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telli etzi a
by Blake More - Monday, 9 June 2014, 05:53 PM
 

I am at a loss as to the meaning of τελει ετζι α that I hear constantly on the radio after the name or web page of nearly all companies that advertise. It seems as if it might be something like DOT COM. I hope someone will enlighten me.

Blake More

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Re: telli etzi a
by Greg Brush - Tuesday, 10 June 2014, 01:41 PM
  What you are hearing is τελεία τζι αρ, the Greek equivalent of English .gr ("dot g r"), the top-level Internet domain for Greece, where η τελεία is the Greek word for the "period" punctuation mark.

Regards,
Greg Brush
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Re: telli etzi a
by Blake More - Wednesday, 11 June 2014, 12:32 AM
 

To G.B.

Thanks muchly for this response. I suspected something of this sort might be happening. But please allow me another question: Do ordinary Greeks ever use "gamma," which I find elsewhere and sometimes with a single m, as a name for the letter? Does anyone at all ever use it? Any more?

Blake More

Picture of Greg Brush
Re: telli etzi a
by Greg Brush - Wednesday, 11 June 2014, 03:18 AM
  Oh yes, absolutely, when spelling things Greek, and properly with double μ, γάμμα.

But when referring to spellings in other languages, Greek will "transliterate" the sound of the foreign letter(s). For example, the Kurdish separatist/terrorist movement PKK is pronounced in Greek according to the English pronunciation as πι κέι κέι.

Regards,
Greg Brush
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Re: telli etzi a
by Blake More - Wednesday, 11 June 2014, 12:16 PM
 

Thanks again. I should have known this, should I not? I am discovering that when I think long and hard about the subject matter, the questions I submit are much more felicitous, and the answers somewhat less obvious. In this case I fired off my question immediately. Should not have, right?

Blake More

Picture of Karin Petersen
Re: telli etzi a
by Karin Petersen - Sunday, 15 June 2014, 09:11 AM
  Don't ever regret asking a question. There will always be someone else who has been wondering the same thing but never dared to ask. wink

Regards,
Karin
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Re: telli etzi a
by Blake More - Sunday, 15 June 2014, 11:23 AM
 

Thank you, Karin. Words of encouragement are always appreciated.

Good wishes

Blake More

Picture of Greg Brush
Re: telli etzi a
by Greg Brush - Sunday, 18 October 2015, 11:29 AM
  By the way, this is how the names of the letters of the English alphabet would be transliterated into Greek:

A - έι
B - μπι
C - σι
D - ντι
E - ι
F - εφ
G - τζι
H - είτς
I - άι
J - τζέι
K - κέι
L - ελ
M - εμ
N - εν
O - όου
P - πι
Q - κιου
R - αρ
S - ες
T - τι
U - γιου
V - βι
W - ντάμπλ γιου
X - εξ
Y - γουάι
Z - ζι (ζεντ in British usage)