Graphemic-phonetic diachronic linguistic invariance of the frequency and of the Index of Coincidence as cryptanalytic tools

Abstract

Languages have inherent characteristics that make them their own and differentiated entities within their phyla and families. Even messages written in any language and later encrypted by cryptographic systems do not lose all of their characteristics, there remain aspects that help the cryptanalyst to recover them without knowing the decryption keys. For the characterization of the languages we will consider the frequencies of their graphemic and phonetic units and the Index of Coincidence, tools of fundamental utility in the field of Cryptography. Their diachronic invariance or survival over time in one language and their ability to discriminate against other languages will be analized. In order to do so, we will examine a total of 101 languages of which 261 texts have been taken. All of them are very diverse in style and time, taking us through a wide linguistic and temporal spectrum that will cover the period from the 6th century BC to the present day.