Was Chi O's chapter at Arkansas (where they were founded) closed at some point?

The Alpha, Beta, and Gamma chapters of Sigma Kappa were all at Colby College and are closed because Colby banned Greek Life.

That's a shame! Somebody ought to write one...perhaps for the sorority magazine...and the NPC magazine.

Alpha Phi officially became the 4th Greek Letter organization for women on September 30th, not the 18th.

--One of our founder's descendants initiated into Alpha Phi @ USC (except i'm not sure how long ago that was).

--There were at least 4 Alpha Phi's who served as the Dean of Women at Northwestern University.

--One of our founders was 22 years old, and she was the only one who could sign any of the legal documents.

--We pronounce the Phi as FEE because a professor at Syracuse told our founders that it correctly pronounced FEE.

He was correct. Most Greek organizations use the Americanized version of the Greek Alphabet. There is no "I' sound like in pie in the Greek language. Alpha Xi Delta, I believe, is the only other NPC that pronounces their name in the classic Greek manner.

This is so cool. I currently live two block north of this chapter house. It has a sign in front that says "1889" but I had no idea it was that long.

I think I will send a birthday card to them on May 15th!!! in the Panhellenic spirit!

You are correct!

This isn't really accurate.

Paging MysticCat!

What about it isn't accurate? My husband is first generation Greek-American and speaks Greek...this is the source of my knowledge.

Modern Greek is not the same as Classical Greek - much as modern Italian is not the same as Latin. But for specifics, we do need MysticCat.
And as a long time English teacher, let me say - it is entirely possible to speak a language as your first language and not be fluent in the finer points of grammar, linguistics, syntax, spelling, vocabulary and pronunciation. I always got a chuckle out of hispanic students who thought taking Spanish would be an easy "A" - and then they tripped up on the grammar.
Though come to think of it, we have plenty of evidence of that here everyday at GC!

So, does that mean that your sorority would be Al-fuh Om-mee-cron Pee?

Something about that doesn't seem right.

I understand that languages do change over time...I can't understand "English" as spoken by the British, but that being said, the same rules for I apply in classical greek.

That actually is correct if you wanted to use classic pronunciations, but we don't. We use Pie as you well know. I don't feel in anyway less "greek" because my founders didn't choose to use that pronunciation.
Although, I think it would be O-meh-cron not Oh-mee-cron.
And...my husband learned his Greek not from his father, but from his Aunt who teaches Greek in Athens.

You rang? :D

AOII Angel is indeed correct the name of the letter F is correctly pronounced FEE in Greek and that most GLOs use anglicized pronuncations of the Greek letter names. (Although off the top of my head I can't remember if there are any GLOs other than Alpha Xi Delta that use the Greek pronunciation rather than the anglicized. That's not counting, of course, those orgs that only use letters for which the Greek and anglicized pronunciations are essentially the same, like Kappa Delta. I say 'essentially" because in Kappa would be closer to Kahppa.)

The part that "isn't really accurate" is this:
There is an "I" sound in Greek; at least in classical Greek there is. I'm not sure how prevalent it is in modern Greek. As in most languages other than English, though, it is not represented by a single letter.

The sound we associated with I (eye) is a diphthong, or glided vowel -- two vowel sounds pronounced one after the other in the same syllable with no break in between. Pay attention to your tongue and mouth when you say "eye" (and say it slowly) and you'll notice that you start with the "ah" vowel and end with the "ee" vowel. (If you listen to a trained singer, you'll notice that he or she, if an "eye" sound falls on a longer note, holds the "ah" until almost the end of the note, only moving to the "ee" at the very end.)

In classical Greek, this diphthong would be represented by alpha (ah) iota (ee) together -- ai. Thus, while the letter iota alone does not indicate an "eye" sound, alpha and iota together do. (Or did.) So, for example, the Greek word for "and" -- kai -- would be pronounced like the common American pronunciation of the name of the letter Chi and would rhyme with the English "pie."

Wow, I feel smart just for reading that post. :cool: