LINGUIST List 6.1641

Tue Nov 21 1995

Sum: "Gyros" Pronunciation

Editor for this issue: Annemarie Valdez <avaldezemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. "David P. Baxter", Sum: "gyros" Pronunciation

Greetings,

Last week I posted a request for information regarding the
pronunciation of the sandwich spelled "gyros" in the United
States. Thank you to all who replied -- I received over 50 messages
from all over the U.S., Germany, Australia, and Greece. (Does the lack
of response from other countries mean they don't have gyros there?) It
turns out that there is significant variation, partly along geographic
and sociological lines. I will focus on the pronunciation of the first
syllable, where there seems to be the greatest difference.

In Greek, the word is spelled with an initial gamma, which is
generally pronounced as a palatal glide before front vowels, so the
posters in some gyros restaurants instructing customers to "Say
yee-ros" are not bad guides to "authentic" pronunciation. Apparently
there is some dialectal variation even among native Greek speakers,
however, and some pronounce the gamma as a voiced or voiceless velar
fricative, or even as a voiced alveo-palatal fricative.

In the United States, the other most common pronunciations seem to be
the Anglicized /dZaI.rowz/ (like the first syllable of "gyroscope"
with a /z/ on the end), used largely in the South and East Coast, and
/hi.rowz/, apparently based on phonetic similarity with the (probably
unrelated) "hero" sandwich.

One more point concerning the final "s". Although there is some
disagreement on this point, the consensus seems to be that the "s" is
original, and the form "gyro" is innovated, based on the false
assumption that "gyros" is plural. In Greek, the "s" is voiceless.

Here, then, are the various pronunciations this investigation
uncovered, along with the geographic locations or dictionaries where
they were attested:


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Z = voiced alveopalatal fricative
dZ = voiced alveopalatal affricate
y = palatal glide
G = voiced velar fricative
g = voiced velar stop
x = voiceless velar fricative
h = glottal fricative

i as in "bee"
aI as in "eye"
Ir as in "ear"
^r as in "fur"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ziro(s): Webster, Random House, some Greek

dZiro(s): Webster, Random House, American Heritage, some Greek,
	Washington State, U.S. South
dZaIro(s): American Heritage, California, Ohio, Washington D.C.,
 	Philadelphia, New York, (rural) U.S. South

yiro(s): Webster, poster ("yee-ros"), Greek, Boise, Boston
yIro(s): Greek, Montreal, Australia (spelled "yeeros, yiros")
y^ro(s): Chicago

Giro(s): Greek, New York
G^ro(s): Greek

giro(s): Chicago, Madison, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, Germany,
 	Australia (spelled "giros")
gu"ro(s): Germany
gIro(s): Detroit Greektown
gaIro(s): Ohio, Buffalo

xiro(s): Germany, Wisconsin, Illinois

hiro(s): Boise, Denver, Tucson, Columbus, Buffalo, New York


______________________________________________________________________
David P. Baxter Department of Linguistics
dbaxtercogsci.uiuc.edu University of Illinois
http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/dbaxter at Urbana-Champaign