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Re: Roman numerals - base 10?
Posted:
Jan 7, 1999 1:52 AM
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In article <915664459.2197.1.nnrp-12.d4e4bca7@news.demon.co.uk>,
John R Ramsden <jr@redmink.demon.co.uk> wrote:
)
)In Latin it is a fair bet that when there is more than one word
)with the same meaning, one of them derives from Etruscan.
)This was a language spoken in central Italy (Etruria, now
)called Tuscany) up to about the time of Christ.
)
)One example is the (at least) two ways of saying "and", namely
)"et" or a suffix of "que" as in SPQR. The word "que" is Etruscan.
Could you give some examples? I'm interested.
)I think the same applies to alternative numeral representations
)such as XXXX versus XL. Again the latter is (or was originally)
)the Etruscan form. Also, the letters, particularly I, V, and X,
)used in numbers started out as representations of fingers and
)hands in various configurations.
I hope that "I think" applied to everything you wrote in that
paragraph, since everything in it is conjecture, no one actually
knowing what the origins were.
)Unfortunately very little examples of the Etruscan language
)have survived, and those that do are mostly religious texts,
)for example funerary inscriptions. The longest text was found
)on a strip of linen unwrapped from an Egyptian mummy! Early
)Christians made a thorough job of destroying any texts they
^^^^^^^^^^
Make that "Priests of the Catholic Church" (which, BTW, is
fundamentally pagan), not an indictment against Christians.
)came across, which didn't help.
)
)According to Roman writers, Etruscan sounded rather grating
)on the ears, all hisses and clicks. And modern linguists mostly
)agree with their assertion that, like Basque, it was unrelated to
)any other known language.
I'd be interested in learning a little bit more about Etruscan. If this
is off-topic (yeah, yeah) contact me e-mail.
)Cheers
)
)John Ramsden (jr@redmink.demon.co.uk)
Mike
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