Greek Life Book ?

[bethmousey]

According to my significant other, who's a math doctoral student, there's New Greek and Old Greek. Old Greek is what they use in math- Phi is "fee," Chi is "key," Tau is pronounced "towel". Most places use New Greek for GLOs, thereby the pronounciation that most people use for their orgs.

Hope that helps! I checked with another math teacher and she says he's right.

[MysticCat]

Originally posted by 33girl
It doesn't have to do with whether it follows a vowel.

Exactly. This is another urban Greek myth that just won't die.

Originally posted by bethmousy
According to my significant other, who's a math doctoral student, there's New Greek and Old Greek. Old Greek is what they use in math- Phi is "fee," Chi is "key," Tau is pronounced "towel". Most places use New Greek for GLOs, thereby the pronounciation that most people use for their orgs.

It's really more accurate to say there is Greek Greek and Anglicized Greek.

The Greek pronunciation of the name of the Greek letter F is always "Fee," whether one is talking about classical Greek or modern Greek. In Greek, the name of the letter is spelled Fi (phi-iota). For it to be pronounced "Fie" it would be spelled Fai (phi-alpha-iota). F is never pronounced "Fie" in Greek -- that is a North American, anglicized pronunciation.

In the same fashion, all of the other letters with an "i" in them are pronounced "ee" in Greek: Iota = "EE-ota" (with the "EE" and the "o" often being elided into "Yota"); Xi = "KSee" (yes, both the K and S sounds are pronounced); Pi = "Pee"; Chi = "Chee" (with a German or Scottish shounding "ch" like "ach" or "loch"); and Psi = "PSee" (like "KSee").

Some GLOs use classical greek pronunciations for some letters, such as "Fee" or "EE-ota." But the bottom line is that no GLO I've ever heard of uses the Greek pronunciation for all the Greek letters that form our names -- even the Alpha Phis use "al-fa" instead of "ahl-fah." We all used anglicized pronunciations to some degree or another.

[RedRoseSAI]

Originally posted by MysticCat81
Some GLOs use classical greek pronunciations for some letters, such as "Fee" or "EE-ota."

Interesting. I never knew that our pronunciation of "Iota" was considered correct by classical standards. The explanation in our Manual for Members just says that our Founders picked it because it "produced a more musical sound" or something to that effect.

[LIL3L3PHANT]

Originally posted by onetime

Anyway, the book called "Inspiration for Greeks" ($1.00 of every book sold donated to The Association of Fraternity Advisors) is a short true stories compendium from fraternity or sorority members. The good and the bad. The current edition ALSO refers to a future 'Inspiration for Greeks II'. Both that title and the one I mention below in trying to sweep away myths, were to strive to portray a balanced view. As, in greek life just as in college life there can be negatives as well as positives! I don't know if 'Inspiration for Greeks II' is published yet.

Also, there was a news item in March 04 on a Fraternal News mailing list, about a law student who was collecting stories for a (different) book (not Inspiration For Greeks II).


I hope that helps some. [/B]

Have you read the "Inspitation for Greeks"? Is it out now?

[Erik P Conard]

900 million chinamen don't care. Just look at how we have changed our own names, surnames, pronunciations. And the colleges, how does one reporter say Bowdoin?
Oh, well, never mind.