Saturday, May 9, 2009

"At Sixes and Sevens"

[Moses cartoon from BAR] Mr. Don pointed out these intriguing letters in Biblical Archaeology issues for January/February, 2009 and May/June, 2009 -- I have yet to read either magazine! He found both of them in my stack of reading material piled on the kitchen counter: January/February 2009 (p. 68) Queries & Comments AT SIXES AND SEVENS I'm the mad linguist who wrote a caption to the hilarious cartoon showing Moses with the two tables numbered in roman numbers (see Strata, p. 22 of this issue for winning entries). It cracked me up. Here's Moses fresh from speaking with the Almighty in the form of the Burning Bush and jotting down the most important document for all humankind - and in stone, no less - but he's gone and put Roman numerals on his rocks, of all the silly things. of course the romans hadn't even been thought of yet, much less started writing numerals. Let me explain why I was so keen on those numbers. I had just been doing research on number words around the Mediterranean in the Bronze Age. It seems rather astonishing that the words for "six" and "seven" are so similar, not only in Semitic languages (like Hebrew, Akkadian and Assyrian) but also in Indo-European languages (like Latin, Greek, Hittie and Luwian). This is especially strange because none of the other number words are anything alike. Even etruscan, which isn't related to anything else, seems to share those two words. Just think about it: Six and seven in Hebrew are shisha and shiva; Akkadian, shishshu and sebe; Assyrian, shishshu and siba; Latin, sex and septum; Greek, hex and hepta; Sanskrit, shash and sapta. Even in Etruscan seven is semph, and six is either sa or huth (I vote for sa). Very odd, isn't it? I think this is no coincidence. I think somebody borrowed from somebody. I believe it was because all those Sea Peoples, like the Phillistines, were wandering around at the end of the Bronze Age (c. 1200 B.C.). Diana Gainer Via e-mail Ed: Does anyone out there have a better explanation? May/June 2009 (p. 10-11) Queries & Comments "AT SIXES AND SEVENS" Egyptian Sixes and Sevens In the January/February issue Diana Gainer finds that six and seven are represented by similar words in many languages (Q&C, "At Sixes and Sevens"). I also noticed this someyears ago. My primary field of interest is Egyptology. In ancient Egyptian, six is ses and seven is sefekh. There are many other words that sound similar in many ancient languages, such as words for "Mother." It's mysterious, but that's how I like it. Bonnie Long Phoenix, Arizona Hungarian Sixes and Sevens Diana Gainer comments on the similarity of the names of the numberals six and seven in several languages, including English, Latin and Greek, among many others. I may add to this list my native Hungarian in which six is written hat and seven is written he't. This is probably a coincidence though, as Hungarian is not even an Indo-European language, but rather belongs to the Finno-Ugric group that includes Finnish and Estonian besides Hungarian. I don't speak either of the last two, but perhaps a reader who does could confirm (or deny) that in those also the six-seven similarity persists. Andrew Lenard Blomington, Indiana Spanish Sixes and Sevens Diana Gainer surmises that since there was such similarity in the numbers six and seven for such diverse peoples that there must have been an interaction at some point. I fully agree. One might add seis and siete, Spanish six and seven and the Italian and Portuguese equivalents to her list. This may be but one of quiete a number of similarites between civilizations that popped up all over the globe at roughly the same time several thousand years ago. Dale Carter Fellsmere, Florida
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dondelion and I discussed this earlier this morning. I'll let him speak for himself (if and when he gets around to posting here). In the meantime, I was curious about the origins of the phrase "at sixes and sevens," so I did a little quick research and found some interesting information: From The Phrase Finder: Meaning A state of total confusion and disorder, or of disagreement between parties. Origin The derivation of this phrase is rather difficult to trace, not least because it has changed in both form and meaning over the nine centuries or so that it has been in use. The phrase was originally to set on six and seven and is thought to have derived in the 14th century from the game of dice. The meaning then was to carelessly risk one's entire fortune. The earliest citation in print is Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, 1374: "Lat nat this wrechched wo thyn herte gnawe, But manly set the world on sexe and seuene." The dice game from which the phrase "set on six and seven" is thought to have originated is hazard (an old dice game), which itself has an interesting derivation: ...hazard first came into the language to refer to the dice game (via the Old French hasard and the Spanish azar from the Arabic az-zahr “luck, chance”, based on an Arabic or Turkish word for dice), and only later took on the meaning of danger or risk, or as a verb, to venture something, because the dice game was so risky to bet on. The modern game called craps is a simplified form of hazard. (World Wide Words) None of this, of course, answers the intriguing question as to why "six and seven" show similarities in so many languages belonging to entirely different language families!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

...hi, diane/ami oan(N)=aim,from,
mitl(N)=spear(mint/minerva/permit).
shisha(tepeua/hebrew)=chicuace(N)=
reverse/chi(n)co=cinco/qui(n)que=5/
-ce(N)=one= chic ua ce=otherhand
owns/ua one/ce=6. chico(N)=reverse/
otherhand. the hebrew is a foreshortening of chicua(ce)=shisha=shi/chi sha/cua
the akkadian, the same=
shi-/chicu(a)/-shu.
the gk takes, (chicua)ce(x), as in
ce/che/he(x).
now, the skt takes,(chi)cua, and
putsfirstlast,ch(i)/sh, on=c(u)ash/
=shash. now we can see the gk
addendum (x) is a similar maneuver
to include the first syllable, chi/(he)x,also.
then the etruscan, sa=(chi)c(u)a=
ca/sa(etr)=6.

now, seven=chicome(N)=chico/cinco/
reverse/5, only shows up in the
hebrew, (chico)menorah(Hebrew/
h/th/tep/b(r)e w(ua=tepeua(N)=
mountain/tepe ua/owner), and,
noluia(N)=wrap(nourish/nurse/
norris/noriz/noria(sp)=water wheel=
uilana(N) to nurse fields),
menora=the 7 nurses, the 7 wraps,
the 7 nourishers. 7= se-ven=
s/ce v/uen(tli=ce uentli(N)=
one/ce uen-tli/offering=went(E).
se-ven comes out of the venus/
uentli deer/venison cult of 40k
bc, words like, cerf/ciervo(sp)/
hirvi(Finnish)= h/ch/ci(e)rvo/
se(r)ve(E)/even, evenki(russ deer
tribes), whence(E/reversed ceuen),
and so on to, reverent.
shiva sebe hepta sapta semph
are from, ce uen(tli). nauatl
is pie, the first language,
mimed to us by neander, cf.,
my post on tzopilotl wordpress,
missing mithen, tletl blogspot,
zme neander, and matilda's
gobekli blog. tks, carlos.

Unknown said...

...actually, chicuace(N)=6,was the
name for cochise, the apache chief
who led the revolt against the us, his tribal name was shi kha she/
chi cua ce(letra), which is the
priestly number, miquiztli(N)=death
in the book of souls. he probably took this as his battle name.
let me arrange the 6's you mention in a more visually accessible fashion using letra:
shisha(Heb)= shi/chi c(u)a/sha/ce.
shishu(akkad)= shi/chi cu(a)/shu/ce
hex(gk)= (chicua) ce/che/he x
shash(skt)=(chi) c(u)a/cha/sha,
then, -ce(N)/ch(e)/-sh=sha-sh.
sa(etr)=(chi)c(u)a(ce)/ca/sa.
max(etr)=macui(N)=5.

Unknown said...

...6&7=13, iztaktlachpanqui(N)=
the white/solar sweeper on the
aztec clanedar stone, also the
phoenix/poa nextli(N)=
count/poa nextli/ash. the ancients
believe the year was 676 seconds
(6's and 7)short every year,
they knew leap year, and the
phoenix/sphinx(also)was the
mechanism by which they kept
time in balance, by subtracting/
nextli/ceniza(sp)a day every130yrs.
the egyptians were so sure of their
sphinx/phoenician that they did it
every 1300yrs(we notice the 6/7
of 13. so 6's and 7's refers to
an adding and subtracting process,
first used to reset time.
the last occasion this process was used was 1582 feb 24, when gregory
reformed the julian calendar.
we should be adjusting it even
today, but i prefer to key on the
solstice and equinox/the naui ollin
of 4movements, but even that precesses ever 26k yrs, note,
26 is twice 13(6/7), and that
the tonalamatl, based on the birthing span of our women=260days-
we are more connected to time than we think, certainly more connected
to the booksouls than we are to present day clock-watching, which
works in atomic absolutes and has
cleansed the human connexion.
all these carelessnesses have their effect on our estrangement
from a once friendly planet,
orphaning us, and putting us further from the goddess.
time is out of joint by at least
60days, e.g., the year begins in
northern hemi on spring equinox,
not on 2-faced janus/yani(N)=pilgrim. let's go home again.

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