Your GLO's Alpha Phi Chapter: Alpha FEE or FIE

[SATX*APhi]

Originally posted by lauradav
There have been a million and one threads on this over the years but here is a post of mine from a year or so ago that discusses the pronunciation of "Phi"



Here is a link to that thread.

Laura

I didn't want for this to turn into "the proper way to prounce phi." I know there are a million and one threads about that. What I AM asking is how other GLO's refer to their "alpha phi" chapter, if they have one.

[wptw]

There is NO rule about the pronunciation changing depending on which letters precede or follow, or whether the GLO has 2 or 3 letters. This is completely false.

The stories about "my GLO founders knew a Greek professor and were told phi is pronounced phee after a consonant" are urban legend. Your founders would have no need of a greek professor in 1872 since they would have already been well schooled in the greek and latin classics. It's quite possible a professor helped with selecting mottoes, but they certainly would not need to educate students on proper greek pronunciation.

The correct greek pronunciation is always phee. The Americanized pronunciation is phye. Simple as that.

wptw

[DWAlphaGam]

My chapter advisor is from our Alpha Phi chapter (which has since shut down). I'm pretty sure she says "FIE," but I will ask her when I see her (if I remember!).

[sairose]

I didn't know Alpha Phi pronounced the Phi "fee"! That's cool, because Sigma Alpha Iota has a similar thing. Iota is NOT pronounced "eye-oh-ta" but "ee-oh-ta". So, what IS the "correct" Iota pronunciation? Now I'm curious!

[AXPGoBot]

The Phi is a very important letter to us, and is in every one of our chapter names (like Iota Chi Phi, my chapter). We pronounce it "fie."

Not like it matters much, but in some of my engineering classes, when phi is used as a variable, most of the professors pronounce it as "fee," which really used to irk me at first.

ETA: Also, if you think about it, saying Alpha FIE as opposed to Alpha FEE just doesn't sound right... at least to me. But then, saying Iota Chi FEE or Alpha FEE Alpha sounds pretty wrong.

I think that for GLO's at least, it's just a matter of preference.

[wptw]

"The Greek letters have both a Greek and an English pronunciation. “Modern Greeks” do not adhere strictly to the pure Greek or the accepted English, but often combine the two forms in the same name for the final effect in sound rather than phonetic correctness.

(Greek) (English)
A Alpha Alpha Alpha
B Beta Bayta Beeta
G Gamma Gahmma Gamma
D Delta Delta Delta
E Epsilon Epsilon Epsilon
Z Zeta Zayta Zeeta
H Eta Ayta Eeta
Q Theta Thayta Theeta
I Iota Iota Iota
K Kappa Kahppa Kappa
L Lambda Lahmbda Lambda
M Mu Mew Mew
N Nu New New
X Xi Zee Zi (eye)
O Omicron Omicron Omicron
P Pi Pee Pi (eye)
R Rho Rho Rho
S Sigma Sigma Sigma
T Tau Tow (as in owl) Tawe
Y Upsilon Oopsilon Upsilon
F Phi Phee Phi (eye)
Z Chi Chee Chi (eye)
Y Psi Psee Psi (eye)
W Omega Omayga Omeega

(Taken from National Panhellenic Conference Manual ofInformation)"

wptw

[MysticCat]

Methinks the National Panhellenic Conference Manual of Information of information needs to be revised, at least as far as correct Greek pronunciation is concerned.

In Greek, Iota is pronounced along the lines of "yota." (If one says "EE-ota" like SAIrose suggests, but moves over the "EE" very fast, one ends up with something more like "yota," the "I" being a glide.)

In Greek, Mu and Nu are pronounced more like "Mee" and "Nee." (See "Upsilon" below.)

In Greek, Xi is pronounced "KSee," not "Zee." Similarly, Psi is pronounced "Psee."

In Greek, the "U" at the beginning of Upsilon is more along the lines of the "u" in the French "tu" or the German umlaut "ue" (or "u" with two dots over it, which I can't do in this post.) The tongue is held in position to say "ee," while the mouth is in position to say "oo."

AXPGoBot is right -- for GLOs, it's all a matter of preference and tradition.

[CutiePie2000]

To answer the original question, DG at UBC is "Alpha FYE" chapter.

As for the men's NPHC fraternity: Alpha FYE Alpha, it would make sense to me that it's FYE, since Alpha Phi Alpha is a men's group.
Kind of like: amigo for men, amiga for women. Capische?
Fye is masculine, Fee is feminine.