The curious case of a botched Greek to Latin transcription ("Twaetihaoyc")

[Hallfiry]

Back in 1839 or 1840 Jacob Grimm was visited by a man who brought him a transcription of a document from 1120. The Document contained a few unclear words, in particular "Twaetihaoyc". Grimm couldn't decipher it and set it aside. A few years later he came across a print of a better transcription of the original document and found the word was actually the name ΓΩΔΕΦΡΗΔΟΥϹ, Godefredus, and somebody originally transcribed it, who didn't know Greek and thus matched it to the most similar looking Latin letter.

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[Stephen Carlson]

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