The most frequent letters are (4 each). In English, the most frequent letters are E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R . The mismatch suggests either a substitution that does not preserve frequency (e.g., a polyalphabetic cipher) or a language other than English. 3. Hypotheses & Tests 3.1 Caesar (shift) Cipher A Caesar shift preserves letter frequencies, merely moving them along the alphabet. We tested all 25 possible shifts (excluding the trivial identity). None produced a recognizable English phrase or a pattern that matched a known language. Example results:
No shift yielded intelligible words, so a simple Caesar cipher is . 3.2 Atbash (reverse alphabet) Applying the Atbash substitution (A↔Z, B↔Y, …) gives: nyk tyz kbyr bldy msry allbwt almrbrb...
| Cipher word | Length | Possible English equivalents (based on pattern) | |-------------|--------|-------------------------------------------------| | nyk | 3 | (pattern: ABC) | | tyz | 3 | ? (ABC) | | kbyr | 4 | ? (ABCD) | | bldy | 4 | ? (ABCD) | | msry | 4 | ? (ABCD) | | allbwt | 6 | ? (AABCD?) – note the double “l” | | almrbrb | 7 | ? (ABCDCDC) – note the repeated “br” | The most frequent letters are (4 each)
Total letters: 30