the fallacy of modernity [was RE: chiclassiccomp.org was Re: Mysterious website]

OK, we've wandered way, WAY off-topic here, but I can't allow this to stand.[0] In Greek, <kappa> and <khi> are generally unrelated.[1] Each reflects a separately reconstructible sound all the way back to Proto-Indo-European, usually written as *k and *gh in ASCII, although in the handbooks the <k> and <g> will frequently have <prime> accents to indicate that they are palatals rather than velars, and the <h> will be superscripted.[2] Because Spanish does not have an aspirate class (nor did Latin, where the borrowing first took place), <kappa> and <khi> are both represented by <c>, here pronounced [k], and a distinction is lost that was present in Greek. Further, in the history of Spanish, initial clusters of s+{p,t,k} developed an epenthetic vowel e-, so that original Greek _eskhato-_ and _skato-_ fall together in Spanish as _eskato-_.[3] Note that the Greek word _eskhatos_ means "last", and eschatology is that part of religious doctrine that deals with death, judgment, and destiny. Now I'll shut up on this topic. [0] Before I became a full-time computer programmer and later system manager, I spent more than a decade studying Indo-European linguistics, both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student. I see too much nonsense passing for linguistics in the newspapers and on-line, and I do what I can to correct it. [1] There is a conditional relationship called Grassman's Law (better "Rule"), in which underlying aspirates can appear as nonaspirates. In addition, an aspirate before final -s deaspirates. The canonical example in classical Greek is the word _thriks_, _trikhos_ "hair", in which the final -s keeps Grassman's from operating in the nominative. [2] In linguistics fora, I write that kind of thing in TeX notation, but I'll forego that here. [3] For example, Greek _skhola_ yields Spanish _escuela_ "school", Latin _stare_ "stand" gives Spanish _estar_ "to be" (of transient states), etc. Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Server Engineer Vulcan, Inc. 505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900 Seattle, WA 98104 mailto:RichA at vulcan.com (206) 342-2239 (206) 465-2916 cell http://www.pdpplanet.org/