# Voynich manuscript finally deciphered? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 10, 2018, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113 "2018-09-10T17:54:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/21 "2018-09-17T17:49:31Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > How difficult would it be for modern scientists to decipher a book written in a dead language? > > I would assume you put it all in a computer and it determines which words appear how often, what the alphabet is, etc. > > But is this a difficult thing to do? If not, what makes this manuscript so much harder than other dead languages? > > Also if it was written by a Spaniard why is it in some strange language nobody has heard of? Many attempts have been made to use computer analysis to decipher the MS. None have had any success. [Here](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=791299) is one of many previous threads on the MS which includes discussion of a previous decipherment that concluded that it was in Hebrew or a related language. Another analysis has concluded that the text has some meaning, that is, it is not just random. However, no one has succeeded in matching it to a known language that results in a translation that makes any sense. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/22 "2018-09-17T20:56:51Z")
[Obligatory XKCD](https://www.xkcd.com/593/) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/23 "2018-09-17T21:05:05Z")
I must recommend the [Codex Seraphinianus](http://www.openculture.com/2017/09/an-introduction-to-the-codex-seraphinianus-the-strangest-book-ever-published.html), which may be a spoof, send-up, or homage to the Voynich Manuscript. One wonders what scholars 500 years from today would make of this if only one copy survived.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/24 "2018-09-18T07:57:37Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > A totally pointless and irrelevant objection. Not one of the women in the MS look as if they are Mexican/indigenous, which is my main point. Can you point to one single illustration that appears to be of Mexican indigenous origin? If not, my point stands. I wasn’t disputing that the “deciphering” of the code is wrong, merely stating that your interpretation of that particular picture is about as good as the “decipherers” interpretation of the botanics. Which it is. And I’ll offer you a trade: you come not-murder these IT folks here who insist in treating their users as if they were babies (ass-wiping included) and I spend a couple of days looking over the Voynich. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2018, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/25 "2018-11-03T04:13:46Z")
Well, the code has been cracked once again. [This time it is in Turkish](https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/voynich-manuscript-code-0010859). ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2018, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/26 "2018-11-03T04:36:06Z")
Some day in the distant future, scholars will have a field-day with my kid’s home-made “comic books”. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2018, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/27 "2018-11-03T04:59:12Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Well, the code has been cracked once again. [This time it is in Turkish](https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/voynich-manuscript-code-0010859). Amazingly, the researcher in question is Turkish himself! I wonder how long it will be until the manuscript has been conclusively identified as being in every possible language on Earth.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2018, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/28 "2018-11-03T11:04:41Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Well, the code has been cracked once again. [This time it is in Turkish](https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/voynich-manuscript-code-0010859). In other news on that site, [the Inca structures were built by aliens](https://www.ancient-origins.net/forum/incas-mystery-interlocking-walls-006544). Also ads for “Atlantis found” books. Wake up, sheeple! ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/29 "2019-05-15T16:51:52Z")
And [yet another claim](https://m.phys.org/news/2019-05-bristol-academic-voynich-code-century-old.html) to have deciphered it, this one apparently peer reviewed. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/30 "2019-05-15T17:26:44Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > My preferred explanation is that it is a work of [“outsider art”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsider_art) by someone who was learned but mentally ill. > > This would explain why the plants correspond to no known species, the elaborate astrological illustrations, and the obsessive illustration of hundreds of naked women. The text is in some private invented language and alphabet, which would give it the appearance of a real language but make it completely undecipherable. The hidden meaning existed only in the creator’s mind. [And just to emphasize that outsider artists can indeed create amazing works, look at the man who was practically the definition of the term, Henry Darger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger): > [@](#): > > Henry Joseph Darger Jr. (/ˈdɑːrɡər/; c. April 12, 1892 – April 13, 1973) was a reclusive American writer and artist who worked as a hospital custodian in Chicago, Illinois.[sup][1][/sup] He has become famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called _The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion_, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story.[sup][2][/sup] A single man, working alone over a period of decades, created a richly detailed illustrated novel over 15,000 pages long. The Voynich Manuscript is fewer than 300 pages. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/31 "2019-05-15T17:49:20Z")
With respect to the link **Commasense** gave, either it is a monumental breakthrough or a researcher with an overactive imagination. Given enough material, it is possible to match anything with anything, and this appears to be what he has done. Time will tell if this is anything more than matching Nostradamus’ “predictions” to actual events. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/32 "2019-05-15T19:16:14Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > And [yet another claim](https://m.phys.org/news/2019-05-bristol-academic-voynich-code-century-old.html) to have deciphered it, this one apparently peer reviewed. It seems like a break through to me. We know so little about the proto-Romance language. I hope funding is secured to properly interpret the entire document. It would become evident if this new approach actually works. I’m impressed with the words in proto-Romance that are still found today. That’s what you’d expect to find in a precursor to Romance languages. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/33 "2019-05-15T19:26:48Z")
What is the next logical step? Can limited funding be found to research and test this approach to interpretation of the manuscript? How do they get independent verification of the work? I know this early article is peer reviewed. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/34 "2019-05-15T19:46:38Z")
The next logical step is to roll your eyes at this hyperbolic bombast and wait until this thread is bumped for the next person who decoded the manuscript. (Given past patterns, it should be only a few months to wait.) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/35 "2019-05-15T20:19:32Z")
> **[The Language and Writing System of MS408 (Voynich) Explained](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02639904.2019.1599566)** > > Manuscript MS408 (Voynich) is unusual in a number of respects: 1. It uses an extinct language. 2. Its alphabet uses a number of unfamiliar symbols alongside more familiar symbols. 3. It includes no... That’s the actual article, and seems legit. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/36 "2019-05-15T20:34:39Z")
Wouldn’t proto-Romance predate the manuscript by 1000 years or so??? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/37 "2019-05-15T21:07:36Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02639904.2019.1599566](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02639904.2019.1599566) > > That’s the actual article, and seems legit. It is the same damn thing as every other “decoding”–someone claims that they are a sooper genius\* who has discovered a few words, then says that someone else needs to come along and do the other 99.9 percent of the translating. Same circus, different clown. - “Although the purpose and meaning of the manuscript had eluded scholars for over a century, it took Research Associate Dr. Gerard Cheshire two weeks, using a combination of lateral thinking and ingenuity, to identify the language and writing system of the famously inscrutable document.” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/38 "2019-05-15T22:06:25Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > It is the same damn thing as every other “decoding”–someone claims that they are a sooper genius\* who has discovered a few words, then says that someone else needs to come along and do the other 99.9 percent of the translating. Same circus, different clown. > > - “Although the purpose and meaning of the manuscript had eluded scholars for over a century, it took Research Associate Dr. Gerard Cheshire two weeks, using a combination of lateral thinking and ingenuity, to identify the language and writing system of the famously inscrutable document.” He actually translated quite a bit, if you read the article. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/39 "2019-05-15T22:19:53Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02639904.2019.1599566](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02639904.2019.1599566) > > That’s the actual article, and seems legit. The author does not seem terribly familiar with the historical development from Latin to the modern Romance languages. He seems to be matching words at random to the modern languages, without any attempt to contextualize the languge of the manuscript itself. On the other hand, the argument about the script seems like a good one. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113/40 "2019-05-15T22:46:34Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > It is the same damn thing as every other “decoding”–someone claims that they are a sooper genius\* who has discovered a few words, then says that someone else needs to come along and do the other 99.9 percent of the translating. Same circus, different clown. > > - “Although the purpose and meaning of the manuscript had eluded scholars for over a century, it took Research Associate Dr. Gerard Cheshire two weeks, using a combination of lateral thinking and ingenuity, to identify the language and writing system of the famously inscrutable document.” Yeah, color me skeptical, as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voynich-manuscript-finally-deciphered/821113.md?page=3)