Common Prefixes and Suffixes

2017-03-14

The pattern of glyphs within words in the Voynich Manuscript shows a high degree of regularity, which I attempt to capture here, in Table 1 to Table 6. Certain prefixes and suffixes appear again and again. The tables below show the number of occurrences of words composed from some common prefixes and suffixes. These words occur just under 14,000 times in the manuscript, which contains altogether just over 37,000 words.

	-	al-	aly-	aim-	ain-	aiin-	aiiin-	air-	aiir-	am-	ar-	ary-	as-
-	0	253	29	6	90	457	41	73	23	87	348	24	5
d-	44	243	28	10	189	807	16	100	22	89	298	22	3
od-	5	13	2	0	18	57	4	5	2	4	24	0	0
qod-	7	7	0	1	11	41	2	3	0	3	11	1	0
chod-	7	7	3	0	6	39	0	2	0	1	13	0	0
shod-	10	3	0	1	4	22	0	0	0	1	0	1	0
yd-	2	3	0	0	3	19	0	2	0	0	2	0	1
k-	8	23	2	0	47	65	3	14	0	9	52	4	4
ok-	8	133	22	1	141	209	4	21	6	26	124	11	2
qok-	9	188	15	2	277	262	1	17	3	25	149	1	3
chok-	5	8	2	0	10	16	0	1	0	4	7	0	0
shok-	5	4	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	0	3	0	0
yk-	5	15	6	0	10	44	1	7	2	5	33	0	1
t-	5	19	1	1	16	41	1	13	0	5	43	0	1
ot-	11	137	19	2	95	150	1	21	4	47	139	5	4
qot-	8	58	5	0	64	75	2	6	0	12	63	1	2
chot-	4	9	0	0	4	8	0	1	0	5	11	0	0
shot-	2	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
yt-	1	18	6	1	12	41	0	3	1	12	26	1	1

Table 1: prefixes without l, suffixes beginning with a

For example, the word qokaiin occurs 262 times.

	-	-al	-aly	-aim	-ain	-aiin	-aiiin	-air	-aiir	-am	-ar	-ary	-as
-	0	253	29	6	90	457	41	73	23	87	348	24	5
ld-	3	0	1	0	2	3	1	0	0	0	5	0	0
old-	1	2	0	1	2	9	0	0	0	6	5	0	0
qold-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
chold-	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
shold-	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
yld-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
lk-	1	5	0	1	35	49	1	4	2	7	30	0	0
olk-	0	11	1	1	33	31	0	4	1	9	19	0	0
qolk-	0	0	0	0	5	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
cholk-	0	2	0	0	2	4	0	0	0	0	3	0	0
sholk-	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0
ylk-	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
lt-	1	3	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	1	1	2	0
olt-	0	2	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	1	3	0	0
qolt-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
cholt-	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	0
sholt-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
ylt-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Table 2: prefixes with l, suffixes beginning with a

	-	-ol	-oly	-oim	-oin	-oiin	-oiiin	-oir	-oiir	-om	-or	-ory	-os
-	0	528	50	0	4	33	9	2	3	21	354	17	29
d-	44	111	3	0	5	18	2	0	8	6	70	4	2
od-	5	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	8	1	0
qod-	7	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	1
chod-	7	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
shod-	10	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
yd-	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
k-	8	37	3	0	0	5	0	0	0	2	26	1	2
ok-	8	79	4	0	0	9	0	0	0	7	33	3	8
qok-	9	103	1	0	1	6	2	0	1	2	35	0	1
chok-	5	4	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	6	1	0
shok-	5	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
yk-	5	10	1	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	11	1	0
t-	5	47	2	0	0	2	0	0	0	1	23	1	4
ot-	11	81	10	0	1	3	0	0	0	1	42	4	4
qot-	8	47	1	0	0	3	0	0	1	1	29	0	1
chot-	4	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	0	0
shot-	2	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
yt-	1	9	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	1	14	1	1

Table 3: prefixes without l, suffixes beginning with o

	-	-ol	-oly	-oim	-oin	-oiin	-oiiin	-oir	-oiir	-om	-or	-ory	-os
-	0	528	50	0	4	33	9	2	3	21	354	17	29
ld-	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
old-	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0
qold-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
chold-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
shold-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
yld-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
lk-	1	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0
olk-	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	1	0
qolk-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
cholk-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
sholk-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
ylk-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
lt-	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
olt-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
qolt-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
cholt-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
sholt-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
ylt-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Table 4: prefixes with l, suffixes beginning with o

	-	-y	-ey	-eey	-eeey	-dy	-ed	-edy	-eed	-eedy
-	0	143	1	4	2	229	0	0	0	5
d-	44	229	1	7	1	2	1	2	0	2
od-	5	43	1	2	2	0	0	0	0	2
qod-	7	17	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	3
chod-	7	90	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
shod-	10	52	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
yd-	2	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
k-	8	22	14	44	11	0	1	44	1	53
ok-	8	88	63	174	27	1	2	116	3	103
qok-	9	139	105	308	26	4	7	265	15	301
chok-	5	39	6	10	2	0	1	3	1	3
shok-	5	8	4	3	1	0	0	0	0	0
yk-	5	18	7	54	6	1	0	19	1	27
t-	5	16	10	21	1	0	1	42	2	13
ot-	11	110	57	135	8	1	1	154	8	99
qot-	8	82	23	42	4	0	4	91	3	74
chot-	4	36	9	7	1	0	0	2	0	1
shot-	2	6	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
yt-	1	24	10	25	3	0	0	21	1	27

Table 5: prefixes without l, suffixes usually beginning with e

	-	-y	-ey	-eey	-eeey	-dy	-ed	-edy	-eed	-eedy
-	0	143	1	4	2	229	0	0	0	5
ld-	3	22	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
old-	1	24	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
qold-	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
chold-	0	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
shold-	0	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
yld-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
lk-	1	17	7	41	8	0	1	28	3	41
olk-	0	21	12	40	9	0	1	27	1	42
qolk-	0	4	1	6	1	0	0	1	0	7
cholk-	0	4	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	3
sholk-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
ylk-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
lt-	1	2	0	2	0	0	0	7	0	5
olt-	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	5	0	3
qolt-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
cholt-	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
sholt-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
ylt-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Table 6: prefixes with l, suffixes usually beginning with e

In each case, the number of occurrences of a word is fairly close to the product of the total number of words, the prefix frequency, and the suffix frequency, showing the probability of the suffix to be largely independent of the prefix to which it is concatenated.

However, as the frequency of a word very much depends on where in the manuscript it appears, it is better to analyse one section at a time when investigating this further. Also, it might be better to divide prefixes and suffixes into their component glyphs.