An End of the Year Treat: "The Top Ten Top Ten", By Contributing Astronomy Editor, Dan Matlaga

TOP TEN TOP TEN

It started a few weeks ago, now all but finished.  We've been exposed to top ten lists... top ten movies of 2013, top ten books of 2013, top ten baby names of 2013.  These hold some interest.  But I am after the really big top ten.  I'm after the top ten of the top ten.

It began in grade school math class when we were introduced to decimals.  As I recall they have something to do with the number ten.  This is the month of December which sounds a lot like decimal.  But it can't.  Or so it seems.  If December sounds like decimal, and decimal has something to do with ten... but wait, December is our twelfth month, not our tenth.  October is our tenth month but an octopus has neither eight arms nor ten.  An octagon has eight sides not ten.

What gives?

I brought this discrepancy up to my math teacher.  After a brief moment of contemplation she replied: "This has nothing to do with math, ask your social studies teacher."

I did.  Her reply was: "This has nothing to do with social studies... ask your science teacher."

"I don't know”, was the reply from my science teacher. 

As I walked to the library that Saturday afternoon I gave some credit to the science teacher.  At least his answer was honest.  During that walk I realized these teachers; these fountains of classroom knowledge evaporate into a Sahara one step outside their lesson plan.

What I learned from my library visit was our calendar is the Old Roman Calendar which consisted of ten months, not twelve.  Expected from an agricultural society of three thousand years ago, they began the year in March.  It is the time days become longer than night.  It is the time the earth returns to life.  April is a perfectly good Latin word which means "to open up.”  What opens up in April are the flowers and trees.  In May, life on earth is flourishing.

June was named after Juno, the wife of Jupiter.  But this statement does not do it full justice so I will hold off any further comment for now.

July was named after Julius Caesar, August after Augustus Caesar.  September, October, November and December were simply numeric place holders for the rest of the year.

The months we call January and February were known as simply the dead of winter.  Sometime around 700 B.C., the dead of winter was replaced with Janus, the god of doorways, and Februs, the god of purification.

I was satisfied with the Old Roman Calendar of ten months as not just the oldest, but still in use, top ten list.  Satisfied until I began reading of the Pre Indo-Europeans (PIE).

The Pre Indo-Europeans spoke a language that evolved into today's 439 languages and dialects.  All European and some Western Asian languages of 3 billion people can be traced back to the Pre Indo-European language.  The geographic origin of the Pre indo-Europeans is still controversial, but most of the study places them somewhere near the Black and Caspian Sea.

My bid for the top ten top ten are the numbers one through ten in Pre Indo-European language.

               English         Roman      Greek       Pre Indo-European

               one                unus          oinos         oi-no

               two                duo           duo            duwo

               three             tres           treis            tria

               four              quattuor   tessares     kwetwer

               five               quinque     pente         penkwe

               six                  sex            hex             s(w)eks

               seven            septem      hepta         septm

               eight             octo          okto            okto(u)

               nine              novem       ennea         newn

               ten               decem         deka           dekm

The nomination for top ten top ten is based on a simple fact:

After 8,000 years these words are recognizable today.  The top ten films of 2013 will be forgotten by February.  Yet these ten Pre Indo-European words pre date the Pyramids by thousands of years. Their influence can be felt today in such words as tripod, pentagon and universal.

Contributing Editor, Dan Matlaga: YOU ARE SURROUNDED

You are surrounded by four simple words.  Four words probably picked up sometime between third and fifth grade.  The words are: West, South, East, and North.

Does it grate to list these four words with West as the first on the list instead of North?  Have no fear.  It will not be part of your permanent record if you do not list north as the first on the list.

If asked what these four words mean, nearly everyone from grade school through graduate school will answer "directions”.  If you thought "directions”, you must understand when you were in school you were taught definitions not meanings.  Directions are the definition of the four words, but not the meaning.

What do we put in bread dough so instead of the dough remaining flat it gets taller?  The answer is Y-E-A-S-T.  Note the word east in the word yeast.  We put yeast in bread dough to make the dough "rise”.

Esther

The word East means to raise, after all the sun, moon, stars and planets all seem to rise in the East.  You knew East means to rise even before breakfast this morning.  You have heard of the word "Easter”, which means to rise.  If you lived in Europe several centuries ago, there was a goddess named Esther.  It was Esther's job to make the plants rise from the ground each spring.  An observer can determine if the goddess pictured in the painting before them is the goddess Esther because she is always depicted either holding or surrounded by rabbits.  These animals were known as Esther's rabbits, the origin of the modern symbol of Easter rabbits.

Wikipedia Info. on Goddess Esther (Eostra)

If "east" means to rise, "west" means “to go down.”  The meaning of these two words simply reflects what is happening in the sky.  Celestial objects appear to rise in the east and go down in the west.

South has the sense of “the place of the sun”.  When the sun is in the south it is as high as it can be for that day.  Instead of writing “the place of the sun” on our maps, it is easier to write south. 

Of the four words north is perhaps the most interesting.  If we translate the word “north” into English, it means “left”, as in left and right.  In order for north to be on your left, you must face the east.  The Latin word for “left” is the word sinister, which means evil.

Why is north thought of as evil?

To understand this you have to pay attention to the daily weather report. When cold arctic air moves out of Canada and quickly heads south creating snow in Louisiana, citrus crops freeze in Florida, this cold weather front is known as the Arctic Express.  This is not just an American phenomenon.  Several decades ago hundreds of Europeans died when an Arctic Express covered much of Europe.

Picture This:

It is a dark and stormy night 9^th century in Europe.  You want to find directions. What can you do?  The magnetic compass hadn't reached Europe yet.  It is dark and stormy so no hint from the stars.  You can find north by looking for the local church.  Back in “the good ol’ days”, churches had their front doors facing east.  Well, not exactly east.  If the church was dedicated to St. Sophia, the patron saint of wisdom, for example, the church would be

shifted slightly north of east.  This to allow on August 6^th, the feast day of Saint Sophia the first rays of the rising sun to pass through a special window and illuminate the center of the alter on the other interior side of the church.  Another word for east is “orient, this slight shift of the church known as its orientation, is how the word “orientation” entered the English language.

It is difficult not to notice we are dealing with opposites.  Not just in the words, but their meanings as well: North (cold), South (hot), East (rise), and West (set).  The question is: “Where do these opposites meet?”

It must be a difficult question to answer with our Western civilization view of things because having given this topic in over 700 lectures, there was only one student who was able to answer correctly.  The student was from the Navajo reservation, well steeped in Navajo traditions.  He explained it was an easy question to answer because the Navajo sees himself or herself as part of nature. 

He went on to explain Western minds see themselves above nature so no doubt students might picture a map, or the Earth suspended in space. 

What answer did the student from the Navajo reservation give?

Without skipping a beat after the question was asked “Where do these opposites meet?  His answer was: “They meet wherever you are.”

Something as simple as West, South, North, and East… words learned as “directions” sometime between third and fifth grade have a considerable cultural slant once you decide to put your curious mind to work.

Thank you so much, Dan.  Another fabulous, thought provoking and educational post.  Really, can't thank you enough for sharing this with us.  Your vast knowledge is truly awe inspiring!