▲ 430 ▼ aleph (quokk.au) submitted 11 months ago by Deceptichum to c/historymemes@piefed.social 39 comments fedilink hide all child comments
[–] Jarme@jlai.lu 10 points 11 months ago (6 children) Any reason why Romans mirrored some letters ? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 6 child comments replies: [–] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 27 points 11 months ago (4 children) It was likely caused by the transition from right-to-left to left-to-right writing So basically, while Egyptian hieroglyphs didn't have a specific writing direction, boustrophedon was a very common system, where you'd start writing in one direction, and then switch direction on the next line (so the first letter of the second line is right under the last letter of the first line). The Phonecian script, however, started to stick to right-to-left for writing. When the greeks first adapted the Phonecian alphabet for the Greek language, they wrote in right-to-left and boustrophedon. When writing boustrophedon, they would flip the letters to match the writing direction. When left to right started to gain popularity, the flipped letters were used, and left-to-right is now what is used in the Greek alphabet and its descendants. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (3 children) And why did they swap I and Z? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 4 points 11 months ago (2 children) Z was temporarily removed from the latin alphabet, and when it was readded, it was added to the end permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago "Yeah, we're taking a break from Z, we'll see how things work out" permalink fedilink source parent [–] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago Thank you! permalink fedilink source parent [–] pacmondo@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago Sometimes, you just gotta go for style points. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 27 points 11 months ago (4 children) It was likely caused by the transition from right-to-left to left-to-right writing So basically, while Egyptian hieroglyphs didn't have a specific writing direction, boustrophedon was a very common system, where you'd start writing in one direction, and then switch direction on the next line (so the first letter of the second line is right under the last letter of the first line). The Phonecian script, however, started to stick to right-to-left for writing. When the greeks first adapted the Phonecian alphabet for the Greek language, they wrote in right-to-left and boustrophedon. When writing boustrophedon, they would flip the letters to match the writing direction. When left to right started to gain popularity, the flipped letters were used, and left-to-right is now what is used in the Greek alphabet and its descendants. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (3 children) And why did they swap I and Z? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 4 points 11 months ago (2 children) Z was temporarily removed from the latin alphabet, and when it was readded, it was added to the end permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago "Yeah, we're taking a break from Z, we'll see how things work out" permalink fedilink source parent [–] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago Thank you! permalink fedilink source parent
[–] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (3 children) And why did they swap I and Z? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 4 points 11 months ago (2 children) Z was temporarily removed from the latin alphabet, and when it was readded, it was added to the end permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago "Yeah, we're taking a break from Z, we'll see how things work out" permalink fedilink source parent [–] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago Thank you! permalink fedilink source parent
[–] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 4 points 11 months ago (2 children) Z was temporarily removed from the latin alphabet, and when it was readded, it was added to the end permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago "Yeah, we're taking a break from Z, we'll see how things work out" permalink fedilink source parent [–] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago Thank you! permalink fedilink source parent
[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago "Yeah, we're taking a break from Z, we'll see how things work out" permalink fedilink source parent
[–] pacmondo@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago Sometimes, you just gotta go for style points. permalink fedilink source parent