Adam:

Notiou Aigaiou is a genitive form. If you are are transliterating the whole thing it should be Periphereia Notiou Aigaiou. This would mean "Periphery (or Region) of Notios Aigaios".  I believe Notios Aigaios would be the nominative form of Notiou Aigaiou. However, I'm extrapolating from ancient Greek, which I'm pretty good at. I don't speak modern Greek. I've looked through the websites and don't see any instances of the name in the nominative case, so perhaps it's always used with "Periphereia".

Checking a modern Greek dictionary, I see that "notios" is in fact the nominative form of "notiou" (meaning "southern"). "Notios Aigaios" would mean "southern Aegean". 

I am troubled, however, by the multiple websites that identify this place in romanized form as "Notio Aigaio". For example,

http://europa.eu/abc/maps/regions/greece/notio_en.htm
http://www.notioaigaio-region.com/en_default.asp

This latter form (Region of Notio Aigaio), by the way, is a literal translation of "Periphereia Notiou Aigaiou".

There is no evidence at all (on the web) for the transliteration "notios Aigaios".

In any case, "Notiou Aigaiou" would NOT be appropriate, since it's the genitive form. It shouldn't even be used as a reference, since names in languages that use case are supposed to be set up in the nominative case and references are to be formed as though they had been chosen for the heading.

I'd probably go with Notio Aigaio, simply because of all the maps that have it that way. I assume because of chapter 23 you'd leave off "Periphereia" or "Region of". Make a reference from Notios Aigaios for us pedants who extrapolate that form from Notiou Aigaiou.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging on behalf of Adam L. Schiff
Sent: Wed 7/11/2007 7:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Greek romanization help needed
 
I need to set up the name heading for a "periphery" of Greece and I have 
found the periphery's website and want to make sure that I am romanizing 
the name correctly.

The website is at http://www.notioaigaio.gr/

Wikipedia also provides the Greek form of name at 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Aegean

I've found a number of different romanizations in reference sources and 
online.  The most common form used seems to be Notio Aigaio (which is also 
what is in the URL above), but is this the correct systematic romanization 
of the place?  Or should my heading be romanized as Notiou Aigaiou 
instead?

Thanks,

Adam

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