Voynich Manuscript may be structured imitation of medieval texts
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Researchers using large language models determined the enigmatic Voynich Manuscript exhibits characteristics of a constructed language, rather than a natural one.
The analysis, which combined probabilistic modeling, phonetic decomposition, and image analysis, suggests the manuscript’s symbols function as letters, despite word lengths resembling syllable-based languages. Phonetic patterns align more closely with languages like Hebrew and Arabic than with Indo-European languages, indicating a non-European influence.
The team also found extremely low probabilities for repeated letter sequences at the beginning of words, a feature suggesting deliberate imitation of natural language structures. Image analysis linked the manuscript’s plant illustrations to those found in medieval herbals from the Mediterranean region, specifically works by Pseudo-Apuleius. This supports the idea that the manuscript intentionally mimics the style of medieval medicinal books.
These findings bolster the “pastiche hypothesis”, that the Voynich Manuscript is a deliberately constructed system drawing on existing linguistic and botanical knowledge. The researchers demonstrate how combining probabilistic methods with artificial intelligence can offer new insights into undeciphered historical documents.
