Solving the Voynich Manuscript For Dummies
You may already read the news about yet another claim in solving the mystery of the Voynich manuscript:
I made a sceptical comment about that:
Here, let me give you a small example.
We start with gibberish. To avoid accusations that we choose specially crafted backwards-worked gibberish, we will use the above tweet as a base.
Let voynichise it by dropping all vowels together with spaces and punctuation:
sthvnchmnscrptsslvdgnhhfwssmflxblrdrfwrdsnsntncwthshffldlttrsnwrdndnvwlsthnncnxtrcttxttfngbbrshndrschssmptn
Now we try to derive some meaning that would have nothing to do with the original text.
First, we split gibberish into some words, with the help of imagination:
sth vnc hmns crpts sl vd gn h h f ws s mfl x b l rd r fw r ds nsn t nc wth sh f fl dlt tr s nwrd nd nv wlst hnn cn xt rc t tx t t f ng b brsh ndrs chs s mpt n
Nothing much yet, right? Let put some vowels then:
south avionic humans carpets sale avoid genie he yeah fey wise is aimful axe buy lie rude or few are days insane too nice with shy if fly adult tour is unawared and nouveau wooliest hinny can exit race to taxi to it if young boy brush indoors choose say empty no
Now we slightly reorder words to make less awkward sentences and add couple more vowels:
South humans sale avionic carpets. Avoid a fey genie. Yeah, he is wise. Rude lie or buy aimful axe. Few insane days are too nice with a shy adult. If a fly tour is unawared and nouveau, a wooliest hinny can exit race to taxi it. If indoors, choose to brush a young boy. Say empty no.
Here we have it — a plausible text which sounds mysterious enough to fit beautifully into an ancient manuscript.
And we even haven’t shuffled letters or played with any translation yet — the sky is the limit there.
P.S. If you wonder, the picture on top is not of the Voynich manuscript. It is a page fragment from a legit ancient Arabic scientific book.
