Max, this is really interesting.
But as for being used by postmen in the United Kingdom to describe anything
at all, I should think they'd be more likely to use some term like "f-ing
numbering" rather than "boustrophedonic". Anyone trying the latter would get
"Yer-wha'?"
joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Max Richards" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 6:16 AM
Subject: was: left margin > + boustrophedon
> Quoting Anny Ballardini <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>> "At first [the Greeks] adopted not only the characters of the
>> Phoenicians,
>> but also the direction of their lines from right to left. Later it
>> occurred
>> to them to proceed as the plowman, that is, writing alternately from left
>> to
>> right and right to left. Finally, they wrote according to our present
>> practice of starting each line from left to right. This development is
>> quite
>> natural. Writing in the furrow fashion is undoubtedly the most
>> comfortable
>> to read. I am even surprised that it did not become the established
>> practice
>> with printing; but, being difficult to write manually, it had to be
>> abandoned as manuscripts multiplied."
>>
>> Rousseau, Essay.
>
> Did Rousseau know about Boustrophedon (which I only know about because of
> a
> Heaney poem I can't remember the name of)?
> From Wikipedia:
>
> Boustrophedon or boustrephedon (Greek: ????????????: "turning like oxen in
> ploughing"), is an ancient way of writing manuscripts and other
> inscriptions in
> which, rather than going from left to right as in modern English, or right
> to
> left as in Hebrew and Arabic, alternate lines must be read in opposite
> directions. The name is borrowed from the Greek language. Its etymology is
> from
> ????, "ox" + ????????, "to turn" (cf. strophe), because the hand of the
> writer
> goes back and forth like an ox drawing a plow across a field and turning
> at the
> end of each row to return in the opposite direction.
> Many ancient scripts, such as Safaitic, were frequently or typically
> written
> boustrophedon, but in Greek it is found most commonly on pre-historic and
> archaic inscriptions, becoming less and less popular throughout the
> Hellenic
> period.
> The wooden boards and other incised artifacts of Rapa Nui also bear a
> boustrophedonic script called Rongorongo, which still remains
> undeciphered. In
> Rongorongo the text in alternate lines was rotated 180 degrees rather than
> mirrored; this is termed reverse boustrophedon.
> By analogy, the term may be used in other areas to describe this kind of
> alternation of motion or writing. For example, it is occasionally used to
> describe the print head motion of certain dot matrix computer printers. In
> that
> case, while the print head moves in opposite directions on alternate
> lines, the
> printed text is not in boustrophedon format. See also the corresponding
> entry
> [1] in the Jargon File of hacker slang.
>
> A modern example of boustrophedonics is the numbering scheme of sections
> within
> survey townships in the United States and Canada. In both countries,
> survey
> townships are divided into a 6-by-6 grid of 36 sections. In the US Public
> Land
> Survey System, Section 1 of a township is in the northeast corner, and the
> numbering proceeds boustrophedonically until Section 36 is reached in the
> southeast corner. Canada's Dominion Land Survey also uses boustrophedonic
> numbering, but starts at the southeast corner.
>
> The term is used by postmen in the United Kingdom to describe street
> numbering
> which proceeds serially in one direction then turns back in the other.
> This is
> in contrast to the more common method of odd and even numbers on opposite
> sides
> of the street.
>
> !!As a former Auckland postman, I can only say the term was not used in
> the Post
> Offices where I worked...
>
> Max R, Melbourne
>
>
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