Study Association T.W.I.S.T. has its own logo, flag, coat of arms, and anthem. All of these will be explained below.
Logo
T.W.I.S.T.’s logo is the golden Apple of Discord, as depicted above. The Apple of Discord originates in Greek mythology. The goddess Eris hijacks a wedding party by tossing an apple in the midst of the festivities, made of pure gold and inscribed with the text τῇ καλλίστῃ (tēi kallistēi, ᴅᴇꜰ.ꜰ.ꜱɢ.ᴅᴀᴛ beautiful.ꜱᴜᴘʟ.ꜰ.ꜱɢ.ᴅᴀᴛ, ‘for the most beautiful’). Three goddesses have a fight (also called a ‘twist’ in Dutch) over who has the right to receive the apple and be called ‘the most beautiful’. Eventually, it is decided that Paris may choose who will receive the apple. All of the goddesses offer him something in return, but Paris chooses Aphrodite, who promises him the most beautiful woman on Earth. Aphrodite receives the apple, and in return, Paris receives Helena’s hand in marriage. This is the start of the Trojan war, the war over Helena.
The golden apple from this myth has found its way into the Dutch language as the ‘twistappel’, which means: ‘a subject or matter over which disagreement exists’. In this association, however, the apple does not bring any disagreement. Instead, it symbolises the connection between its members.
Flag
Since board Jan (2015-2016), T.W.I.S.T. has an official flag, designed by Jur Timmerman. The four different sections of the flag symbolise the four tracks of our study programme, Linguistics. Within the association, all four of these tracks are united as one. The golden apple, depicted in the middle of the flag, symbolises the assocation.
Board flag Ori
The current board, Ori, has designed their own flag. The colours hold symbolic meaning, explained below.
The top left part of the flag features Ori’s coat of arms. The central symbol of the coat of arms – the horse – is an allusion to “stallion” – the meaning of Ori in Finnish. The golden apple stands for T.W.I.S.T., the bluebells are another, unoffical, symbol of the Ori board, sharing the colour with their suits. The dark-blue colour is the colour of Leiden University, the purple alludes (again) to bluebells, as well as Ori’s board uniform’s color, and yellow is the colour associated with T.W.I.S.T. itself.
The flag & coat of arms were designed and conceptualised by Horea Marinescu.
Coat of arms
The coat of arms of T.W.I.S.T. is a shield that consists of five different sections. Next to the T.W.I.S.T. apple – depicted in the smaller, central shield – there is a section dedicated to the symbol of Leiden, and three sections dedicated to each of the study programmes T.W.I.S.T. used to represent. The study programme Languages and Cultures of Africa is represented by an African shield, depicted on top of the three Panafrican colours. General Linguistics is represented by the IPA symbol which roughly depicts the sound of a wildebeest. Lastly, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics is represented by two sun wheels and two horses.
The motto Linguistica Est is the Latin translation of Taalwetenschap is ‘t! (Linguistics is it!), the association’s slogan, of which T.W.I.S.T. is the acronym.
Anthem
T.W.I.S.T.’s Dutch anthem, written by Alain Corbeau, can be found and listened to below.
Based on the work of the Coat of Arms Committee (Jorik Groen & Rob Verhoeven 2010-2011), as edited by Mare van Welzenis (2018), Marit Postma (2019), and Tess Huijting (2021).