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Greek alphabet ignorance
3

Greek alphabet ignorance

Greek alphabet ignorance

(OP)
Anyone else in the states annoyed by the new ABC show "GREEK"?

I haven't actually seen the show, just adds.  ABC spells "GREEK" with capital Sigmas where the Es go.

I guess the Greek character Epsilon looks too much like an E.

Same stupidity was done in the James Bond movie "The World is Not Enough".  The Russian Atomic Energy Department was given the initials Alpha Sigma Delta.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

<insert your favorite criticism of Television / Hollywood writing quality HERE>

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Advanced Robotics & Automation Engineering
www.bluetechnik.com

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

This kind of ignorance is one thing in the world of television (for starters it enables us to maintain our smug feeling of superiority, while the TV execs are picking up their 6 figure pay checks) but quite another when you find it in an engineering context.
It always really annoys me when I see millimetres expressed as MM instead of mm, although I doubt it can ever have led to someone actually sizing something in Mega-metres!

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

... wouldn't that be Mm though?  I'm not aware of a unit that's abbreviated to M.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

"The Russian Atomic Energy Department was given the initials Alpha Sigma Delta"

since when have Russians abandonned the cyrillic for the greek alphabet? smile


@richkeoch
about Mm, what about a very well-known word processor that systematically corrects MPa to Mpa?

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

How about the kids movie Alladin, where they used scribbles instead of actual arabic in the background scenes.  

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

MintJulip,

Are you greek as in a fraternity / sorority back in college?  Greek letters are secrets to the frat / sorority and most often mean something else then what is shown.  If you listen to many frat names when they say it phonetically, it is the first letter of the greek word of that letter.  In most cases it is wrong, but that is on purpose to through you off the real meaning.  So the e’s in their title was just keeping up with tradition.

Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Good point.  Who hasn't heard of a product name that is a real world garbled in some way catch your attention.

People like me, we don't even notice it (looks ok to me).
People like MJ, notice it doesn't look right
People like Twoballcane, notice it probably wasn't an accident.

=====================================
Eng-tips forums: The best place on the web for engineering discussions.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Typogrsphical correctiom:

"...that is a real word garbled in some way..."

=====================================
Eng-tips forums: The best place on the web for engineering discussions.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Re 'ABC spells "GREEK" with capital Sigmas where the Es go.'

GREEK in the Greek alphabet would be written ΓΡΕΕΚ.

Greeks call themselves Hellenes (???????), anyway.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

That (???????) should be Ελληνες.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

I think you are missing a breathing mark on that kevlach... winky smile


"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?" Oddball, "Kelly's Heros" 1970

Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of the Eng-Tips Forums.
 

 
 

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

To satisfy the classical scholars, Ελληνες should be 'Ελληνες.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Justice definition

Solon ????: "? ?????????? ????? ???? ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ?? ?????? ????? ?????????????? "

luismarques

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

As Greek doesn’t enter I will say it in English

Solon said: “justice is like a spider trap; only the small flies are arrested”

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Who me?


"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?" Oddball, "Kelly's Heros" 1970

Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of the Eng-Tips Forums.
 

 
 

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance


MintJulep, It's posts like yours that make me glad I do not have cable TV.

I struggle more with the local ignorance of Greek food where I live.  I got spoiled living in Chicago and working a few blocks from Greektown.  I wish I had a loaf of bread and a dish of taramosalata from Greek Islands right now,  sigh.....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramosalata

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

casseopeia,

I would imagine that this is a local dish in greece, and most greeks wouldnt know what it is anyway.

There are so many local dishes in that country that no-one has heard of in the US, and they often tend to only make it in one area. Have you tried a Kefalona pie?

csd

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

I think taramasalata is well known throughout Greece.
Well the parts of it I've been to anyway.
Not that I've been specifically looking for it mind, I can't stand the stuff.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance


According to my latest audio book, The History of Salt, a salted fish roe dish such as taramasalata has been known in Greece since ancient times.  The exact recipe has long varied from place to place, and with the advancement of technology. I've had bad taramoslata, usually highly colored with food dye and extended with some unknown muck.

I've never had Kefalonia pie, but it sounds wonderful.  Just about anything in puff pastry is wonderful.

I'd cook more Greek dishes, but it requires a crowd to eat it.  The last thing I attempted was galactobouriko.  It was fair.  

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

(OP)
Cass,

You shun cable TV but listen to audio books about salt?

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

LOLOL

i had to know the greek alphabet backwards and forwards.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Mixing Greek cuisine recipes in a language/grammar  forum, is an example of a frequent use of the word "salata" or more emphatic "taramosalata" in Greek language.

Costas

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Thanks for the excellent link Varsamidis, very interesting stuff, I have found that I am even more ignorant than I originally thought.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

"...voiceless velar fricative." Now THERE'S something you don't see on a website too often. (in the pronunciation guide for "Chi")

And I thought Latin was difficult....

Lately I can't see or hear anything Greek without thinking of Michael Constantine in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" spouting off about how everything is derived from something Greek.



"I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people."
- Dan Quayle

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

jraef,
You just pointed to an interesting issue;- more English speaking people learn Latin than any other nation. Take my word, non of the Latin American countries speak latin at all, except few catholic priests.
cheers,
gr2vessles

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

"I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people."
- Dan Quayle

That just goes to show what a fool he is.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

For those of you outside of the US who are unfamiliar, Dan Quayle was the Vice President under G. Bush I, and was well known (and mercilessly teased) for being relatively ignorant.

The quote I put up however turns out to not be true. It was apparently a joke made about him by a fellow Republican congressperson but because DQ had made so many malapropisms and verbal mistakes, everyone believed it.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

And he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize today.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

It is another VP. This one invented the Internet.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Thanks jmw for the post, the posters on that page remind me exactly why I don't read the Telegraph.
Perhaps I come from a fierce and soldierly nation too...

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Regarding Dan Quayle - they all make mistakes; I guess when you put out as much hot air as a politician one would.  I heard Al Gore once say the Gettysburg Address was delivered in 1963.  swivel63 - did you have to say it three times before the match burned your fingers?

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Considering the ingredients of "taramasalata" it's not (mis)pronunciation one hears people struggling with,,,, those are simply the sounds that accompany those ingredients being expelled.

blllttt


Of course fish roe, raw oysters, tobacco smoke, and Greek (the language that is) are all "acquired" tastes.

pipe

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

The Greek equivalent of "it is Greek to me" is "it is Chinese to me".

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

xwb, you mean double dutchwinky smile

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

These things are meant to be "cute" and to many people they are. The rest of us are amused or irritated according to our mood that day, I guess.
My Big Greek Wedding (is that right)is a natural for the same sigma and if it is a Russian film then turn all the "Rs" backwards, actually spelling it out in Cyrillic be too confusing for the public. Hollywood deemed that the title of the play "The Madness of George III" should become film "The Madness of King George" allegedly because most (US) cinema goers are so used to sequels (Jaws; JAWS II etc) that they would wonder what happened to "The Madness of George" and "The Madness of George II".
Now I don't know how true these stories are, any more than I know if it's true that when given the plot synopsis for a life story of Beethoven (Composer goes deaf, cuts legs of piano and tries to listen to the music through the floorbaords), said Great! but who will we get to do the music?"
Anyway, what ever it is that turns the brains of Hollywood producers and admen to mush, just hope it doesn't infect engineers. Don't get irritated, just be glad it isn't you who have to invent words like "Minisode" and play games with letters...probably the same stable as the PR guy who decided to turn one of the Bs round in ABBA which is kinda stupid because while this might work fork Russian, it does nothing for Swedish.
(Oh, I see, a palindrome into a mirror image...OK then, but its still kinda stupid).

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Floorboards
Yes, and I knew it as soon as I hit the "post" key, not one second before and not one second after.

OK, OK. So you guys are getting a proper diet now and every spelling mistake doesn't any more provoke a 200-post thread on spell checkers, and we don't want the same thing about the Cambridge language gimmick again do we?.
But no one can tell what will spark of another riot and I don't want it to be me; Mr Murphy has warned us all before about the noise we make and he can be a tough cookie when he wants to be, so I know, I spelled it wrong. I'm sorry. And in the language forum too.
So sue me.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

The worst misuse of foreign alphabets I can recall is a "joke" that went around by email a few years back.  Someone had carefully selected a mixture of Japanese and Chinese characters so that they spelled out a well known taboo English word.  Asking one of our Chinese engineers to translate it was a bad idea in retrospect.  Nobody had the heart to tell him it was a joke and he got all confused as to why people would mix different languages like that.

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

The ignorance in Hollywood (&/or the publishing equivalent) or at least their opinion of the public isn't limited to foreign alphabet.

Sorcerors Stone V Philosophers Stone anyone.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Back to the OP...they're just using it as a "greek-looking" font, not trying to actually spell anything with the alphabet.  Get over it.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies:  FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: Greek alphabet ignorance

Probably as bad as M$ for Microsoft and U$ for US for indicating capitalism.

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