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<p>[QUOTE="Voulgaroktonou, post: 7663723, member: 84047"]My friend Valentinian,</p><p>Another example of the evolving Greek and Latin languages in late antiquity. In Classical Latin, Vita was pronounced Wita. However, in ecclesiastical Latin, the “V” has the modern sound of that letter. And in Classical Greek, Beta was pronounced like our “B”, but in modern Greek, it has the sound of “V”.</p><p>So, the spelling “BITA” on your coin indicates a Greek engraver heard the word as Vita as in church Latin, and the fact he transliterated the hard V as B also indicates that by the mid/late 6th c., Beta in Greek was being pronounced as “V”. How interesting that these mute witnesses can open for us a little window into the past.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Voulgaroktonou, post: 7663723, member: 84047"]My friend Valentinian, Another example of the evolving Greek and Latin languages in late antiquity. In Classical Latin, Vita was pronounced Wita. However, in ecclesiastical Latin, the “V” has the modern sound of that letter. And in Classical Greek, Beta was pronounced like our “B”, but in modern Greek, it has the sound of “V”. So, the spelling “BITA” on your coin indicates a Greek engraver heard the word as Vita as in church Latin, and the fact he transliterated the hard V as B also indicates that by the mid/late 6th c., Beta in Greek was being pronounced as “V”. How interesting that these mute witnesses can open for us a little window into the past.[/QUOTE]
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