I could swear that the postman was shouting "bostrophedonic!" whilst
trying to push the large package marked fragile through my letterbox.
Maybe I mis-heard him.
BTW, this neatly ties into the Auden thread via Nightmail.
Roger
On 2/19/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 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
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au
>
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