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Anatomy of Language: Frequencies

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Decrypted Secrets
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Abstract

Decryption as discussed so far, based on patterns, uses the skeleton of the language underlying the plaintext. The decryption strategy to be discussed now uses the internal organs. It aims at the stochastic laws of the language, particularly at character and multigram frequencies. This aspect of cryptography was already known to Leone Battista Alberti (Trattati in cifra, 1470). First of all, there is the Invariance Theorem 2: For all simple transpositions, frequencies of the individual characters in the text are invariant.

We can only say that the decryptment of any cipher even the simplest will at times include a number of wonderings.

Helen Fouché Gaines 1939

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Literatur

  1. In English, non-content words are the only ones not capitalized in headlines.

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  2. The numerous reprints and translations are abundant in typographic errors within these six lines. It can be seen how difficult the work of a printer is, if he lacks the feedback control of semantics.

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Bauer, F.L. (2000). Anatomy of Language: Frequencies. In: Decrypted Secrets. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04024-9_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04024-9_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-04026-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-04024-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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