two different ligature conventions, since the 'gallows' are the only ones with significantly different distributions between the two hands.)
I vaguely recall hearing something about positional frequency: some letters can only appear initially, and some only finally. Tone letters? But no, Nahuatl doesn't have tone. And the word lengths aren't right — unless vowels weren't written...?
The thing has been 'decrypted' as everything from Latin to Manchu (no, really, Manchu) so this is probably as bullshit as the others — but are there South American languages with frequent reduplication and words of about the right length?
Actually, no, it's even more implausible; the vellum has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century — a century before the Codex Osuna, and before the discovery of the New World — and the paints are apparently those used in Europe at the time. Though they're at least aware of the problem:
There's also French month names elsewhere in it.
Relevant:
Any ideas on the Michiton Oladabas page?
I vaguely recall hearing something about positional frequency: some letters can only appear initially, and some only finally. Tone letters? But no, Nahuatl doesn't have tone. And the word lengths aren't right — unless vowels weren't written...?
The thing has been 'decrypted' as everything from Latin to Manchu (no, really, Manchu) so this is probably as bullshit as the others — but are there South American languages with frequent reduplication and words of about the right length?
Actually, no, it's even more implausible; the vellum has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century — a century before the Codex Osuna, and before the discovery of the New World — and the paints are apparently those used in Europe at the time. Though they're at least aware of the problem:
How was the parchment, which may date to animals killed in the first half of the 15th century, used over a full century later for this manuscript?37 How did putative medieval German script on folio 166v (the so-called “Michiton Olababas page”) get integrated into this manuscript? Was this a case of European parchment being repurposed?
There's also French month names elsewhere in it.
Relevant:
What they didn’t consider: the demonstrably 15th century vellum in play (radiocarbon dating), 15th century digit shapes (in the quiration), 15th century number forms (in the quiration), 15th century contractions (on the zodiac roundel hand) and 15th century parallel hatching (in several drawings). So, that’s evidence from the domains of codicology, palaeography, and Art History immediately consigned to their great big wastepaper basket of Not Examined Here Stuff.
Any ideas on the Michiton Oladabas page?