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2023-03-20 16:44 dustin  
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when ^ analyzed the greek alphabet at the very beginning of his whole abc journey, the most striking detail was the early position of the letter "z". how did the 6th greek letter end up last in the latin alphabet? now, while playing the final(?) cave of the series, he can experience the whole story of this letter - a quite unique one within the whole alphabet!  
  
history of the letter "z":  
  
| the proto-sinaitic root is their letter "ze", shaped much like an equality symbol (see the first shape above the inbox), which was supposed to represent a weapon (a sword or a dagger). i tried to use all my imagination, but i still don't see a sword or dagger behind the "=" symbol, how about you? :d anyway, it seems likely that this letter was a semitic invention, not based on an egyptian hieroglyph.  
  
| the phoenicians adopted the letter as "zayin", and it was the 7th (!) letter of their alphabet. they added a vertical line to the shape, so it now looked like an "i" (see the second shape above the inbox). they spoke the letter [z] as in "zigzag" or "zero".  
  
| the ancient greeks adopted the shape and alphabetical position of the letter. however, they changed the letter name from "zayin" to "zeta", probably to make it sound similar to their two next letters "heta" and "theta".they still spoke the letter [z], but sometimes also [dz]. the shape of the greek letter was the same as in phoenician first (the "i" shape), but later it became more and more like the modern "z" shape because this way, it was possible to write the letter in one stroke.  
  
| the etruscians adopted the letter from the greeks, but their language knew (almost) no soft consonants, so the greek [dz] sound became a [ts] sound.  
  
| the romans adopted the letter from the etruscians without any changes at first (7th alphabetical position, [ts] sound, "z" shape). however, they soon found the letter unnecessary because their latin language did not use anything like a [ts] sound. when the romans invented the new letter "g", it was a welcome opportunity to kick "z" out of the alphabet and replace it by "g" (see the top row of letters in the cave!).  
  
| for several centuries, "z" was no longer part of the latin alphabet. this was until the romans conquered greece. from then on, they tried to spell greek names and words as well as possible, but they finally decided that they should add two greek letters  to the latin alphabet because they represented greek sounds that weren't used in latin language. the first was "ypsilon" (see previous cave). the second one was "zeta", which still made the [dz] sound in greek, so the romans added these two letters at the end of their alphabet, exclusively used for greek words and names. see the bottom half of the cave!  
  
this unique history makes "z" the only letter which was deleted and later re-added to the alphabet! :d  
  
"zed" vs. "zee"  
  
another unique thing about "z" is that it has a different name in british and american english. the british version "zed" is clearly based on the greek name "zeta", while the american version "zee" is adapted to other letters such as "bee", "cee", "dee" and so on. both versions have lots of equivalents in latin-based languages. in germany, we call the letter "zett" close to the british version. which version does your language use? :)  
  
btw, if you followed this series carefully, then you know why "u" and "w" are missing in the bottom half of the cave...! ;)  
  
cave difficulty: zero/10 (!)

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2023-03-20 18:38 dustin  
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edit: there's a theory that the semitic "=" shape was supposed to be manacles rather than a sword or dagger, and that the phoenicians called their "i" shape at first ""ziqq" (phoenician for "manacle") and only later renamed it to "zayin" (= "weapon).   
  
according to the same theory, similar renamings also happened with other phoenician letters:  
  
| 3rd letter "gaml" (boomerang) renamed to "gimel" (camel)  
latin equivalence: c, g  
  
| 4th letter "digg" (fish) renamed to "daleth" (door)  
latin: d  
  
| 5th letter: "hll" (jubilance) renamed to "he" (window)  
latin: e  
  
| 14th letter: "nahs" (snake) renamed to "nun" (fish)  
latin: n  
  
| 17th letter: "pi't" (corner) renamed to "pe" (mouth)  
latin: p  
  
| 21st letter: "shimsh" (sun) renamed to "shin" (tooth)  
latin: s  
  
some of these possible renamings make sense to me (for example, some fishes like eels look much like a snake!), others don't (i still absolutely can't see a sun in the phoenician "w"-shaped letter which would become latin "s"...) :d

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2023-03-21 11:01 Arno  
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Thanks  dustin  for this wonderful series! :-D  
  
I still have a lot to read (and play...). Currently  Helena  and I are in the process of starting to live together, so this period we have lots of things to do and arrange. Hopefully more time for BD after a few weeks... :-)

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2023-03-21 11:04 Arno  
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by the way... we call this letter "zet", similar to the british and german.

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2023-03-21 14:44 dustin  
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thanks  Arno , and all the best for your plans! it sounds all very good :d  
  
in fact, there will be even more for you to read because i'm planning five more caves in this series :d  
  
if you like, always feel free to comment on the older caves of the series once you play and read them! fortunately, we have the "last commented caves" database! :d