| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
According to Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way (p. 227): "Palindromes … are at least 2,000 years old. The ancient Greeks often put "ΝΙΨΟΝΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑΜΗΜΟΝΑΝΟΨΙΝ" (or, in mixed case with [modern] accents and divided into words, Νίψον ανομήματα μη μόναν όψιν: "Nipson anomemata me monan opsin") on fountains (ps, ψ, is one letter in Greek, called psi), meaning "Wash the sin as well as the face." The Romans admired them, too, as demonstrated by "In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni" ("We enter the circle at night and are consumed by fire"), which was said to describe the action of moths.
The Latin palindrome "Sator Arepo tenet opera rotas" (roughly "The farmer by his labour keeps the wheels to the plough") is remarkable for the fact that it reproduces itself also if one forms a word from the first letters, then the second letters and so forth. Hence it can also be arranged into a square which can be read either horizontally or vertically:
S A T O R A R E P O T E N E T O P E R A R O T A SPalindromes occur in many western languages, but they are particularly prevalent in English due to the wide variety and frequent reversal of letter pairs within words. Finnish, however, has been described as "the language of palindromes."
Japanese palindromes, called kaibun, rely on the hiragana syllabary, like the word "shinbunshi" (newsprint). Their syllabary makes it possible to make very long palindromes. Chinese palindromes are relatively easy to create due to the structure of written Chinese. For example: 我愛媽媽,媽媽愛我 ("I love Mom; Mom loves me")—this is usually the first palindrome learned by Chinese kids. Numerous palindromes can be created by replacing "媽媽"(Mom) with any person. As a result, only very special palindromes are worth mentioning.In genetics, a palindromic DNA sequence can form a hairpin.
Examples of palindromic words and phrases:
The IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is an island nation in the northern Atlantic Ocean, located between Greenland and Scotland, northwest of the Faroe Islands. Lydveldid Island ( In Detail) (Full size) National motto: none Official languageNone. Icelandic de facto''.ic musicMusic often an art/ entertainment, is a total social fact whose definitions vary according to era and culture," according to Jean Molino. 1 It is often contrasted with noise. According to musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez: "The border between music and no-band Sigur RósSigur Ros (which translates from the Icelandic as "victory rose") is an Icelandic post-rock band. Jon THor Birgisson ( nicknamed "Jonsi"; guitarist and vocalist), Georg Holm ("Goggi"; bass guitar) and Agust ( drums) formed the group in Reykjavik on Januar composed a song on their album Ágćtis Byrjungaetis Byrjun was a 1999 (see 1999 in music) album released by Icelandic musical band Sigur Ros. The ten songs on the album include some self-referencing: the introduction contains backmasked parts from the title track, and the last song, "Avalon", consis, which partly sounds the same, playing forwards or backwards. Not only symmetric from the notes, but also symmetric in the sound by mixing the reverse music over the original. The song - named Staralfur - can be downloaded at their websiteA website or Web site (often shortened to a site is a collection of webpages, that is, documents accessible via the World Wide Web on the Internet. The pages of a website will be accessed from a common root URL, the homepage, and usually reside on the sam under http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/media/index.html.
The interlude from Alban Berg's opera, Lulu is a palindrome, as are sections and pieces, in arch form, by many other composers, including James Tenney (swell), and most famously Béla Bartók's (and influenced by him Steve Reich).
See also crab canon, in classical music: a canon in which one line of the melody is reversed in time and pitch from the other.