Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2018 June 12

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June 12

Latin letters in Greek

How do people who use Greek write the names of letters of the Latin alphabet? For example, we refer to the letter β as beta. Do Greek speakers refer to the letter b as βη? What of the other letters?    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 00:39, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

We have articles on Hebraization of English and Cyrillization of Greek, but we don't have an article on Greekising English. Can anyone create one?? Georgia guy (talk) 00:43, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

Hellenization of English: έι, μπι, σι, ντι, ι, εφ, τζι, έιτς, άι, τζέι, κέι, ελ, εμ, εν, όου, πι, κιου, αρ, ες, τι, γιου, βι, ντάμπλ'γιου, εξ, γουάι, ζεντ/ζι. —Stephen (talk) 03:50, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

That's based solely on the modern English letter names. If there was any tradition of referring to Latin letter names in Greek before WW2, then I bet it wouldn't have been based on English...

Michael_J -- Modern Greek β by itself is not IPA [b]. AnonMoos (talk) 06:54, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

On the Greek Wikipedia the just use the Latin symbols without spelling the names out...so I guess that doesn't help. Adam Bishop (talk) 16:15, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

In the 19th century: Latin [1], English [2][3], French [4], German [5]. --Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 18:20, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

I notice that none of these examples spell out the letter Y in the French way as "i grec" (the Greek I). — Kpalion^(talk) 13:39, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

Romanization of Greek. Oalexander (talk) 05:02, 14 June 2018 (UTC)

That's the opposite of what the original poster was asking for.--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 20:02, 16 June 2018 (UTC)

Over... over you

The chorus of Silversun Pickups' song Sci-Fi Lullaby, a breakup song, reads:

It's over, over, over

Over you

I fail to understand what this "Over you" tries to express - can someone help please? --KnightMove (talk) 05:34, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

You can't necessarily expect song lyrics to make sense. Oftentimes the words are just put there to make the lyrics scan or rhyme, or to fit in with the melody. That said, "over you" in this context could mean at least two things. Either "it's over... over you" meaning "it's over because of you", or the word "I'm" could be omitted, as in "it's over.... [I'm] over you." --Viennese Waltz 07:22, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

There was a Doonesbury sequence with a character talking to Jimmy Thudpucker. The unnamed character can't really be called a "thinly disguised" version of Bob Dylan because that would vastly overstate the thickness of the disguise — Trudeau never said explicitly who it was but he wasn't trying to conceal it at all. Crypto-Dylan is getting an award from Jimmy Carter calling him an "authentic American voice". Quoth he: "An authentic American voice! Can you beat that, Jim? I mean, I just want it to rhyme, man!" --Trovatore (talk) 04:53, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

It certainly seems like a play on different usages of "over". English is good with short words that have many uses. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:13, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

Yes, but this doesn't help me getting the different meaning. However, I think that Viennese Waltz is right.

Another question on topic: One of the most popular funny memes made me assume that "I'm over it" can also be interpreted as "I surpass that." But I don't find this meaning in the online dictionaries - so, am I wrong? --KnightMove (talk) 08:39, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

I don't interpret those shirts that way. I interpret Harrison Ford's "I'm fuckin' over it" T-shirt as meaning "That's in the past, I've moved on since then, why don't you do the same?" ~Anachronist (talk) 06:10, 14 June 2018 (UTC)

@KnightMove: "It's over, over, over" means that the relationship is over, finished. "Over you" means that the singer is no longer in love with, attracted to, or impressed by, the other person in the relationship and is moving on with no regrets. The use here of 'over' with two meanings is rhyming repetition. Akld guy (talk) 20:09, 14 June 2018 (UTC)

The description alongside the lyrics of the song that KnightMove linked to suggest a further intended meaning of the words. The relationship is over because the world is about to end. This might be intended literally, metaphorically (the end of the relationship seems like the end of the singer's world) or both.

So, the relationship is over (finished), the singer is over (no longer loves) the other person, the end is because of (over) the other person, the singer's (emotional) world is over, the actual world is over (demolished for a hyperspace bypass, perhaps). This being art, any and all of these might be intended by the artists. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.125.75.224 (talk) 05:08, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

I always liked "If I had to do it all over again, I'd do it all over you." --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 18:38, 16 June 2018 (UTC)