Mixed Up/Unusual Names Someone Has Called Your Org.

[rufio]

oh we get Delta "OOP"silon alot. so finally we made a rush shirt that had a dictionary definition and DU spelled out phonetically.

Delta Upsilon: (del-tah yoop-sih-lon)
N. 1. Better Men
2. Better Brothers
3. Better Fraternity

we also get Delta EPSILON alot...that is just plain wrong.

[banditone]

My ex girlfriend used to call us "assholes".

[Diamond4]

Originally Posted by banditone

My ex girlfriend used to call us "assholes".

LMAO

[Ch2tf]

Last weekend, a couple of sisters were out in D.C. and someone asked them if they were members of Phi Nu Xi. The sad part was that he was greek himself

[preciousjeni]

Originally Posted by Ch2tf

Last weekend, a couple of sisters were out in D.C. and someone asked them if they were members of Phi Nu Xi. The sad part was that he was greek himself

*SMH* The other things I've seen/heard are "Theta Nu Zi" and "Tau Nu Xi" because we use TNX as the abbreviation.

[macallan25]

Originally Posted by rufio

oh we get Delta "OOP"silon alot. so finally we made a rush shirt that had a dictionary definition and DU spelled out phonetically.

Delta Upsilon: (del-tah yoop-sih-lon)
N. 1. Better Men
2. Better Brothers
3. Better Fraternity

we also get Delta EPSILON alot...that is just plain wrong.

I have never heard DU pronounced with a "yoop" sound.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by macallan25

I have never heard DU pronounced with a "yoop" sound.

Me neither. The DUs on my campus called themselves Delta "OOP"silon.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by macallan25

I have never heard DU pronounced with a "yoop" sound.

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

Me neither. The DUs on my campus called themselves Delta "OOP"silon.

According to the dictionary, the "correct" English pronunciation is UP-si-lon or YOOP-si-lon, but I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone use either. I almost invariably hear OOP-si-lon, including from DUs.

In Greek, the "U" is an umlaut, so that it comes out sounding more like a cross between OOPS-i-lon and EEPS-i-lon.

[SWTXBelle]

We called the Lambda Chis "Lamp chops".

[Drolefille]

I learned Up-si-lon when I learned the greek alphabet but we also didn't have any chapters with an Upsilon on our campus to tell us to say it differently. (Kind of like how I never knew that Phi could be pronounced "Fee")

[Diamond4]

We are LPsiD and people, even orgs on our council at USF, have called or initialled us as LSD because of the Psi (S SOUND). I mean I knew we're addictive and all, but ew don't string people out like the drug lol

[rufio]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

According to the dictionary, the "correct" English pronunciation is UP-si-lon or YOOP-si-lon, but I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone use either. I almost invariably hear OOP-si-lon, including from DUs.

In Greek, the "U" is an umlaut, so that it comes out sounding more like a cross between OOPS-i-lon and EEPS-i-lon.

it is pronounced OOP-silon by its self. but when a delta preceeds it, its YOOP-silon. like phi is Fie, but its Alpha Fee. as to other DU's saying oopsilon, yeah i dunno, every one from my chapter and the neighboring chapters and head quarters pronounces it Yoop-silon

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by rufio

it is pronounced OOP-silon by its self. but when a delta preceeds it, its YOOP-silon. like phi is Fie, but its Alpha Fee.

O good lord. That Fie/fee thing is a bad enough Greek Urban Legend, and now we have Oopsilon/Yoopsilon added to it.

Think about it logically. Certainly the sounds letters represent change based on what other letters are around them -- c is pronounced like s after i or e and otherwise like k. But the name of the letter? When it's used for initials? That's like saying "T" is called "tee," unless it comes after a vowel, and then it's "Tay." So its F-"Tee"-D but U-"Tay"-Knoxville.

F is pronounced "fee" in Greek. Always. The anglicized pronounciation, particularly in America, is "Fie." That's because the sound represented by Iota in Greek is "ee" (the Greek pronunciation is "ee-ota)," while the sound typically represented by I in English is "eye." Some orgs, such as Alpha Phi, use the Greek pronunciation, others use the anglicized pronunction.

Upsilon is pronounced Ü-psi-lon in classical Greek -- there's no Y at the beginning, and the u is an umlaut, like one might find in German. In modern Greek, it's more like "ee-psilon." It's not surprising that "YOOP-si-lon" is a standard English pronunciation, since we usually put a y sound at the beginning of words that start with a long u -- use, utility, ubiquitous.

To the degree that what comes before the u has any influence, that Y you hear after delta is merely an epenthesis -- an insertion to ease pronunction going from the "ah" in delta to the "oo" in upsilon -- part of why we usually put a y sound at the beginning of words that start with a long u to start with.

[LTA4]

Most people are like "what's AOA?!"

And I've had a couple people, mostly older, think that I'm in Alpha Phi Alpha!! And it's like yeah, except that the letters are completely different, the colors are COMPLETELY different... and I'm a girl!