resumptively There is a tiny linguistic gem northeast of the Veneto—an alpine village nestled near an important mountain pass. The inhabitants speak Tischlbong, a language related to Carinthian, a south-Bavarian dialect spoken by Slovenes who inhabit the mountains of the southern Tyrol and parts of the Slovenian Styria. As a distinct dialect, Carinthian dates back to about the end of the 13th century.

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The little village of Timau is known since the early 13th century, and was once part of the Lombardic-Venetian empire. Timau (once known as Teschelwang), was rebuilt after severe flood damage and became part of Italy in 1866. The younger people now speak Italian, but also generally understand Friulian, a Romance language with roots in Ladin.

It is the older people who are fluent in Tischlbong, a medieval dialect shared with Slovenian residents of the Tyrol. A similar situation exists in Lombardy—the Lombardic language is mostly spoken by the elders, with the younger generation moving over to Italian.

Talking Tischlbong

At first the Tischlbong language seems odd, but if you switch your brain to German and note the patterns, after a while it makes sense. Substitute “b” for “w”, sometimes “p” for “b”, and drop some of the endings and doubled letters, and one gets words like

• is da (ist die/is the); af (auf/of)
• Otobar (Oktober/October)
• ausar (her ausser/but for)
• varlosen (verlassen/leave)

which has some commonalities with Voynichese in its simplicity and emphasis on vowel forms.

Tischlbong caught my attention not only because of its unique characteristics of dropping characters and compressing words, but because the larger Carinthian-speaking population has multicultural connections to Graz, the Veneto, and Slovenia. Historically, the principality of Carantani extended as far as Salzburg, on the German border. Forerunners to the language may also have been spoken in Swabia.

Also noteworthy is that many of the inhabitants of Timau communicate with neighboring villages in Friulian, a language that includes words from Latin, Ladin, Venetian, Lombardic, and even ancient Celtic, while still retaining some elements of French grammar. Thus, Friulian adds a strong Romance component to the local culture along with a number of German words.

As examples, we see bon viaç (French bon voyage) for good journey, buine sere (Spanish/Italian) for good evening, and cràmar (from MH German Kramaere) for pedlar or haberdasher.

Records of these languages and villages begin to emerge in the middle medieval period, early enough to precede the Voynich Manuscript.

There are several places where combinations of languages happened naturally. One I’ve mentioned several times is the Burgundian corridor bordering Italy, Provençe, and Switzerland. I’ve also blogged about blended Latin and German, but wanted to include the eastern side of Lombardy, southern Tyrol, and the Veneto, as well, and to  mention Tischlbong and Friulian (and their sister dialects) in the context of blended languages.

Summary

The text on folio 116v of the Voynich Manuscript is somewhat Germanic on the top line, Romance on the second line (at least in structure and the balance of vowel sounds), Latin on the third line, and Voynichese and Germanic on the fourth line. If a resident in one of the borderland villages of mixed Germanic/Romance origin were writing something for his or her convenience, it might come out in a similar way.

As for the main text, it is very concise and sparse and, in some ways, reminded me of Tischlbong. I’m not assuming the VMS is natural language, but I do think it came from the mind of someone who liked to focus on what was important and who did not include a lot of unnecessary “extras”, and many Tischlbong words, when compared to their German analogs, defy convention and include only what is necessary to understand them and no more.

J.K. Petersen

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