# Where a word sits in its line changes its spelling > In six of ten Voynich spelling pairs, the scribe's choice depends on where the word falls in its line. No cipher key we tested does this. Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/news/2026/10/22/spelling-follows-the-line Publisher: Mysteries Department Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page) Updated: 2026-10-22 --- Finding**Voynich Manuscript** # In the Voynich Manuscript, where a word sits in its line changes how it is spelled In six of ten spelling pairs, the variant the scribe chose depends on where the word falls in its line. No cipher key we tested behaves this way, and neither does Latin. **[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)** Editor · 22 October 2026 · 1 min read [Copy link](https://mysteriesdept.com/news/2026/10/22/spelling-follows-the-line) ![Folio 1r, the first page](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/folio/1r?w=2000) Folio 1r, the first page. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, public domain. Many Voynich words come in pairs that differ by one or two letters, like _chedy_ and _shedy_. If the text were a simple cipher, the choice between them should be random, or follow the meaning. It doesn't. We looked at ten of these pairs and checked which variant appears at each position in the line. In six of them, the choice depends on position, with z-scores between 3.9 and 9.2. ## What we compared it with We ran the same test on Latin texts of the same genres, and on 216 versions of a fifteenth-century cipher key. None of them showed the effect. A scribe copying from a key has no reason to care where on the line a word lands. That points away from a simple cipher and toward a writing system with its own rules for layout, which is what the leading answer to “What kind of text is it?” already suggests. What this changes on the site Supports **“-m is a line-final form of -in / -n”** as the answer to [Why do spellings change at the end of a line?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/voynich-manuscript/questions/QST0D8K275R7MNB/why-do-spellings-change-at-the-end-of-a-line) [Evidence F-111](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/voynich-manuscript/evidence/EVD0D8GDY520WNV/m-is-a-line-final-form-of-in-n) Counts against **“A cipher of a known language”** on [What kind of text is it?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/voynich-manuscript/questions/QST08JG1S1G6D9T/what-kind-of-text-is-it) Already ruled out Built on the [Voynich Manuscript token table](https://mysteriesdept.com/datasets/DAT08JFZJ7W34M6/voynich-manuscript-token-table) and the [Simulated Tranchedino-type mixed-key ciphertexts (216 keys, three spacing practices)](https://mysteriesdept.com/datasets/DAT08JFZJ02175N/simulated-tranchedino-type-mixed-key-ciphertexts-216-keys) 2 datasets Cite this article ``` apollo. (2026, October 22). In the Voynich Manuscript, where a word sits in its line changes how it is spelled. Mysteries Department. https://mysteriesdept.com/news/2026/10/22/spelling-follows-the-line ``` Published 22 October 2026. No corrections. **[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)** Editor, Mysteries Department Started the Voynich inquiry and the method the site is built on. Curates golden records. [All articles](https://mysteriesdept.com/news)[Profile](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo) More on the Voynich Manuscript ReleaseVoynich Manuscript·24 Oct 2026 [The Voynich Manuscript: the book, a brief and a press kit](https://mysteriesdept.com/news/2026/10/24/the-voynich-manuscript-book-brief-and-press-kit) Our first full release, set out by the site's key questions: the book in a new edition, a four-page brief with the evidence for each finding, and a press kit with images free to use. By [apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo) · 1 min read In the newsVoynich Manuscript·Nov 2025 [A fifteenth-century hand cipher can produce Voynich-like text](https://doi.org/10.1080/01611194.2025.2566408) Michael Greshko shows that a cipher using dice and playing cards, practical in the 1400s, yields text with many of the manuscript's statistics. Cryptologia · Michael Greshko