When money is worthless
QUESTION What is the highest denomination banknote ever produced?
IF a country undergoes a period of hyperinflation, currencies may devalue in a short time, and the government may continue to print out large denomination bills to compensate, sometimes in the millions, billions, and trillions.
Brazil and Austria have produced 500,000 cruzeiro real and kronen notes. Argentina and Georgia had one million peso and laris notes. Peru printed a five million Intis bill. Bolivia printed a ten million peso bill.
Axis-occupied Greece printed a 100 billion drachma bill. As Yugoslavia was dissolving, it printed 500 billion dinar notes. Weimar Germany printed billion mark notes. Zimbabwe had printed bills up to its largest, 100 trillion dollars, in 2009.
The world’s worst case of hyperinflation was in post-war Hungary. In 1944, as the country became a battleground between Russia and Germany, Hungary’s industrial capacity was decimated. Transportation was difficult because most of the rail lines and locomotives were destroyed.
With no tax base to rely on, the Hungarian government decided to stimulate the economy by printing money, a system that rapidly got out of hand. During this period 100 quintillion (a one followed by 20 zeros) pengo bill was issued.
Hungary introduced its new currency in 1946, the forint, and a famous photograph showed a road sweeper sending large pengo bills into the sewer.
One new forint was exchangeable for 400 octillion (4 x 10^29) pengo.
Mark D Wright, Southampton.
QUESTION Is it true that one language of the world dies every fortnight? What languages have died recently?
A LANGUAGE disappears when its speakers disappear or when they shift to speaking another language – most often, a larger language used by a more powerful group.
Today, increased migration and rapid urbanisation often bring along the loss of traditional ways of life and a strong pressure to speak a dominant language that is – or is perceived to be – necessary for full civic participation and economic advancement.
Language loss has resulted in warnings such as: ‘About half of the estimated 7,000 languages still spoken around the world will disappear by the end of this century’, and the statement to the effect that ‘every two weeks a language dies.’
Hard evidence from The Catalogue Of Endangered Languages shows that while there is a major problem, such statements are extreme.
Currently, 3,054 languages are endangered (43% of all languages), based on precise criteria. Of all known named languages, 634 have become extinct, 141 of these (22%) in the last 40 years.
The catalogue demonstrates that as of the 21st century an average of 3.5 languages become extinct per year, i.e. about one each four months.
Three languages went extinct during 2016; two were native American dialects, Mandan – a Siouan dialect from North Dakota, with the death of Dr Edwin Benson on December 9, and Wichita, a Caddoan dialect from Omaha with the death of Doris McLemore on August 30. The other was Gugu Thaypan, an Aboriginal language from Queensland of the Pama– Nyungan family, with the death of Tommy George on July 29.
The last language to go extinct in the British isles was the Cromarty dialect of North Northern Scots. The last native speaker of the dialect, Bobby Hogg, died in 2012 at age 92.
James Murray, Edinburgh.
QUESTION My grandmother gave advice about colour combinations in clothes, beginning: ‘Blue and green should never be seen, especially on an Irish cailín.’ Does anyone recall the full list?
THIS old saying about clashing colour combinations goes back to Victorian times.
The main part of the advice in the old ditty was not to wear blue and green together, although some versions of it have a line that reads: ‘Blue and green should never be seen, except with yellow in between.’
One fashion expert, Amber Jane Buchart, from the London College of Fashion, says that even today, people think these are clashing combinations of colours. But in fact, she says that blue and green can look great together.
She points out that other combinations of colours go together surprisingly well, such as pink and red, while in recent years, navy and black have been a red-hot fashion combination.
The ditty was devised in the days when all washing of clothes had to be done manually, long before washing machines were invented, which also meant that people had to be very careful when washing garments, not to let colours run into each other. There’s also a connection between the saying and a long-held maritime tradition. For many years, the running lights on ships have been red on the port side and green on the starboard side. These running lights were meant to prevent two ships colliding, although they have been superseded modern navigational technology. The phrase used by old-time sailors was ‘red and red, or green and green, but red and green should never be seen’. It was very close to the advice being given on fashion colours!
But going back to the ditty, it was originally designed to provide a guide to wearing all the basic colours and making sure that people didn’t wear two conflicting colours that didn’t match.
So other lines in this antique fashion advice include: ‘Fawn should never be worn’, ‘only wear yellow if mellow’ and ‘never wear brown in town’.
Often, the words were adapted to particular locations.
References to blue and green included the word ‘cailín’ when they were used in Ireland, but in England, the version used was ‘red and green should never be seen except upon a queen’ .
In Victorian times and indeed, well into the 20th century, the words were taken as gospel truth and if women were dressing up to go out, they took good heed of the advice.
But these days, such oldfashioned advice has gone out the window.
Many people nowadays do believe that blue and green can go together quite well! Seán Brady, Dublin 11.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Irish Daily Mail, Embassy House, Herbert Park Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. You can also fax them to 0044 1952 510906 or you can email them to charles.legge@dailymail.ie. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.