Don's greek name

Kriton Kyrimis kyrimis at cti.gr
Tue Dec 14 12:42:26 CET 1999


ANDERS CHRISTIAN:

> They then have a problem with the name Don Rosa. which i never
> understood, not even when they explained it to me...
> They spell it Nt (D) - o - v (n) R-o-sigma-a - I think. the sigma is
> the o with a small line with it, when the letter is small.

(O with a small line in it?) 

The "official" greek version of Don's name is spelled Nu-tau-omicron-nu
Rho-omicron-sigma-alpha, which sounds like "Don Rossa". I would think
that a better rendering would have been to use a zeta instead of a sigma,
which would have made the name sound like "Don Rozza" (with a plain "z"
sound, i.e., *not* as in the word "pizza"). Both renderings get the "o"
wrong, but trying to do something about it would have made the name look
strange in Greek, with the result being hard to pronounce and still not
quite right.

I once suggested to Don that he hellenize his name to "Donios
Triantafyllos", like 19th century scholars used to do. (The first name
is just his name with a greek suffix, while the last name is a male
greek name derived from the greek word for "rose".)

Kriton.





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