Wallops #7

["Mark E. Shoulson" <cbmvax!uunet!CTR.COLUMBIA.EDU!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!shoulson>]

Colin on Nick on Colin on Nick:
>Answering Nick answering me commenting on Nick:
>> >> la xar. lu .ixu.ianai su'o remna na ponse su'o fepni li'u
>> >        "fepni" - I would be inclined to use "sicni" throughout.
>>
>> The original "obolos" is a fepni... I'll think about it.
>
>        I suggest that the original obolos is a "fepni sicni". The
>        concept in "rupnu" and "fepni" is a sophisticated one.

Fine point of distinction:  Yes, Charon is probably asking for a {fepni
sicni}, but more importantly he's asking for a fepni (i.e. if Menippus only
had a 5p coin he'd make change, as it were).  Or maybe he wouldn't, in
which case {fepni sicni} is right.  *But*, in this sentence, he's asking
"doesn't everyone have at least one penny to his name"--the *unit of
currency*, not necessarily the coin.  So maybe in the earlier sentence he
might demand a {fepni sicni}, but here I think he's asking about a {fepni}.

~mark