Thursday, January 17, 2019

Darien, Connecticut

The Last Shall Be First, and The First Last:  The expanding Roman Republic, in the first century B.C. finally took over Greece. In other words, the Latin-speaking western Mediterranean had to adjust to the Greek-speaking eastern Mediterranean. By that time, the Z had been dropped by the Romans. With the conquest of Greece, it had to be added back. Why? The sound of zeta in Greek (e.g., zephyr) needed to have a home in Rome. As for Zinna: probably Italian. And guess what: In Italian, the Z is not the the most infrequently used letter; the letter Y, for instance, doesn't even exist!. Spring Grove Cemetery. [2018]


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