The etymology of the Greek dual form

νώ (νῶϊ)
Joannes Richter

1 Central part of a large floor mosaic, from a Roman villa in Sentinum (now known as Sassoferrato, in Marche,
Italy), ca. 200–250 C.E. Aion, the god of eternity, is standing inside a celestial sphere decorated with zodiac sign.
Source: Photo - Public Domain by User:Bibi Saint-Pol
Abstract
The main Greek dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, and Doric, many of them
with several subdivisions such as Boeotian dialect.
Especially the Ionic dialect seems to have been based on a symbolic foundation, which may be
illustrated by the alphabet, which begins with a vowel A and exclusively has been terminated by the
vowel Ω.
In Boeotian dialect the singular form for the personal pronoun 1st person is: ἰώ (iṓ), ἱών (hiṓn)1 –
(English: “I”, emphatic: ἰώνγα (iṓnga), ἰώνει (iṓnei), ἰώγα (iṓga)), for which the core ἰώ may
correlate with Αἰών (Aeon).
Correlations between the core ego-pronoun ἰώ and the sky-god's name (usually *Dyeus, but in
Greece eventually Αἰών (Aeon)) have been common for all languages inside the region of the
former Roman Empire, for example “io” o-o “Dio” and “iéu” o-o “Diéu”2.
Outside the territory of the Roman occupation we may expect a correlation between the dual form
“wit” for the personal pronoun 1st person and the sky-god's name (usually “Tiw”), but in the case of
the Greek language the dual form (νώ, respectively the epic version νῶϊ) of Greek language seems
to be quite different from the Germanic languages such as the English dual form “Ƿit” (“wit”) (“we
two”), the Icelandic dual form “við” and the old Dutch “wut”, respectively the Frisian dual form
“wat”3.
The personal pronoun of the 1st person dual νῶϊ (and νώ) may be a negation of ἰώ.
In Greek no standard sky-god's (such as Δεύς, Deus, Ieus4, Zeus) name correlates to the dual form
νώ, but instead the names of heroes Ion, Ios, Ionian, and a god Αἰών (Aeon, „eternity“) correlate
both to νώ, νῶϊ and their reversed versions ἰώ (iṓ), ἱών (hiṓn)5.
In fact both names Αἰών (Aeon) and “Ion6” both correlate to the singular (ἱών) and dual forms (νῶϊ)
for the personal pronoun 1st person. It is quite unusual to have both singular and dual forms of the
“ego”-pronoun to be linked to one common name Ion which concentrates on the center of Greek
culture. The Greeks may have linked both singular and dual forms to one individual (Ion) of their
heroes. Alternatively the correlation to eternity (Αἰών → Aeon) may be considered as a root for ἱών
and νῶϊ.
This paper investigates the symbolism of the correlating Greek words ἰώ, ἱών, νώ, νῶϊ, νοῦς (noûs),
Ion, Ios, Ionians, Αἰών (Aeon).

1 ἰώ iō and hiōn (Attic ἐγώ egō, I) (hiōnga iōga for egōge) (from Wikipedia: Boeotian )
2 The Ego-Pronouns in the Divine Names
3 Vergeten woorden
4 Zeus' Derivation from Ieus - inscriptions on vases, e.g.,"Ieus" for Zeus on London F149 (RVP 139/239; CFSTP15)
5 English: “I”, emphatic: ἰώνγα (iṓnga), ἰώνει (iṓnei), ἰώγα (iṓga)
6 One story of Ion is told in the tragedy play Ion by Euripides. Creusa conceived Ion with Apollo then she abandoned
the child. Apollo asked Hermes to take Ion from his cradle. Ion was saved (and raised) by a priestess of the Delphic
Oracle. (from Wikipedia: Ion)
The personal pronoun of the 1st person in Greek
The personal pronoun of the 1st person in Greek follows the PIE-concept. The dual form however
deviates from the from the Germanic languages such as the English dual form “Ƿit” (“wit”) (“we
two”), the Icelandic dual form “við” and the old Dutch “wut”, respectively the Frisian dual form
“wat”7.
singular dual plural
case
str. encl. str. str.
nominative ἐγώ νώ, νῶϊ ἡμεῖς
genitive ἐμοῦ μου νῷν ἡμῶν
dative ἐμοί μοι νῷν ἡμῖν
accusative ἐμέ με νώ, νῶϊ ἡμᾶς
adjective ἐμός ἡμέτερος
Table 1 first person pronoun (from Wikipedia: ἐγώ)
Alternative forms for ἐγώ are: (from Wikipedia: ἐγώ)
• ἐγών (egṓn)
• ἰώ (iṓ), ἱών (hiṓn) – Boeotian
• ἔγω (égō) – Aeolic
Emphatic forms for ἐγώ respectively ἰώ (iṓ), ἱών (hiṓn) are:
• ἔγωγε → An emphatic form of ἐγώ (egṓ, “I”); in Attic, formed by adding γε (ge).
• ἐγώνγα (egṓnga) – Doric
• ἰώνγα (iṓnga), ἰώνει (iṓnei), ἰώγα (iṓga) – Boeotian

Quotation of νῶϊ ( nôï ) → we both

800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 4.280–2848
αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ καὶ Τυδεΐδης καὶ δῖος Ὀδυσσεὺς
ἥμενοι ἐν μέσσοισιν ἀκούσαμεν, ὡς ἐβόησας.
νῶϊ μὲν ἀμφοτέρω μενεήναμεν ὁρμηθέντες
ἢ ἐξελθέμεναι ἢ ἔνδοθεν αἶψ' ὑπακοῦσαι·
ἀλλ' Ὀδυσεὺς κατέρῡκε καὶ ἔσχεθεν ῑῑεμένω περ.
autàr egṑ kaì Tudeḯdēs kaì dîos Odusseùs
hḗmenoi en méssoisin akoúsamen, hōs ebóēsas.
nôï mèn amphotérō meneḗnamen hormēthéntes
ḕ exelthémenai ḕ éndothen aîps' hupakoûsai;
all' Oduseùs katérūke kaì éskhethen hīeménō per.
[Menelaus talking to Helen:]

But I and Tydides and divine Odysseus

sat in the middle [of the Trojan horse] and heard [you] when you yelled.
We were both eager and ready to
get out or immediately answer from inside,
but Odysseus restrained and checked us despite our eagerness.

7 Vergeten woorden
8 (first person dual personal pronoun) we two, both of us, us two quotations ▲ Pronoun : νώ (nṓ, “we two”)
Variations of ancient Greek alphabets
Please note that the letter Omega (ω and Ω) will only be found in Ionian dialects:

2 Variations of ancient Greek alphabets

published in Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 3.0 by BishkekRocks
The words ἰός and Ion
The entry ἰός in Wiktionary allows us to setup the following vocabulary with relevant words for
correlations for ἰός:
1. ἰός - ῑῑός • (īós) m (genitive ῑῑοῦ); second declension - arrow
1. ῑῑός • (īós) m (genitive ῑῑοῦ); second declension - poison, venom
2. ῑῑός • (īós) m (genitive ῑῑοῦ); second declension - rust, verdigris
3. ἰός • (iós) m (feminine ῐῑ ῐᾰ, neuter ῐῑόν); first/second declension - selfsame (“identical”)

The legendary hero Ion

Ionians were named after Ion, son of Xuthus, who lived in the north Peloponnesian region of
Aigialeia. The Ionians are renowned for their love of philosophy, art, democracy, and pleasure.

History of the name Ionians

Prior to the 20th century BC, three dialects of Greek existed: Iawonic (→ Ἰάϝονες), Iawolic and
Doric (Georgiev's names). Iawonic was spoken in Attica, Euboea, East Boeotia and the
Peloponnesus. The Ionian dialect was one of most important dialects.
In the 16th century BC, a new koinē was formed from Iawonic and Iawolic: the Mycenaean Greek
language.
A fragmentary Linear B tablet from Knossos (tablet Xd 146) bears the name i-ja-wo-ne, interpreted
by Ventris and Chadwick[4] as possibly the dative or nominative plural case of *Iāwones, an ethnic
name. The Knossos tablets are dated to 1400 or 1200 B.C. and thus pre-date the Dorian dominance
in Crete, if the name refers to Cretans.
The name Ionians first appears in Greek literature in Homer as Ἰάονες, iāones,[5] used on a single
occasion of some long-robed Greeks attacked by Hector and apparently identified with Athenians,
and this Homeric form appears to be identical with the Mycenaean form but without the *-w-. This
name also appears in a fragment of the other early poet, Hesiod, in the singular Ἰάων, iāōn.[6] 9
The earliest explicit Greek account of the Ionians is given in the 5th century by Herodotus (i. 45,
56, 143-145, v. 66, vii. 94, viii. 44-46). The “children of Ion” originated in north-eastern
Peloponnese; 10

The island Ios

According to Plutarch it is thought that the name has derived from the Ancient Greek word for
violets "Ία"(Ia). Others say that the name is derived from Phoenician word iion, meaning “pile of
stones” but Pliny the Elder writes that the name comes from the Ionians which lived in the island.
[9].

9 Mycenaean (from Wikipedia: Ionians )

10 The earliest explicit Greek account of the Ionians is given in the 5th century by Herodotus (i. 45, 56, 143-145, v. 66,
vii. 94, viii. 44-46). The “children of Ion” originated in north-eastern Peloponnese; (from: "Ionians". Encyclopædia
Britannica (11th ed.). pp. 730–731. )
Differences between Greek and Proto-Indo-European
In Differences from Proto-Indo-European two principal rules seem to be relevant for the
correlations between Greek and other PIE-languages. The name Zeus was to be correlated to Ieus,
Iu-piter and probably YHWH as well.

The consonant W may be lost

PIE *w, which occurred in Mycenaean and some non-Attic dialects, was lost: early Doric ϝέργον
/wérgon/, English work, Attic Greek ἔργον /érgon/.

Y/J became H or D/Z

PIE *y /j/ became /h/ (debuccalization) or /(d)z/ (fortition): Sanskrit yas, Ancient Greek ὅς /hós/
"who" (relative pronoun); Latin iugum, English yoke, Ancient Greek ζυγός /zygós/.
Therefore the Latin word iugum, English yoke, is related to Ancient Greek ζυγός /zygós/, which
allows us to consider the Latin I, English Y equivalent to the Greek consonant Z. Therefore Zeus =
Ieus, which also is documented on an ancient vase: 11
In Δεύς Deus instead of Zeus. Attested also in Laconian and Rhodian.

3: IEUS (Zeus)-inscription on an ancient vase (550BCE)

published by Divos at Interfaith Forums

Zeus killing Typhon

11 Zeus' Derivation from Ieus - inscriptions on vases, e.g.,"Ieus" for Zeus on London F149 (RVP 139/239; CFSTP15)
The transformation from B to V in Greek language
in Greek the transformation from B to V may be illustrated by the following samples:
• In New Greek Boeotia is transformed to: Viotia (formerly Cadmeis12). The early wealth and
power of Boeotia is shown by the reputation and visible Mycenean remains of several of its
cities, especially Orchomenus and Thebes.
• In New Greek Euboea (Εύβοια) is transformed to: Evia
• In New Greek Thebes (Θῆβαι, Thēbai); Latijn: Thebae; is transformed to: Thíva
Therefore the sound of the letter B may have been transformed to V.

12 Cadmus, who was said to have founded Thebes and brought the alphabet to Greece
The legends of the introduction of the alphabet by Cadmus
Cadmus, a Phoenician king from Tyre (now in Lebanon), was said to have founded Thebes in
Boeotia (Greek: Βοιωτία) and to have brought the concept for the Greek alphabet to Greece. The
acropolis of Thebes originally had been named Cadmeia to his honor. Herodotus estimates that
Cadmus lived sixteen hundred years before his time, or around 2000 BC.[5]
Herodotus had seen and described the Cadmean writing in the temple of Apollo at Thebes
engraved on certain tripods. He estimated those tripods to date back to the time of Laius the
great-grandson of Cadmus.[6] On one of the tripods there was this inscription in Cadmean
writing, which, as he attested, resembled Ionian letters: Ἀμφιτρύων μ᾽ ἀνέθηκ᾽ ἐνάρων ἀπὸ
Τηλεβοάων ("Amphitryon dedicated me [don't forget] the spoils of [the battle of]
Teleboae."). 13
Hyginus recounts the following legend about the introduction of Phoenician letters to Greece:
The three Fates created the first five vowels of the alphabet and the letters B and T. It is said
that Palamedes, son of Nauplius invented the remaining eleven consonants.

History of the Greek alphabet

King Cecrops1 of Athens has been also counted among those who promoted civilization.
But during the time of the Trojan War, Palamedes of Argos was one of the most brilliant, having
invented eleven letters of the alphabet or, as others say, sixteen14.
Then Hermes reduced these sounds to characters, showing wedge shapes because
cranes fly in wedge formation and then carried the system from Greece to Egypt*.

This was the Pelasgian alphabet, which Cadmus had later brought to Boeotia, then
Evander of Arcadia, a Pelasgian, introduced into Italy, where his mother, Carmenta,
formed the familiar fifteen characters of the Latin alphabet.

Other consonants have since been added to the Greek alphabet. Alpha was the first of
eighteen letters, because alphe means honor, and alphainein is to invent.[9] 15

Some ancient Greek scholars argued that the Greek alphabet should not be attributed to the
Phoenician alphabet. Diodorus Siculus in his Historical Library, Book 5, suggests that the
Phoenicians merely changed the form and shape of earlier letters:
But there are some who attribute the invention of letters to the Syrians, from whom the
Phoenicians learned them and communicated them to the Greeks when they came with
Cadmus into Europe; hence the Greeks called them Phoenician letters. To these that
hold this opinion, it is answered that the Phoenicians were not the first that found out
letters, but only changed the form and shape of them into other characters, which many
afterwards using the name of Phoenicians grew to be common16.

The introduction of the prior to Omega 600BC

In Archaic Greek alphabets the introduction of the Omega has been documented at before 600BC17.

13 Cadmus
14 Palamedes at Greek Mythology Link
15 Hyginus' account
16 Diodorus' account
17 Omega
The Euclidean alphabet
In 403/2 BC, following the devastating defeat in the Peloponnesian War and the restoration of
democracy, the Athenians voted to abandon the old Attic alphabet (Pre-Euclidean alphabet) and to
introduce a standardized variant of the eastern Ionic alphabet, after a proposal by archon Eucleides.
This Euclidean alphabet included eta and omega, which concluded the process of adapting the
Phoenician script so that all vowels could be written systematically, thus becoming the first 'true'
alphabet.[14] 18.

The introduction of the [h] and [iː], [uː] and [y]

The absence of a letter for [h] was of no consequence for the Ionic dialects, but sometimes led to
ambiguities in Attic, which had retained the sound. A symbol based on the left-hand half ( ├ ) of the
letter Η was therefore sometimes used to indicate the presence of [h] where necessary, and its
absence was indicated by a symbol based on the right half.
During the classical period, ΕΙ came to be pronounced [iː] and ΟΥ came to be pronounced [uː], Υ
having meanwhile moved to [y].

18 Standardization – the Ionic alphabet

The relations to Αἰών, Ἰάονες, Ἰάων, *Ἰάϝων, Ἰάων
I noticed two remarkable forms of the personal “ego”-pronouns (“I”) in the case of
• the singular form: ἰώ (iṓ), ἱών (hiṓn) – for Boeotian dialect
• the dual form: νῶι, νῶ - translated from Greek to English : → we two, both of us.
The vowel triad A, I, Ω may be the root word for both the personal pronoun of the 1 st person in the
singular [(ἰώ (iṓ), ἱών (hiṓn) – Boeotian dialect)] and dual forms [νώ, νῶϊ].
The dual form νῶι, νῶ is related to the Latin plural form nōs, which surprised me for its possible
dual roots.
The singular Boeotian ego-pronoun: ἰώ is remarkable because it also refers to the dual form. Both
seem to be archaic roots and correlate to Ionia, Ionians and the religious union Ionian League
including its Panionium. Most of the impressive Greek culture had been based on Ionian concepts.
As a deity the legendary hero Ion cannot be considered as impressive enough to carry the
symbolism of the Greek personal “ego”-pronouns (“I”). The alternative sky-god may be Αἰών
(eternity).

Αἰών (Aion) - Eternity

Aion19 (Greek: Αἰών) is a Hellenistic deity associated with time, the orb or circle encompassing the
universe, and the zodiac.
The "time" represented by Aion is unbounded, in contrast to Chronos as empirical time divided into
past, present, and future.[1] He is thus a god of eternity, associated with mystery religions
concerned with the afterlife, such as the mysteries of Cybele, Dionysus, Orpheus, and Mithras.
In Christianity eternity is limited to to the end of the age and replaced by “from A to Ω” in the sense
of Matthew 28:20: "...I am with you always, to the end of the age" (NRSV), the word "age" being a
translation of aion.

Aeon (Gnosticism)
In many Gnostic systems, various emanations of "God" are known by such names as One, Monad,
Aion teleos (αἰών τέλεος "The Broadest Aeon").20

Aion by C. G. Jung
Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, a book by Carl Jung is Part 2 of the Volume 9
in The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, a series of books published by Princeton University Press in
the U.S. and Routledge & Kegan Paul in the U.K. Originally published in German (1951), it is a
major work of Jung's later years. Its central theme is the symbolic representation of the psychic
totality through the concept of the Self, whose traditional historical equivalent is the figure of
Christ21.

Aon (mythology)
Aon, in ancient Greek religion, was a son of Poseidon. He was worshiped particularly in Boeotia,
which was also known as Aonia, named after him.[1] 22
19 Greek αἰών "time, eternity; age"; see Aeon
20 Aeon (Gnosticism)
21 Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, a book by Carl Jung
22 Aon (mythology), son of Poseidon in Greek mythology - "Aon". Myth Index - Greek. 2007. This reference appears to
be an unattributed copy of the following: Smith, Sir William, ed. (1850). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography
Jah, Jahweh and Ion, Ionia
Remarkable is the impressive number of correlations between Jah, Jahweh (IAΩ23) and Ion, Ionia,
which is illustrated in the highlighted words which may be referring to the “Ionians”:
• *Iāwones (→ Crete) in “i-ja-wo-ne” on a Linear B tablet from Knossos (tablet Xd 146) 24
• Ἰάονες, iāones (→ Homer, late 8th or early 7th century BC)25,
• A raid by the Ionians (ia-u-na-a-a) on the Phoenician coast is reported to Tiglath-Pileser III
in a letter of the 730's find at Nimrud.[11] 26
• Ἰάων, iāōn (→ Hesiod, 750 and 650 BC)27,
• Yāwān, Javan is believed nearly universally by Bible scholars to represent the Ionians; that
is, Javan is Ion. The Hebrew is Yāwān, plural Yəwānīm.[8] 28
The earlier Greek form of the name Javan was *Ἰάϝων ("Iáwōn"29), Ἰάων (Iáōn), Iáones.
• Yauna (→ Persia)30,
These names relate the vowel cores ἰώ, ἱών, νῶι and νῶ to the divine triad-words such as IAΩ, Ἰάω.
These correlations suggest to consider the original structure of the personal pronouns for the 1 st
person might have been Ἰάων (or even *Ἰάϝων) for the singular form and νῶάϊ (respectively
*νῶϝάϊ) for the dual form.

Nous
In his Cratylus, Plato gives the etymology of Athena's name, the goddess of wisdom, from
Atheonóa (Ἀθεονόα) meaning "god's (theos) mind (nous)". Are we allowed to correlate νώ (“we
two”) respectively “nos” and nous (the mind).

and Mythology. 1. Abaeus - Dysponteus. London: Taylor, Walton and Maberly. p. 220.
23 Diodorus Siculus, when enumerating the different legislators of antiquity, says, "Amongst the Jews Moses pretended
that the god surnamed Iao gave him his laws" (i. 94).
24 Mycenaean (source : Ionians)
25 Mycenaean (source : Ionians)
26 Assyrian (source : Ionians)
27 Mycenaean (source : Ionians)
28 Biblical (source : Ionians)
29 Ion was also believed to have founded a primary tribe of Greece, the Ionians. He has often been identified with
Javan, who is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the ancestor of the Greek people, but in the Bible, Javan is a son of
Noah's son Japheth.[2] The earlier Greek form of the name was *Ἰάϝων "Iáwōn", which, with the loss of the
digamma, later became Ἰάων Iáōn,[3] or plural Iáones, as seen in epic poetry.[4][5] (→ Ion (→ Mythology)
30 Iranian (source : Ionians)
Bidirectional readings
Greek was originally written predominantly from right to left, just like Phoenician, but scribes could
freely alternate between directions.
Runes may be interpreted in both reading directions: forward and backward. Therefore in runes the
dual form “Ƿit” may also be interpreted as “Tiw”, the Old English spelling for Týr, a Norse sky-god
of rules and regulations in war and peace. Tuesday is "Tīw's Day" (also in Alemannic Zischtig from
zîes tag), translating dies Martis31. In Dutch the reversed version of the personal pronoun “wut”
resulted in the sky-god “Tuw”32.

31 Týr
32 Vergeten woorden – Tuw (in Dutch)
Appendix I - the sky-god and personal pronouns of the 1st person dual
The tables in A modified Swadesh List have been modified by adding two (highlighted) entries for
two Greek dialects (Ionian & Boeotian).
These modifications illustrate the dual correlation between both the dual form and singular form for
the personal pronouns of the 1st person in Greek dialects.

Language / Region Sky-god, God Sky-god, Both of us I Marker at the map

(T**) God (**T) (dual) (singular)
Old-Dutch Tuw, Tij Wod, wut, wit ic, ik Tuw, Tij (wut, wit)
Wodan
Northern Frisia Wins wat, wët Tij (wat, wët)
Frisia Tij Wêda ik
English Tue Wōden I
Old English Tīw, Tīg Wōden Ƿit (Wit) / ic, īc, Y Tīw, Tīg
Ȝit (Git) 33 (Ƿit, Ȝit)
Mecklenburg Wod
Westphalia Woudan
Norse Ty, Tí-var ek
Old Norse Tí (?) við (?) Ek (?) Tí (við)
Icelandic Týr við ég Týr (við)
Slavic Svan-tovit vě ja Svantovit (vě)
Ionian dialects Δεύς, Ieus, Zeus, νώ, νῶϊ ἐγώ Ion, Ios, Ionian,
Boeotian dialect or Αἰών (Aeon) ἰώ, ἱών Αἰών (Aeon)

Table 2: correlation between the sky-god's name and the personal pronouns of the 1st person dual

(source: A modified Swadesh List )

33 In Germanic languages the dual therefore remained only in the first- and second-person pronouns and their
accompanying verb forms. Old English, Old Norse and the other old Germanic languages had dual marking only in
the personal pronouns, but not in the verbs. (The Nuclear Pillars of Symbolism)
Appendix II - Correlations inside and outside the Roman Empire
The tables in A modified Swadesh List have been modified by adding two (highlighted) entries for
two Greek dialects (Ionian & Boeotian).34
Language Sky-god, God Both of us (dual) I (singular) Marker at the map
Old-Dutch Tuw, Tij wut, wit ic, ik Tuw, Tij (wut, wit)
Northern Frisian wat, wët Tij (wat, wët)
Frisian Tij ik
English Tue I
35
Old English Tīw, Tīg Ƿit (Wit) / Ȝit (Git) ic, īc, Y Tīw, Tīg (Ƿit, Ȝit)
Norse Ty, Tí-var ek
Old Norse Tí (?) við (?) Ek (?) Tí (við)
Icelandic Týr við ég Týr (við)
Slavic Svan-tovit vě ja Svantovit (vě)
Greek (Ionian) dialects Δεύς, Ieus, Zeus νώ, νῶϊ ἐγώ Ion, Ios, Ionian,
Boeotian dialect or Αἰών (Aeon) ἰώ, ἱών Αἰών (Aeon)

French Dieu je Dieu (je)

Provencal Diéu iéu Diéu (iéu)
Italian Dio io Dio (io)
Spanish Dios yo Dios (yo)
Portuguese Deus eu Deus (eu)
Sicilian Diu iu Diu (iu)
Romanian Zeu eu Zeu (eu)
Nîmes (F.) Dïou yiou Dïou (yiou)
Savoye (Montagny) Dzeu dzou Dzeu (dzou)
Savoye (central) Dyu de Dyu (de)
Savoye Dyu, ze Dyu (ze)
(Bessans, Giettaz) Dzyeû, Dezyeu
Sardinian (Campidanese) Deu dèu Deu (dèu)
Walloon Diu, Dju, Diè dji Diu (dji)
Villar-St-Pancrace Dïou (?) iòu Dïou (yiou)
Eischemtöitschu Ziisch iich Ziisch (iich)
Logudorese Sardinian déu(s) dèo déu(s) (dèo)
Rumantsch (sutsilvan) Dieu(s) jou Dieu(s) (jou)
Rumantsch (Surmiran) Dia ia Dia (ia)
Rumantsch (Grischun) Dieu jau Dieu (jau)
Rumantsch (Vallader) Diẹu eu, eau Diẹu (eau)

3: Table with the European names of the sky-god and the personal pronouns
(for the dual, respectively singular form) - (from: A modified Swadesh List)

34 The Sky-God Names and the (Correlating) Personal Pronouns

35 In Germanic languages the dual therefore remained only in the first- and second-person pronouns and their
accompanying verb forms. Old English, Old Norse and the other old Germanic languages had dual marking only in
the personal pronouns, but not in the verbs. (The Nuclear Pillars of Symbolism)
Appendix III - The water management
Problems in water management may have disturbed the economic base of ancient cities such as
Thebes. Two lakes have been dominant in the water supply of Thebes: Lake Copais at ca. 16Km
and Lake Yliki at a distance of 8km.
Ancient Greek societies were very active in the field of water management 36. The drainage project
of Lake Copais (is located in Central Greece) was developed and operated by Minyans, a powerful
Mycenaean race37.
According to Strabo, the area flooded at about 1100 BC, probably because of earthquakes.
Some ancient myths relate Hercules with the destruction of Copais drainage works and the flooding
of the area, indicating that war actions (related to the inter-Mycenaean rivalry during Greek Dark
Ages) destroyed that project.

36 The operation of ancient reclamation works at Lake Copais in Greece

37 Representing the operation of ancient reclamation works at Lake Copais in Greece... - N. Mamassis, S. Moustakas,
and N. Zarkadoulas, Representing the operation of ancient reclamation works at Lake Copais in Greece, Water
History, doi:10.1007/s12685-015-0126-x, 2015.
Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
The personal pronoun of the 1st person in Greek............................................................................3
Quotation of νῶϊ ( nôï ) → we both............................................................................................3
Variations of ancient Greek alphabets ............................................................................................4
The words ἰός and Ion......................................................................................................................5
The legendary hero Ion...............................................................................................................5
History of the name Ionians .......................................................................................................5
The island Ios..............................................................................................................................5
Differences between Greek and Proto-Indo-European ...................................................................6
The consonant W may be lost ....................................................................................................6
Y/J became H or D/Z..................................................................................................................6
The transformation from B to V in Greek language...................................................................7
The legends of the introduction of the alphabet by Cadmus...........................................................8
The introduction of the prior to Omega 600BC..........................................................................8
The Euclidean alphabet ..............................................................................................................9
The introduction of the [h] and [iː], [uː] and [y].........................................................................9
The relations to Αἰών, Ἰάονες, Ἰάων, *Ἰάϝων, Ἰάων....................................................................10
Αἰών (Aion) - Eternity..............................................................................................................10
Aeon (Gnosticism) ...................................................................................................................10
Aion by C. G. Jung....................................................................................................................10
Aon (mythology) ......................................................................................................................10
Jah, Jahweh and Ion, Ionia .......................................................................................................11
Nous..........................................................................................................................................11
Bidirectional readings....................................................................................................................12
Appendix I - the sky-god and personal pronouns of the 1st person dual.......................................13
Appendix II - Correlations inside and outside the Roman Empire................................................14
Appendix III - The water management..........................................................................................15