2538: Cypriot Syllabary Nov 24, 2021

The Republic of Cyprus is the only other country to officially use the Greek alphabet, but in the ancient world it had its own writing system for its particular dialect of Greek. Developed from the Cypro-Minoan syllabary, the Cypriot syllabary is a unique system, unrelated to the later Greek alphabet or its predecessors. The oldest known inscriptions were found from about 1500BC and other fragments indicate it was in use nearly a millennium later. Eventually, this would be replaced by foreign systems and end that particular chain of writing systems descended from Linear A.

2153: Names for 'Greece' Nov 6, 2020

Greece has had a long and influential history globally, but many countries use totally different names for the country. Essentially there are 4 categories; the most common comes from the Latin 'Graecus', who took the name from the tribe there, now commonly used around Europe and Asia. Then there are names derived from 'Ionia', another tribe, used particularly in the Middle East and Central Asian region, such as the Arabic اليونان (al-Yōnān), Hebrew יוון (Yavan), and Turkish 'Yunanistan'. The other common name, and the one used by the Greeks themselves Ἑλλάς (Hellas), such as in Mandarin. One exceptional name is from Georgian საბერძნეთი (Saberdzneti) meaning "wise people's country". Notably, the word for the Greek residents of Turkey does not follow the Turkish name for the country, and is 'Rumlar' meaning 'Romans' relating to the days of the Byzantine Empire, whereas for Greeks from Greece they say 'Yunanlar'.