Today I called Ujaama (the BEST place to get Greek nalia if you're in Tallahassee) to see if my pullover hoodie was finished. They pronounced it Theta Nu Zee instead of Xi.

Heh, when I was living in Ireland, a lot of people thought my letters were T A (the delta as an "A"), which stands for Territorial Army! Which, in Northern Ireland, isn't so great. Didn't help that they were blue and white *hand forehead*. Ahh adventures in cultural misunderstandings.

It's basic Greek grammer, Xi is pronounced Zee only when it is after a vowel sounding letter. Like Alpha Xi (Zee) Delta, in your case for chapter it would be pronounced Xi (long I sound). Same concept with Phi (long I sound) but when it comes to Alpha Phi ( its pronounced fee)

Not an urban legend. It acutually is Greek grammer. Zee for when it comes after a vowel like Alpha Xi and Zi for when its by itself like in Theta Xi, Theta Nu Xi, etc.


Same for Phi. Fee like in Alpha Phi (which is pronounced Fee) or fi like in Pi Kappa Phi and Phi Mu.

Don't believe me, look up Greek (the language) grammer.

I was just on their site and they have Theta Nu Zi listed as Omicron Nu Epsilion.

ps- I disagree with them being the best Greek Shop in Tallahassee. lol.

Well, my organization is Upsilon Delta Epsilon, and every calls us ude. as in like ooooooood. we started saying it to each other, and now other organizations have picked it up, and even people we don't know say ohhh that's an ude! lol. we love it.

lol that Omicron Nu Epsilon is lame. I was talking about the work that Tracy does-those are some phenomenal and extremely intricate line jackets.

I'm getting used to hearing Gamma Sig all the time... but before I'd joined up, back when a good friend of mine was pledging Theta Omega Phi, he called Gamma Sigma Sigma "Gamma Pig" rather often. (Jerk.)

my mother, who is one of those people who NEVER gets names right (she calls Snickers candy bars Sniggles lol) asked me why i pledged and what was so great about those Zappa Kappas...

hear the crickets chirping? i just stared at her for a moment and corrected her. it didnt stick. she still calls Zeta Phi Beta the Zappa Kappas...

It is definitely a Greek urban legend and it has nothing to do with Greek grammar. The name of a letter in Greek does not change depending on what letter-name comes before it. And more to the point, the name of the letter X is never pronounced "zee" or "zi" in Greek. The name of the letter X is spelled Xi in Greek and is pronounced "ksee," with both the "k" and the "s" being pronounced. Always.

X in Greek represents the "ks" sound that in English is represented by the letter "X." But in English, we don't begin words with that particular consonant combination, so in words derived from Greek that begin with a "X" -- Xi, xylophone, Xerxes -- we substitute the "z" sound for the initial "ks." So, "zee" is the anglicized name of X.

The name of the letter X has been further anglicized (or americanized) by shifting the "i" sound from "ee" to "i" ("eye"). The iota in Xi is pronounced "ee" in Greek. (The Greek pronunciation of Iota is "ee-ota" or "yota.") But in English, we often pronounce an "I" used in this way with what we call a long "I" sound (as you recongized by using "zi"), so "zee" become "zi."

By the same token, the names of the other Greek letters ending in i are pronounced similarly in Greek: P = "pee," F = "fee," C = "chee" (with the "ch" being pronounced similarly to the "ch" in "loch"), and Y = "psee" (with both the "p" and the "s" being pronounced, much like the "ks" in Xi).

Whether a particular GLO chooses to use "zi" or "zee" or "fi" or "fee" has nothing to do with imagined rules of Greek grammar and everything to do with that GLO's preference. Most GLOs used anglicized pronunciations of the names of Greek letters such as F. Some, like Alpha Phi, prefer to use the Greek pronunciation of F. And when there is more than one anglicized pronunciation of the name of a Greek letter such as X, some, like Alpha Xi Delta, have chosen to use the anglicized pronunciation that comes closest to the Greek pronunciation.

But it has nothing to do with whether the X or the F follows a vowel.

LMAO. Aww that's cute.

Phi Sig Kap is generally the most annoying one. It might be more understandable if Phi Sigma Sigma or another Phi Sigma ------ was on our campus but there aren't.

On a lighter note, I called the American Cancer Society yesterday to get my chapter squared away with the Relay-for-Life that's coming up and I told the woman on the phone that I am a member of Phi Sigma Kappa and I heard her say, "Oh, you're a Phi Sig, you're talking to an old Tri-Sigma girl." It's good to hear some random person get you're name right every once in a while, even if they are greek.

That was worse when we had both Phi Sigma Kappa and Phi Sigma Epsilon (before the merge)

We had Phi Sigma Kappa and Phi Sigma Sigma on our campus, so it was PhiSig for Phi Sigma Sigma and PhiKap for Phi Sigma Kappa.

Oh, and my dad is a Phi Tau Saluki.:)

at my school, Phi Sigma Kappa is called "Kappa". Phi Sigma Sigma was the first sorority on campus long before they arrived, plus we have Pi Kappa Phi "Pi Kapp", so "Phi Kapp" would be confusing. Thankfully, we don't have Kappa Kappa Gamma...

You know, now that I think about it, no one says AGD here, really, either. It's not very pretty sounding. Pretty much EVERYONE says "Alpha Gam"...no one to get confused with, though. The only way we get confused is with ADPi sometimes, because of jerseys...apparently no one believes in using their organization's colors, so people on campus who aren't greek register an alpha and a delta but don't bother to look at the third letter or the order that they're in...not that I mind being confused with ADPi specifically, but I don't like being confused with anyone.

That reminds me...does anyone here encourage members to have jerseys made in the correct colors? If you did, did it go over well?

It is very confusing during Recruitment when 90% of the PNMs have a hard time remembering Greek letters, but can remember colors...pet peeve of mine, I guess. Mine are red, buff, and green only, with the exception of a screen printed on I was given with red letters and a white outline on a grey shirt...which is ok. I guess I can see using different colors, but really, why use someone ELSE'S color combination? At least not of the organizations on campus?

I love purple. I have lots of purple letters. We had Tri Sigma on campus. Did I care? No. Of course, these were mine that I had made personally, not something we did as a chapter. And my tote bag is black with purple & silver letters. I also have zebra striped letters and spotted letters, etc. I don't think I should have to use crimson, white, green and gold. I don't always want to look like a Christmas tree.

LOL, try being an Alpha Chi.

http://www.christmastraditions.com/O...Forms/3810.jpg

Are you kidding? This doesn't remind me at all of Christmas.;)

Really, your dad went to SIU? You should let him know that Phi Kappa Tau is currently a colony, but they're quickly on their way to becoming re-chartered because of the hard work of their members. They are truly a good group of guys.

Unfortunately, my dad thinks of his fraternity as "something he did in college", and actually had no intention of rushing. He ended up joining because "back in the day" they used to assign GDIs to fraternity houses when they ran out of dorm space, and he was assigned to Phi Tau, and he ended up liking it and joining. I am slowly changing his mind - especially since (as I've pointed out to him umpteen times) Charlotte has the highest concentration of Phi Tau alums in the country.

On my campus every chapter has an official jersey in their colors. Then most orgs. have "families" with their own specidific jersey colors and then you can make t-shirts however you'd like or with various patterns or random favorite colors. But a lot of people do their favorite fraternity and do shirts: Ex: a "Sammy Girl" would get a Sammy colored jersey or shirt or whatever. Ex: My "big brother" is a TKE (so is my BF and Big Sister is the Sweetheart of '06 and her BF is a TKE, etc. etc.) so I have a TKE colored jersey with my letters.

However, it would be in poor taste for me to have a DPHIE (purple, gold)colored jersey as I'm not a DPHIE or an AOII (red & white) jersey, or whatever (now I can have a red jersey [for example my TKE colored jersey is red w/ silver letters and a white background], but I wouldn't go out and get a red jersey with white letters and black background because that is the AOII jersey here).

It's confusing from the back and yes people would take offense for another girl to be wearing my jersey/jersey colors that's not a member. It does kind of grind my gears that a lot of people (I will not name names) have a tendency to use Pink and White (not at my school necessarily, but elsewhere). Pink is the only color Phi Mu has technically, and for someone else to use it excessively can become a problem for PNMs (who are easily confused).
(Plus as Kevin from BSB once said "Find your own identity!")

On my campus, we're "the pink ones" to most of them and if some other group busted out with pink jerseys, non-Greeks would not get it. And just out of respect to the colors we have, why would someone else go and make that their "official" colors when it's not theirs or what their founders or decision makers put in their ritual?

Glad someone agrees with me then...I don't know, I guess I just don't like putting my letters in someone else's colors. Alpha Gamma Delta's colors do not include pink, for instance. The guys colors is cool...I couldn't, though, since my boyfriend is a Delta Chi. We have Chi O on campus, and we are always careful to "never forget the green"...most, anyway. It's kinda of a way to be respectful to our letters as well as to Chi O.

It's usually just an individual basis thing...the only big problem is the DG jerseys...though in their defense they are probably cheaper in pink and white and the whoever came up with the idea probably assumed that no one could get the letters ΔΓ and ΦΜ mixed up...and that's a legitimate point when we're talking about Greeks, but PNMs do use color, because I know I did, to differentiate. I think in the long run it doesn't hurt during Recruitment because the DG's become the "pink ones", and the Phi Mus have these baseball jersey shirts they wear that are distinctive as well...but it leads to some confusion. Didn't mean to call them out, that's just the only chapter wide example on campus...it's just a pet peeve of mine no matter if it's a lot of people or only one person. My mom said her only jerseys were always green and white (KD) and when she'd give me one for a present it would always be red, buff, and green in some way. I think it's a respect-your-letters thing. Maybe I'm uptight, though.

I respect ASA whether it's ASA ASA or ASA.

They mean the same thing, regardless of color.

It's like Sheila likes to say - respect the letters themselves, not the fabric sewed to a sweatshirt.

It's the principle of it. I realize the colors aren't the most important part of the organization, but they're still a part of it...kinda like being on the USA Olympic team and showing up wearing Russia's flag on your shirt. Yeah, you're on the USA team and you're in your uniform...but you're wearing someone else's flag because you think it's cuter. Doesn't scream "team spirit". It just seems like a little thing to do to be supportive...I mean I like skull and crossbones designs and I love anchors, I miss the color pink, I love the combination of blue and white, and I like pink and blue together...but I make the small sacrifice of not incorporating them into my sorority paraphenalia because they aren't mine...and dressing Alpha Gamma Delta in, say, Phi Mu's colors doesn't seem right.

I hate when someone calls me a "Sig Chi". Our nickname is "Sig". Just "Sig".

I was wearing a shirt with the letters on it one day. Someone asked me why I had "ex" on my shirt.

It's just a t shirt. Besides, considering that there are 26 sororities in the NPC, people's colors are bound to overlap. On my campus we have both ASA and AOII, and we both use red and white as our colors.

I don't view anything with my letters on it as "JUST a..." because it also has my letters. Overlapping of official colors is one thing...making a pink and white AGD jersey is another.

I still think it has to do with the intent. If you make a pink & white shirt because you happen to like pink & white together, that's fine. If you make a pink & white jersey because you have Phi Mu on your campus, and you want to piss them off, that's bad.

ASA
BK Chapter

Guess we gotta agree to disagree.

That's perfectly fine. And really, I think it's got more to do with campus culture than anything else.

I agree, we didnt' have jerseys but all the chapters had shirts in different colors. I have a bright green SK intramural shirt with white letters. Did we do this to piss off the KDs? No, we did it because we already had an orange, lavendar, pale yellow, blue, purple, and white T-shirt. It was cute, not offensive.

All the chapters on our campus did this from everything from bid-day T-shirts to party shirts to PR shirts.

In marketing courses, you learn about branding (and I don't mean with a hot iron). Like, the Chevrolet symbol is one of the most recognized symbols in the US. You know that Coke is red and white and Pepsi is blue and red. It is my opinion that things with our letters on them should be in our colors for this purpose. It creates a stronger impression if you wear the colors consistently. Our chapter in college had bright yellow baseball jackets with red writing that we got at Initiation. We all had the same jacket and you could spot an Alpha Gam coming from across campus. The Tri Sigmas had purple coats, Sigma Kappas had maroon and Alpha Xi Delta had dark blue. Each of the fraternities did the same, although I believe both the Phi Sigma Epsilons and the TKE's had red jackets, so it was kind of confusing with them. I was sad when my chapter stopped getting the yellow coats and started wearing any old color around campus.

If others choose to do things differently, each to his/her own. I just choose to only buy things in our colors when they have letters.

We did all have the same jackets simply because it was cheaper to order them in bulk. But T-shirts, nah, they come in all colors. With only 5 chapters on campus, and recruitment done early in the fall, "branding" wouldn't really have worked for us. We wore letters nearly every day leading up to recruitment and it would've looked weird if we were ALWAYS wearing maroon.

My sorority is not a "brand", it's a sisterhood. Period.

There has been a lot of discussion about jerseys, but what about letter shirts/sweatshirts?

Back in my day, we had our traditional set(s) of letters in maroon and white, but we also had our own letters made in various patterns/colors on backgrounds of any color. It was actually cool to do so. Aside from the monotany of having everything maroon and white, the maroon would always eventually bleed onto the white, even years later.

We call those jerseys here, just because not many people have traditional jerseys...they're more expensive to make than a t-shirt with letters. I only have two real jerseys. The others are t-shirts.

I have a t-shirt with a pattern, but it's bears in red, buff, and green. My sweatshirt is black with red, buff, and green letters. I have another t-shirt you can just buy from online greek stores with red, buff, green layered letters on a white t-shirt. A gray shirt with red letters and white background screen printed on (cheap to have made, got as a gift...and no one on campus has red and white...that and I can't not wear it when it was a gift, so I do). And our recruitment jerseys that are white with red borders and red, buff and green letters...my other jersey is yellow with red trim, red letters with yellow dots, and green trim around those. It's not all the same. Most places make patterns with more than one color...I'm having one made in the fall for my birthday with a red/green plaid for the letters and a yellow trim...sounds ugly, but it looks cool, I promise. It's just a loyalty thing for me...but then again, I take that stuff very seriously. You won't see me wearing orange and blue (Auburn) if I can ever help it...and NEVER during football season.

People have, say, green shirts with tie dye letters, or brown shirts with blue letters (Chi Os have bags like that, actually)...that's not what I was saying bothered me, personally...I mean you won't see me doing it because I want only AGD colors...but it's the use of someone else's specific color combination on YOUR letters that bothers me...especially on my campus where there are only five sororities. I know a lot of girls don't look up all 26 NPC's colors. Don't really expect them to...I'm just a nerd and like doing it. But it's not that hard to avoid one of the five color combinations on campus.

-And she didn't say the sorority is a brand, but that the colors brand them as different, and this is true...I like being true to Alpha Gam, so I don't like borrowing others' color combinations or symbols. Mine are good enough for me.-

It just really depends on the campus. Our green and white intramural shirts were not confused with KD's Green and white "AOT wouldn't you like to know" shirts. All the chapters did it, and no one really had jerseys. Our sweatshirts, like our jackets, were ordered in bulk so they were the same but it didn't carry over anywhere else.

We only had 5 chapters as well and there was no reason for branding on my campus. Nor did we feel like were stealing each other's colors and/or symbols.

Well, ya know, each to his own. I just don't feel the need to use someone else's colors or symbols...mine are good enough for me. I can where whatever color clothing I want, but I don't see it as a huge sacrifice to stick to my own colors on my letters. If I like the color pink or the color blue or the color green I can wear that any time I want...why does it need to be on my letters?

I agree a lot of it is campus culture. While I love the two blues of Kappa, there's only so much you can do with them, YK?

I was so excited to wear letters after I pledged that the first few weeks of school I went to the local t-shirt place where you could have custom letters made. I picked out a lovely wine/maroon shirt and chose a light blue for the KKG and white as an accent behind. I picked it out because that's what I thought looked pretty at the time, it wasn't until a few years later that it dawned on me those were actually Pi Phi's colors. Nobody said a thing to me about it.