h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dear Icy North,

Thank you so much for a really absorbing article. I loved it, and did not realise that there were so many words for the same terrestial/coastal land/sea area of our planet !!

I suddenly remembered one of the places where I used to live in South Africa. On the coastline of False Bay. One side was bounded by Cape Point - sometimes also called the Cape Peninsula and the other !arm! of the Bay whose name unfortunately escapes me for the moment.

I was interested in your explication of the origin of the word for lighthouse. In French we use the word "Phare" and I had no idea that it was a word of Greek origin. I thought French was sort of like finding its origin in Latin.

Incidentally I tried to learn Portugese when I was living in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and found it incredibly difficult to learn. The amusing thing was that after I had learnt it I found that I could actually follow a conversation in Spanish and in Italian which I had never been able to do although the first language I spoke was french.

Which just goes to show how valuable and wonderful your article is. Thank you so much. Lovely way to wake up this morning. !!

Kind regards
Christiane
AR80

25/11/09 7.10 GMT

Many thanks, Christiane, I'm so pleased that you enjoyed it!

South Africa must have the most famous and visually stunning cape in the world. Did you ever live there? I'd love to visit the area one day.

Icy