What does META stand for in Thracian diobol?

As I have mentioned on this list before, I'm cataloging 32 coins given to my university. I'm generally doing fine, but I can't find what the META on this Thracian diobol stand for, or what META means. Is it related to Mesembria in some way? I could understand MESA. But the references I've seen say there's META between the spokes (not legible on my coin). Any help with this could be appreciated. I don't have weight and measure on this one yet.

Oh, and one more thing. The references I've seen say it's supposed to be silver, but it looks greenish to me--not like toned Roman silver I've seen. I would've guessed the coin was bronze. Was there ever a bronze issue of this coin? I guess weight would be a clue here. Sorry I don't have that info at hand.

RULING AUTHORITY: Thrace-Mesembria
DATE STRUCK: Ca. 450-350 B.C.
TYPE: AR Diobol
OBVERSE: Crested Corinthian helmet, facing.
REVERSE: Wheel of four spokes, M-E-T-A between spokes.
REFERENCES: SNG BM Black Sea 268; SNG Cop 653

 

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ΜΕΤΑΜΒΡΙΑΝΩΝ--"Mesembria" in their dialect. Technically, it's in the genitive plural and means "of the Mesembrians."

S and T are often switched in the various Greek dialects. Μελισσα=μελιττα; θαλαττα=θαλασσα, etc.

Similar to the Spanish dialects, or how Spanish is related to Latin, where H and F often switch: Hernandez=Fernandez; harina=farina; horno=forno.

 

Awesome. Thanks. Man, I gotta learn some Greek!

 

There's a factoid I was not aware of, thank you!.

 

Latin and Greek often switch H and S between them: hemi- (Greek for "half") and semi- (Latin for "half"); hebdos (Greek for 7) and septem (Latin for 7); hex (Greek for 6) and sex (Latin for 6), hedra (Greek for "seat") and sedes (Latin for "seat") etc.

Similar consonant shifts occur between Latin/Greek words and words in Germanic Languages (such as English), where the pattern of change is:
B --> P --> Ph/F --> B
D --> T --> Th --> D
G --> C/K --> H/Ch --> G

For example:

Pater (Latin and Greek) --> Father
Ped-/Pod- (Latin/Greek) --> Foot
Chole (Greek) --> gall
Bursa (Latin) --> purse
Cornu (Latin) --> horn

This is called "Grimm's Law" and it's fascinating.

 

Very interesting-- thanks!

 

Ain't it, though?

 

It is very interesting but very difficult to grasp, at least for me. I'm not well versed in the words associated with linguistics. I end up having to look up every other word as I slog through any article, especially phonology words.

voiceless fricatives, sonorants, obstruents, aspirated consonant (I know the Heimlich maneuver!! )

 

Interesting, I always assumed the designer meant to spell MEAT but due to his extreme hunger couldn't concentrate and wrote META instead.

 

As a rule the Greeks would do anything to avoid a letter combination that did not flow smoothly off the tongue. When a word form by declension or combination made a sound unpleasant to their ears, they changed it. Today we use the Greek word euphony meaning good sounding. The opposite is cacophony which starts with the ugly word kaka meaning ugly. Some languages seem to go out of their way to sound harsh. Poetry is easier to appreciate when the language appreciates beauty.

 

I thought the "T" was the mysterious forgotten letter "disigma" based on a web page by Chris Hopkins: http://www.parthia.com/fonts/sampi.htm

Is it possible that "T" is just double-S?

 

Notice that in all your examples the sounds are moving from voiced consonants to voiceless consonants in the first change. They then move from voiceless to voiced.
If you want to know if a sound is voiced or not, make the sound while putting your index finger and thumb on either side of your voice box. If the voice box vibrates the sound is voiced.

 

Oh, yes. Having formally studied linguistics in grad school, I'm quite familiar with this. That's the crux of Grimm's law. Voiced stops become unvoiced; unvoiced stops become fricative; and fricative stops become voiced.

 

Entirely possible, if not likely. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

 

Yes, there was: http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sg/sg1675.html

 

I remember studying this along with Verner's law of course.

I will never forget hearing the strange sounds coming from students when they sat for their first year Ling exam.

By the way, do you like dwarfs or dwarves?

 

Would you believe I'm actually teaching Grimm's Law next week in my HEL class? I give them a bunch of Latin/Greek >>> Germanic word pairs and they have to generate the sound changes and determine what is systematic about them in terms of articulation. That way they generate Grimm's law from the ground up. It's much more effective than just giving them the law and having them memorize it. They actually have to figure it out for themselves. I explain Verners Law, but we don't do much with that because it only deals with certain exceptions to Grimm's law, and it's a bit more involved. Then it's off to umlaut and Old English!

By the way, I have thoroughly enjoyed this discussion of sound changes. But I read Ed's link, and indeed that T form is very strange on the coin. I am inclined to subscribe to the "sampi" double-sigma reading. But I will include both explanations in my notes on this coin.

 

Cool OP-addition, Gavin ... META rocks!!

Ummm, I happen to have a couple of cool helmets from Thrace, Mesambria ...

=> wanna see 'em?

Thrace, Mesembria, AR Diobol
450 - 350 BC
Diameter: 10 mm
Weight: 1.16 grams
Obverse: Facing Helmet
Reverse: META within the spokes of a radiate wheel



THRACE, Mesambria, Æ21
Circa 216-196/88 BC
Diameter: 21 mm
Weight: 4.82 grams
Obverse: Helmet with cheek guard right
Reverse: Inside of shield
Reference: SNG BM Black Sea 276 var. (helmet left); SNG Stancomb 229






David Sear (my hero) ... money well spent with this type of coin ...

=> sadly, there are a whole lotta fakes out there!!

 

Thanks. You can see that weird T on Steve's coin nice and clear--the grapheme that some regard as a "double sigma."

 

And thanks for the link to the bronze version as well. I'm fairly certain I have a bronze version of this coin. Anecdotally, it seems the silver version was much more common than the bronze. Or maybe the silver version is the one that just shows up in Internet searches more often. Nothing scientific about my search methodology.