Editing Voynich manuscript (section)

=== Natural language ===
Statistical analysis of the text reveals patterns similar to those of [[natural language]]s.<ref name=Bowern /> For instance, the [[Entropy (information theory)|word entropy]] (about 10&nbsp;bits per word) is similar to that of English or Latin texts.<ref name=Landini-2001>{{cite journal |last=Landini |first=Gabriel |date=October 2001 |title=Evidence of linguistic structure in the Voynich manuscript using spectral analysis |journal=[[Cryptologia]] |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=275–295 |doi=10.1080/0161-110191889932 |s2cid=28332554}}</ref>
Amancio ''et al.'' (2013)<ref name=Amancio-etal-2013 /> argued that the Voynich manuscript "is mostly compatible with natural languages and incompatible with random texts".<ref name=Amancio-etal-2013>{{cite journal |last1=Amâncio |first1=Diego R. |last2=Altmann |first2=Eduardo G. |last3=Rybski |first3=Diego |last4=Oliveira |first4=Osvaldo N. Jr. |last5=da&nbsp;Costa |first5=Luciano F. |date=July 2013 |title=Probing the statistical properties of unknown texts: Application to the Voynich manuscript |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=95–107 |arxiv=1303.0347 |doi=10.1080/01611190601133539 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...867310A |pmid=23844002 |pmc=3699599 |url=http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0067310 |access-date = 8 June 2016|archive-date = 29 November 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141129101813/http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0067310 |url-status = live}}</ref>

The linguist [[Jacques Guy]] once suggested that the Voynich manuscript text could be some little-known natural language, written [[plaintext]] with an invented alphabet. He suggested Chinese in jest, but later comparison of word length statistics with Vietnamese and Chinese made him view that hypothesis seriously.<ref name=Neidhart-2002-11-13>{{cite news |first=Christoph |last=Neidhart |date=13 November 2002 |title="Voynich-Manuskript" das grosse Rätselbuch |language=de |trans-title=The big puzzle-book |magazine=[[Die Weltwoche]] |type=interview |place=Zürich, CH |url=https://www.weltwoche.ch/ausgaben/2002-46/interview/das-grosse-raetselbuch-die-weltwoche-ausgabe-462002.html |access-date=22 December 2019 |archive-date=23 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223033041/https://www.weltwoche.ch/ausgaben/2002-46/interview/das-grosse-raetselbuch-die-weltwoche-ausgabe-462002.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
In many language families of East and Central Asia, mainly [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]] ([[Chinese language|Chinese]], [[Standard Tibetan|Tibetan]], and [[Burmese language|Burmese]]), [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] ([[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], [[Khmer language|Khmer]], etc.) and possibly [[Tai languages|Tai]] ([[Thai language|Thai]], [[Lao language|Lao]], etc.), [[morphemes]] generally have only one [[syllable]].<ref name=Hockett-1954>{{cite journal |first=Charles F. |last=Hockett |year=1951 |title=Review of John de&nbsp;Francis (1950) ''Nationalism and language reform in China'' |journal=Language |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=439–445 |doi=10.2307/409788 |jstor=409788 |quote=...&nbsp;an overwhelmingly high percentage of Chinese segmental morphemes (bound or free) consist of a single syllable; no more than perhaps five percent are longer than one syllable, and only a small handful are shorter. In this sense — in the sense of the favored canonical shape of morphemes — Chinese is indeed monosyllabic.}}</ref>

Child (1976),<ref name=Child-1976 /> a linguist of Indo-European languages for the U.S. [[National Security Agency]], proposed that the manuscript was written in a "hitherto unknown North Germanic dialect".<ref name=Child-1976>{{cite journal |last=Child |first=James R. |date=Summer 1976 |title=The Voynich manuscript revisited |volume=XXI |issue=3 |journal=NSA Technical Journal}}</ref>
He identified in the manuscript a "skeletal syntax several elements of which are reminiscent of certain Germanic languages", while the content is expressed using "a great deal of obscurity".<ref name=Child-2007>{{cite web |last=Child |first=James R. |year=2007 |title=Again, the Voynich manuscript |url=http://voynichmanuscript.net/voynichpaper.pdf |archive-date=16 June 2009|url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616205410/http://voynichmanuscript.net/voynichpaper.pdf |access-date=8 June 2016}}</ref>

In January&nbsp;2014, Professor Stephen Bax of the [[University of Bedfordshire]] made public his research into using "bottom up" methodology to understand the manuscript. His method involved looking for and translating [[proper noun]]s, in association with relevant illustrations, in the context of other languages of the same time period. A paper he posted online offers tentative translation of 14&nbsp;characters and 10&nbsp;words.<ref>{{cite press release |title=600&nbsp;year old mystery manuscript decoded by University of Bedfordshire professor |date=14 February 2014 |publisher=[[University of Bedfordshire]] |url=http://www.beds.ac.uk/news/2014/february/600-year-old-mystery-manuscript-decoded-by-university-of-bedfordshire-professor |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=15 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160615200919/http://www.beds.ac.uk/news/2014/february/600-year-old-mystery-manuscript-decoded-by-university-of-bedfordshire-professor |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite report |last=Bax |first=Stephen |date=1 January 2014 |title=A proposed partial decoding of the Voynich script |website=StephenBax.net |url=http://stephenbax.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Voynich-a-provisional-partial-decoding-BAX.pdf |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=21 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521160342/http://stephenbax.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Voynich-a-provisional-partial-decoding-BAX.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Breakthrough over 600&nbsp;year-old mystery manuscript |date=18 February 2014 |website=[[BBC News Online]] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-26198471 |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304055622/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-26198471 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=British academic claims to have made a breakthrough in his quest to unlock the 600&nbsp;year-old secrets of the mysterious Voynich manuscript |date=20 February 2014 |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/british-academic-claims-to-have-made-a-breakthrough-in-his-quest-to-unlock-the-600yearold-secrets-of-the-mysterious-voynich-manuscript-9141484.html |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=25 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925234400/http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/british-academic-claims-to-have-made-a-breakthrough-in-his-quest-to-unlock-the-600yearold-secrets-of-the-mysterious-voynich-manuscript-9141484.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
He suggested the text is a treatise on nature written in a natural language, rather than a code,<ref name=Bowern /> but no further work has been done since Bax's death in 2017.<ref name=Rigby-2014-02-18 />

[[Deep learning]] has been proposed as a computing method for analysing language families to which the manuscript's alphabet could be related. In 2023, researchers used deep learning algorithms to demonstrate that, out of a representative sample of seven ancient Indian scripts, the strongest resemblance was to [[Khojki]].<ref name=Zelinka-etal-2022>{{cite journal |last1=Zelinka |first1=Ivan |last2=Lara |first2=Melvin |last3=Windsor |first3=Leah C. |last4=Lozi |first4=René |title=Softcomputing in identiﬁcation of the origin of Voynich manuscript by comparison with ancient dialects |journal=Applied Soft Computing |date=May 2023 |volume=138 |issue=C |doi=10.1016/j.asoc.2023.110217 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369341200 |access-date=19 March 2024|doi-access=free |hdl=10084/152269 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Tucker & Talbert (2014)<ref name=Tucker-Talbert-2014 /> published a paper claiming a positive identification of 37&nbsp;plants, 6&nbsp;animals, and one mineral referenced in the manuscript to plant drawings in the ''[[Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis]]'' or Badianus manuscript, an Aztec [[herbal]] written in 1552.<ref name=Tucker-Talbert-2014>{{cite journal |author1=Tucker, Arthur O. |author2=Talbert, Rexford H. |date=Winter 2013 |title=A preliminary analysis of the botany, zoology, and mineralogy of the Voynich manuscript |journal=HerbalGram |issue=100 |pages=70–75 |url=http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue100/hg100-feat-voynich.html?ts=1390369202&signature=402e6a559a0e56b5343a6f4d002492fa |access-date=8 June 2016 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140122054819/http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue100/hg100-feat-voynich.html?ts=1390369202&signature=402e6a559a0e56b5343a6f4d002492fa |archive-date=22 January 2014 |via=archive.today}}
{{webarchive
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Together with the presence of [[atacamite]] in the paint, they argue that the plants were from colonial [[New Spain]] and the text represented [[Nahuatl]], the language of the [[Aztecs]]. They date the manuscript to between 1521 (the date of the [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire]]) and ''circa'' 1576. These dates contradict the earlier radiocarbon date of the vellum and other elements of the manuscript. However, they argued that the vellum could have been stored and used at a later date. The analysis has been criticised by other Voynich manuscript researchers,<ref>{{cite web |author=Pelling, N. |author-link=Nick Pelling |date=14 January 2014 |title=A brand new new world / Nahuatl Voynich manuscript theory&nbsp;... |website=Cipher Mysteries |url=http://www.ciphermysteries.com/2014/01/21/brand-new-new-world-nahuatl-voynich-manuscript-theory |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=5 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505041854/http://www.ciphermysteries.com/2014/01/21/brand-new-new-world-nahuatl-voynich-manuscript-theory |url-status=live}}</ref>
who argued that a skilled forger could construct plants that coincidentally have a passing resemblance to theretofore undiscovered existing plants.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Grossman |first=Lisa |date=3 February 2014 |title=Mexican plants could break code on gibberish manuscript |magazine=[[New Scientist]] |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24987-mexican-plants-could-break-code-on-gibberish-manuscript.html |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=23 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223044009/http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24987-mexican-plants-could-break-code-on-gibberish-manuscript.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
Nahuatl specialist M.P.&nbsp;Hansen has rejected their proposed readings as pure nonsense.<ref>{{cite web |last=Pharao Hansen |first=Magnus |date=25 December 2018 |title=Was the ''Voynich manuscript'' written in Nahuatl? |website=nahuatlstudies.blogspot.com |url=http://nahuatlstudies.blogspot.com/2018/12/was-voynich-manuscript-written-in.html |access-date=17 August 2022|archive-date=7 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707132025/https://nahuatlstudies.blogspot.com/2018/12/was-voynich-manuscript-written-in.html |url-status=live}}
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