Linguistic notes

brogine · June 10, 2007 11:38AM

Linguistic notes...if anyone is interested. Can't figure out how to get the Greek alphabet on my computer, so i visited the Greek Consulate for translation help with my 20 drachma. 'George I, and the denomination were easy (it's interesting that they use A, alpha, for 'first'), but I couldn't figure out the rest: 'King of the Greeks', obverse, 'Kingdom of Greece', reverse. The words for 'king' and 'kingdom' begin with beta - alpha - sigma -iota - lambda, and I got to wondering if there were English words based on that cognate. I was surprised to find three I would never have thought of: basil (the herb), basilica and basilisk. So the next time you're eating lizard alla pesto in church...

Sapyx · June 10, 2007 12:50PM

<< <i>it's interesting that they use A, alpha, for 'first'... >>

You're familiar with Roman numerals, right? The ancient Greeks had an alphabet-based numeral system for writing numbers, much as the Romans had - except each letter stood for a number. The system is outlined on this Wikipedia page. In modern Greek usage, an apostrophe is used to denote "this is a number", not a word or abbreviation. On the coins, the apostrophe is merged with a full stop, to create an exclamation-mark or upside-down semicolon shape. Thus, George I is written GEORGIOS A!.

brogine · June 11, 2007 5:11AM

I see that now...many thanks

JoesMaName · June 11, 2007 11:07PM

Good stuff, it fell squarly into the catagory: Things I should know but didn't.

Thanks to both of you.

500Bay · June 16, 2007 5:17AM

If you use MS Word, at the top of the page go to "Insert"
Then "symbol"
Basic Greek letters are listed on the symbols to be inserted.

brogine · June 19, 2007 5:46AM

Thanks. This is the funnest! Following are the inscriptions on the obverse and reverse, respectively:

ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΣ Α! ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ ('Exclamation point' actually an apostrophe over a period. See Sapyx above.,)

ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΝ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ 20 ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ

Oh, the name Basil, too .... I mean as a cognate of βασιλευσ, naturellement.

>> Coming soon: Cyrillic and Arabic. Yeah, right....

newsman · June 19, 2007 6:26AM

Never mind. Didn't work.

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