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Copiale Cipher Decoded
eldavojohn writes "The 18th century Copiale Cipher has finally been decoded after a few minor breakthroughs were made by linguists versed in machine translation analyzing the document. From the article, 'Kevin Knight, a computer scientist at the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, collaborated with Beata Megyesi and Christiane Schaefer of Uppsala University in Sweden to decipher the first 16 pages. They turn out to be a detailed description of a ritual from a secret society that apparently had a fascination with eye surgery and ophthalmology.' The Roman characters and abstract symbols turned out to be a sort of encryption of the German language. The important clues they discovered were that the Roman characters were nulls (misleading junk) and the bogus looking symbols the actual text. Lastly, a colon would mean a duplication of the last consonant. A cipher falls to word-frequency analysis. Perhaps the researchers could start another 'weekend project' and tackle The Voynich Manuscript for us?" Update: 10/25 15:25 GMT by T : eldavojohn adds also a link to the final translation.
This link to the New York Times might work better for the article and since submitting it I have stumbled on the research page and its English translation.
My work here is dung.
From TFA: He also hopes to crack the last section of 'Kryptos' - an encrypted message carved into a sculpture at CIA headquarters - and the Voynich Manuscript, a mysterious medieval document.
Upon reading the translation, we've found the source of the kinghts who say *nee*!
Going by the translated text describing the apparently-ceremonial activity at the end of the summary's linked pdf, and given this is 1800's Germany, it seems much more likely it was produced by a rather more... well-known secret society of the timeframe than a mysterious band of rogue ophthalmologists...
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
...led in and to the table of the chief [Stargate Earth symbol], who asks him:
First, if he desires to become [mouth symbol].
Secondly, if he submits to the rules of the [dotted circle] and without rebelliousness suffer through the time of apprenticeship.
Thirdly, be silent about the [pentagram] of the [dotted circle] and furthermore be willing to offer himself to volunteer in the most committed way.
The candidate answers yes.
The chief [Stargate Earth symbol] then shall lead the candidate and the assembled [mouth symbol]s through a series of ordeals, then proclaim the candidate a fellow [mouth symbol]. He shall then remind the new [mouth symbol] of the ancient and secret traditions of the order, then urge the [mouth symbol]s to celebrate the new [mouth symbol]'s initiation with [beer stein symbol] and [ping-pong paddle symbol].
Come on, really? With so many old school gamers on Slashdot, you can't figure out the Voynich Manuscript?
Pages and pages in what could be a constructed language containing drawings of plants that don't exist, maps of stars and constellations that have no analog to our own Earthly observations, bullet point lists, recipes that reference the drawings in other sections of the book, and copious drawings of naked women...
Yeah, it's a source book, or perhaps a player's guide to some Medieval role playing game.
"Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."
Who controls the British Crown? Who keeps the metric system down?
We do. We do.
Who keeps Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We do. We do.
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star?
We do. We do.
Who robs cave fish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscar night?
We do. We do.
http://xkcd.com/593/
Not actually a ciphered text , but.
Any chance to use these techniques to finally be able to read the only written language of the Polynesia? (rongorongo from Rapa Nui)
The ability to read these "tables that speak" was lost due to the slavery of the Wise Elder that had the knowledge.