# Olympic ceremony question-Greek **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 14, 2004, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-ceremony-question-greek/259790 "2004-08-14T03:04:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-ceremony-question-greek/259790/21 "2004-08-15T14:30:32Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > One that startled me was that Ecuador wasn’t transliterated, but translated (“Isémerinos”.) That’s indeed strange. All Greek maps have a transliteration of Ecuador, usually “Εκουαδόρ”. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-ceremony-question-greek/259790/22 "2004-08-15T17:18:48Z")
> [@Dog80](#): > > There is no ‘mp’ sound in Greek (eg. as in the English word ‘imp’). The diphthong ΜΠ always makes a ‘b’ sound. It is impossible to make a word sound like ‘mpenin’ in greek. It can only come out as ‘benin’. The same applies to the diphthong ΝΤ which always makes a ‘d’ sound. Never ‘nt’. So what sounds do Β and Δ now make? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-ceremony-question-greek/259790/23 "2004-08-16T13:49:36Z")
Thanks, **Dog80**. So indeed that’s how you transcribe the foreign sound of plosive-B into Modern Greek. I should suppose then that the “B” countries that are listed under the betas are indeed cases of older names that got transcribed that way > [@Terminus Est](#): > > So what sounds do Β and Δ now make? IIRC beta makes a “v”-ish sound, (maybe not quite exactly like the English V?) > [@matt\_mcl](#): > > One that startled me was that Ecuador wasn’t transliterated, but translated (“Isémerinos”.) I noticed also one inconsistency with the “saint” nations: the English-named St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Italian-named San Marino were translated, into “Ágios/ágia (Greek name of the saint)”, but the Portugese-named Saô Tomé e Príncipe was just transcribed into “sao”. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-ceremony-question-greek/259790/24 "2004-08-16T14:43:36Z")
In Modern Greek, the letter beta has a sound a lot like English V, except that it’s billabial (both lips together) rather than labio-dental (bottom lip against upper teeth) as in English V. Similarly, Greek phi has a billabial sound, where English F is labio-dental. (Since the difference is not a phoneme in either English or in Modern Greek, native speakers of both languages usually can’t hear the difference). ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-ceremony-question-greek/259790/25 "2004-08-16T18:51:12Z")
> [@Dog80](#): > > That’s indeed strange. All Greek maps have a transliteration of Ecuador, usually “Εκουαδόρ”. A-ha! So _that_’s why it took so long for my home country to appear in the procession! Thanks for the info! ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-ceremony-question-greek/259790/26 "2004-08-16T22:20:04Z")
According to my Greek supervisor, the sound made by Β is in fact more of a “v” sound than a “b” sound, so more “veta” as opposed to “beta”. Δ is a “d” sound. ---
**Author:** ![lynxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e99b99/32.png) [@lynxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynxie)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-ceremony-question-greek/259790/27 "2004-08-17T04:47:10Z")
Thank you all for answerng the questios I was “afraid” to ask! I was especially confused about the esses at the beginning and Viet Nam. Still, it was odd seeing Canada so far down the list. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-ceremony-question-greek/259790.md?page=1)