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  3. Names (personal, company)

Ιωάννης

English translation: Ioannis, Ioannes

11:07 Jun 29, 2007
Greek to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Names (personal, company)
Greek term or phrase: Ιωάννης
Sorry if I appear to be insulting your intelligence with such a basic query. My problem has to do with transliteration, and I know virtually no Greek. From time to time I translate academic articles by Turkish Cypriot authors on recent Cypriot History into English. The transliteration of Greek names is a constant headache for me when I do this, because the accepted practice in Turkish is to provide the closest possible phonetic rendering, whereas the accepted system for transliterating into English is much more faithful to the Greek letters involved (for example, a place name transliterated into Turkish beginning ‘Ayos’ becomes ‘Agios’ when written in English). This means that I often have to trace names back to the original Greek spellings before I can transliterate them into English.

Now, a constant source of puzzlement for me in this endeavour is the way former Cyprus President Glakos Clerides’ (and let’s not get into a debate over whether this should be ‘Klerides’ in accordance with the ELOT standard – this is Cyprus!) father’s name should be spelt. I encounter both ‘Yiannis Clerides’ (oddly never ‘Giannis’) and ‘Ioannis Clerides’ – in fact, both spellings are used in the same Wikepedia article on Glafkos Clerides: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glafkos_Klerides . What I find strange is that these are transliterations of two different names in Greek, i.e. ‘Γιαννης’ v. ‘Ιωαννης’. Logically, you would think that only one of these could be his correct name. I have always opted for ‘Ioannis’ because this seems to be used in the most respected English language sources on the history of Cyprus. One possibility that occurs to me is that Γιαννης may be a familiar form of Ιωαννης, and that perhaps it is correct to use both in the way that somebody called ‘Charles Brown’ might also, informally, be referred to as ‘Charlie Brown’. If this is so, would it then be correct to use both versions as a stylistic variation in the same text? I would greatly appreciate any input you could give me on this point.
Tim Drayton
Cyprus
Local time: 04:14
English translation:Ioannis, Ioannes
Explanation:
As you have said, Ioannis (Ioannes) is the name of the evangelist. Giannis (or Yiannis or Yannis) is the familiar form, just as Nick (Nikos) is the familiar form of Nicholas (Nikolaos).
Seeing that Clerides is used instead of Kliridis, one would expect the latinised form (Ioannes) to be used rather than Ioannis.
But, yes, Ioannis would be the safe choice here.
Selected response from:

Nick Lingris
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
Grading comment
ευχαριστώ
3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +8Ioannis, Ioannes
Nick Lingris


  

Answers


8 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +8
Ιωαννης
Ioannis, Ioannes


Explanation:
As you have said, Ioannis (Ioannes) is the name of the evangelist. Giannis (or Yiannis or Yannis) is the familiar form, just as Nick (Nikos) is the familiar form of Nicholas (Nikolaos).
Seeing that Clerides is used instead of Kliridis, one would expect the latinised form (Ioannes) to be used rather than Ioannis.
But, yes, Ioannis would be the safe choice here.

Nick Lingris
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
Native speaker of: Native in GreekGreek
PRO pts in category: 3
Grading comment
ευχαριστώ

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Angeliki Papadopoulou: Καλημέρα σας, Νικόλαε. :-)
2 mins
  -> Καλημέρα σας!
agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
5 mins
  -> Καλημέρα σας!
agree  Nadia-Anastasia Fahmi
14 mins
  -> Καλημέρα σας!
agree  Emmanouil Tyrakis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glafkos_Klerides - http://wiki.phantis.com/index.php/Ioannis_Clerides
38 mins
  -> Καλό Σ/Κ. Δροσερό.
agree  Evi Prokopi (X)
51 mins
  -> Καλό Σ/Κ.
agree  Assimina Vavoula: Καλό μεσημέρι, μον προφεσέρ... Καλό ΣΚ, για να μην ξεχνιόμαστε...
1 hr
  -> Καλό Σ/Κ. Δροσερό.
agree  Elena Rista
6 hrs
  -> Ευχαριστώ και καλό σαββατοκύριακο!
agree  Sophia Finos (X)
13 hrs
  -> Ευχαριστώ και καλό σαββατοκύριακο!
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