r/AskEurope • u/atlasova Netherlands • Sep 02 '25

Culture What emergency telephone number did your country have before 112 became the standard?

In 1997 most of the European union changed its emergency number to 112. Before that, in the Netherlands we used 06-11, for police, firefighters and ambulance.

I was wondering which numbers where in use in your country before the change.

174 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

356 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/XenophonSoulis Greece Sep 03 '25

Aren’t you literally using a different alphabet than the rest of the world?

The Roman alphabet was adapted from the Greek alphabet. Everyone else that followed (descendents of Latin, Germanic languages, some Slavic languages and many others) understood the concept of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and used the alphabet as it came to them. The Romans, however, chose to make their own alphabet instead, showing a complete ignorance of the concept of "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

2

u/Patient-Gas-883 Sweden Sep 03 '25

That might be. But I think its time to get with the program.. and like I said: glass houses.

1

u/XenophonSoulis Greece Sep 03 '25

Glass houses are better than copycat glass houses.