Who do you think you're talking to?

Darn! I overshot by 1 then, LOL. No worries, I'll read that. Sounds like a very good joke and you could definitely knock many down, ha.. Not really, no names that are exotic like that here is so boring like that..

They might sound exotic Zed but there's probably no more than 25 names. Would you like to know how many people I know with the same name, have to add a descriptive adjective in front of every name so the person you're speaking to knows who you are talking about.

Hi Zed I do like that you think it's awesome really, I had a bit of fun with it but then wish that I'd used Demetrious instead of Stavros as it would have added another edge. Don't think it's as good as my kamaki one but that got overlooked. Okay so you were totally wrong, there were just 3 people. I gave the explanation in box 1 under James' response, it's all a quirk of the Greek language. Have a look at the first box to see, I can't retype it every time. So, any quirks like you'll see with names in Singapore?

Niko is called as Nikou,Nikolai Pano was called as Paniioyti Stavros was called as Starvo

panos was called as pano and Panioytis Am i right???

In our place just like this there are comparative name like karthikeyan also called as karthi or karthik or karthikeyan or karthick..

BTW I am now let off for being an 'OLD" meanie miser and can enjoy my Haagen Daz without feeling guilty for not sharing ;0)

I brought two spoons! Thank you for the explanation, do you still forgive me even though I failed dismally? I was only too happy to drop by! How can I resist, bit like having a tub of ice cream in front of you and not breaking the seal. Couldn't find your yoghurt, I know Men! I hear you cry, walks off head in hands....

Hi wolfie how pleasant of you to drop byThis is not a psychological test but a linguisic one which I'm sorry to announce you failed. The correct answer is there were 3 people with 8 names - you missed out Nikou and Nikolaki. Anyway thank you for participating in this new interst of Greek life styles where you will learn many new things which you will be able to compare with your own culture. Just for you I have tediously copied and pasted the explanation, which believe me was no easy task. Now did you bring the ice cream along, yogurt as requested Panioytis, also often known as Panos, or Takis, is chatting with Nikos and Stavros, but when they speak to each other they MUST take the S off the end of the name, but when talking about each other leave it on. But if they are talking about somthing which belongs to one of them they have to add OU to the end, thus the house of NIKOU. Then they can add LAKI to the end to speak affectionately to someone younger, hence Nikolaki. Simple really. But it's different for women of course. Sitting idly by eavesdropping in the cafenion though you really could get confused

Hi James, yes there were 3 people involved but ten names mentioned and none of it slang at all amazingly, just the complexities of the Greek language. Don't even go there with the accents - on words that is in Greek I shall explain here as you are the first: Panioytis, also often known as Panos, or Takis, is chatting with Nikos and Stavros, but when they speak to each other they MUST take the S off the end of the name, but when talking about each other leave it on. But if they are talking about somthing which belongs to one of them they have to add OU to the end, thus the house of NIKOU. Then they can add LAKI to the end to speak affectionately to someone younger, hence Nikolaki. Simple really. But it's different for women of course. Sitting idly by eavesdropping in the cafenion though you really could get confused

It's probably a good thing I'm not Greek Thea 'cos I'd have no friends I'd be able to converse with if I was! In Arabic they use the letter A in words to address a female and the letter E when addressing a male. This in itself gets confusing for me too! Tagalog as well, A for women and O for men in many words.

Oh we have that too, but it's a bit difficult to describe when it's not in Greek. You've just in fact pointed out a glaring error in that little Greek conversation. We put O before a mans name and eee before a woman's. But of course we wouldn't use it when talking to them, only about them. (no alerts again I see).

Hi jb, if you want the Greek explanation it's in the box above you. It's actually a language rule. Robert and Eliazbeth definitely for abbreviations, never heard of Peggy coming from Margaret though, thought it was short for Pegalina[em]lol[/em I could think of some others too but maybe someone else will do that.

It doesn't Alice, it comes from Pegalina. Please start jumping around in each others boxes, Zed said this discussion was AWESOME so you should all be doing awesome things.

good. ignore thea, this is my box alice, you need to go and make your own.

Sunny sunny sunny, what shall I do with you, although we are supposed to read the other responses you weren't meant to read the first response as it spoiled the suprise.. Well I never though of bringing Mama into the conversation, that could have got really confusing with all those possible pet names. Embarassing names in Greek?? I can't actually think of any. There are certainly some which are pretty impossible to pronounce. I can think of a few English ones such as the diminuitive for Richard which Mylot won't let me type

just being a bit inquisitive......human nature!? but i did admit i was confused..... here we actually have a very common pet name. its 'chotu' which means the 'small one' (reserved for the youngest in the family). i actually have a friend who has two kids. the kids have a lot of fun when someone calls their dad - chotu. needless to say my friend is sometimes embarrassed, as we join the..

Hi Humbug, in that case you will be completely out of place in a Greek cafenion as you just don't have the skills required for eavesdropping. There were 3 people with 10 names and the explanation is in box 1, required reading I'm afraid. So what name quirks can you bring to the table from your part of the world Humbug?

Hi Xzcess, I should have written at the top, no peeking in other responses. We use genders too for all words, three of them, and plurals get really complicated as there's 6 of them. We have plurals for words that don't have plurals in English to which is hard to deal with. Your two words togther meaning something else must be a bit strange. Think you've convinced me to just stick with two languages

'Sandhi' sounds quite confusing. When we put two words together to make a new word usually the last letter of the first word has to be changed as the addition of the second word may change the gender. I see I've put you off learning Greek already. Spnish is much safer as it uses the English alphabet, you did realise that Greek has a totally different one?

lol .. yea. though I think i should have looked down earlier than i did. I was having a hard time keeping up with the conversation. :P 6 plurals. Ok, i think that is going to be confusing. The 2 word joining thing is called 'sandhi' in my language. Its direst translation comes to 'union'. It works something like this .. there is a word 'Raaj' (it means rule) and lets take another word 'Mata' (which means mother). Now, there is another 3rd word Raajmata which is made by joining those other 2 words but its meaning comes out to be (Elder woman, or wise woman. It was used to denote an important post in earlier kingdoms here. People used to ask raajmata for her advice on most things as she was supposed to be very wise and experienced) .. Now you see, there is a 3rd word which is made by joining 2 other words and the meaning of 3 words is totally different. Lol.. Languages are hard, yes. But i want to learn a few more. Maybe German and Spanish. hmm.