The Voynich Manuscript is Written in Natural Language: The Pahlavi Hypothesis

Abstract: The late medieval Voynich Manuscript (VM) has resisted decryption and was considered a meaningless hoax or an unsolvable cipher. Here, we provide evidence that the VM is written in natural language by establishing a relation of the Voynich alphabet and the Iranian Pahlavi script. Many of the Voynich characters are upside-down versions of their Pahlavi counterparts, which may be an effect of different writing directions. Other Voynich letters can be explained as ligatures or departures from Pahlavi with the intent to cope with known problems due to the stupendous ambiguity of Pahlavi text. While a translation of the VM text is not attempted here, we can confirm the Voynich-Pahlavi relation at the character level by the transcription of many words from the VM illustrations and from parts of the main text. Many of the transcribed words can be identified as terms from Zoroastrian cosmology which is in line with the use of Pahlavi script in Zoroastrian communities from medieval times.