Re: Souvlaki (was most looked-up words)

On 8 Dec 2004, at 12.29 am, caeruleancentaur wrote:

> Tristan Mc Leay <conlang@T...> wrote:
>
>> As for 'gyros', I think it's normally pronounced /suvla:ki/
>> hereabouts (and spelt 'souvlaki'), based on the description. Usually
>> acquired from fish-and-chips shops.
>
>
> According to the cookbook "Ethnic Cuisines," souvlaki is the Greek
> equivalent of the Turkish shish kebab, i.e., meat (and other things)
> skewered and grilled.
Souvlaki in my usage are certainly not shish kebabs and satisfy your
definition of gyros. I'm stunned to discover there's any other meaning.
  And considering how many fish-and-chips shops are run by Greeks, it
seems at least a little bit odd.

Things involving skewers are kebabs, but kebabs can also be
souvlaki-like things except with Turkish bread rather than pita. (I
just said this to Philip, except GMail's insistence of using a
Reply-To: header is shitting me up the wall.)

> The gyro/gyros/hero is a submarine sandwich.  I've seen store
> marquees announcing that they sell "hero" sandwiches.  I've explained
> to numerous people that that is the Greek pronunciation (more or
> less) of gyro. I didn't realize that the word is properly gyros.  I
> presume they are called submarine sandwiches (or simply subs, as in
> the chain Subway) because of the shape of the roll that's used.
Aside from the fact that I wouldn't've thought of describing them as
sandwiches (sandwiches need normal bread to satisfy my definition), I
always assumed Subway was so called because it originated in or near a
subway (presumably in the American sense), and that 'sub' came from
this. Then when you came up with 'submarine sandwich' just now, it
looked like it was some sort of play on Subway's subs.

--
Tristan.

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