Dear reader,

What follows was an early morning [6am] draft that wasn't supposed to find its was on to Blogger just yet. Rather than delete it, I will add a second post later. If there's anything else to write about. . . .

Returning briefly the the issue of the first domes, here's what Encyclopaedia Britannica has to say on this:- "Domes first appeared as solid mounds and in techniques adaptable only to the smallest buildings such as round huts and tombs in the ancient Middle East, India, and the Mediterranean. The Romans introduced the large-scale masonry hemisphere." I have been fortunate enough to see some of the finest later achievements, most particularly in Esfahan in Iran. Which is not, by the way, an Arabic country.

Finally, here's a question for Spain's philologists - Where does the pronunciation of the Spanish J come from? This is often represented by 'kh' in English, in which language the only time you're likely to get anywhere near it is with the Scottish word for lake, 'loch'. The sound doesn't seem to exist in French, Italian, Portuguese or even Galician. So its origins don't appear to be latinate. It does, of course, exist in Persian and Arabic and may also figure in the other Semitic language, Hebrew. And possibly in Yiddish too. Facts, opinions and theories welcome. Does it exist in Basque? Is it possible the original Iberians or the later Celts used it? How can we know?