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Re: CHAT Re: Souvlaki (was most looked-up words)

From:Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Date:Wednesday, December 8, 2004, 16:36
Steg Belsky inter alii wrote:

(snip my description of gyros meat/döner etc etc.)
> That's... that's... that's SHAWARMA!
I'll remember that if I ever visit Israel.
>> It may be > > that [souvlaki] too can be served in a pita with condiments; I don't > > recall. > > Hey, it's not in the pita unless it's actually *inside* the pita! :-P > ;-) >
That may depend on the quality of the pita; some are more easily split-openable than others-- speaking only of the pita one can buy in the average US supermarket (the ones I buy purport to be made by a Lebanese bakery). General comment/speculation: the confusion gyros/döner vs. souvlaki seems to have arisen in Europe, perhaps even in Greece. Perhaps, if the döner idea is originally Turkish (I note that the word was glossed "drehen" = turn = gyros??), there is a certain European Greek reluctance to admit that, or to use their term for it. I don't know. However, suffice to say there are a lot more Turks in Western Europe than in the US, plus many Greeks in W.Europe (and Australia, I suspect)are of much more recent vintage than those in the US; conceivably therefore Greek/Turkish tensions are more vividly felt. Most Greek-Americans by now are 1st generation or later; their immigrant forebears are long gone. (My friend's father died at ±100 in the l980s.) They certainly have no fondness for the Turks, but few have ever actually encountered one..........