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by **petethegreek** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:46 pm

Why, when u translate certain Greek words into English they have more than one spelling?

Larnaca / Larnaka - Which is correct? With a "c" or a "k"?

The same applies with Olympiacos / Olympiakos and Kyriakou / Kyriacou.

What about Ayios / Agios and Panayiotou / Panagiotou. With a "y" or a "g"?

Any others?

Any explanations?

by **Yiannis** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:01 pm

Simply because names have no translation to english. So in trying to translate Olympiakos you can have it translated in many different ways. However since in greek its Ολυμπιακός the most appropriate 'greeklish' translation will be with a k since its closer to the greek letter κ. Either way u choose i guess will be correct since there is no standard in translating to greeklish.

by **magikthrill** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:47 pm

i blame the british for this.

in greece with the new IDs, names translated into english are tranlsated using Latin characters and not english. the difference:

the mp letters which used to be translated as B (the sound they make) are no longer translated and written the way they are but with the equivalent latin characters.

i think something similar is going on in cyprus as they are trying to change everything to simpler forms ie Larnka, Lemeso, Pafos etc.

by **Svetlana** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:22 am

There are three versions of many town names in Cyprus: Greek, 'English' and the official Government 'Transliteration' name, the PC version which no-one uses!!!

Lana

by **cannedmoose** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:21 am

In the case you cited of Panagiotou Pete, it's obvious why it's transliterated as Panayiotou in english as 'g' would be pronounced 'gh'. The 'gamma' sound is one that english people have a problem with because there is no equivalent in the english language, the same counts with 'delta' as well which english people tend to pronounce as a harsh 'd' rather than 'dth' (only way I can write it!)

by **cannedmoose** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:22 am

magikthrill wrote:i blame the british for this.

How surprising... :roll:

by **demetriou_74** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:16 am

i noticed that Paphos has changed to Pafos in tourist book. they way english people say kalamari cracks me up

by **cannedmoose** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:19 am

demetriou_74 wrote:i noticed that Paphos has changed to Pafos in tourist book. they way english people say kalamari cracks me up

Why, because we can't roll 'r'?

by **demetriou_74** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:21 am

cannedmoose wrote:
demetriou_74 wrote:i noticed that Paphos has changed to Pafos in tourist book. they way english people say kalamari cracks me up

Why, because we can't roll 'r'?

you say it kalar-maar-rey. one of them things where you have to be there

by **Svetlana** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:27 am

Hi demetriou

'Pafos' is the official transliteration version of 'Paphos', many Brits manage 'Pathos' LOL!

Lana

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