This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: Edited to add more
Evangelos and Evaggelos are not two different transliterations (the exact transposition of letters from an alphabet to another one: the transliteration is exact and identic for all the languages and only varies in the transliterative system, if there are several systems for one alphabet, and it is mainly used for scholar works), but one Latinized form (Evangelos) from a Greek one (Evaggelos, in Greek Ευάγγελος), probably attracted by the Latin word evangelium or by some names as Evangeline, in English, or Evangelista, in Spanish (both from the Latin form).In fact, in Greek, the search with Google for Ευάνγελος, which would be the Greek spelling of Evangelos, offer only 6 results (2 Spanish, 1 Italian, 2 Greek and 1 English about Vangelis) versus 607,000 of Ευάγγελος. And, for example, the one about Vangelis is not correct checking with the informations about him in Wikipedia.http://www.search.com/reference/Vangelis
"Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (Greek: Ευάνγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου IPA: [evˈaɲɟelos oðiˈseas papaθanaˈsiu]) is a Greek composer of electronic, new age and classical music and musical performer, under the artist name Vangelis Papathanassiou (Βανγέλης Παπαθανασίου) or just Vangelis (a diminutive of Evangelos) [IPA: /væŋɛlɪs/ or /vægɛlɪs/]."But in English Wikipedia:
"Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (born March 29, 1943) (Greek: Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου IPA: [evˈaɲɟelos oðiˈseas papaθanaˈsiu]), is a Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient and neo classical music, under the artist name Vangelis (a diminutive of Evangelos; pronounced /vænˈgɛlɨs/ in English)."And, more important, in Greek Wikipedia:
"Βαγγέλης Παπαθανασίου" and "Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας".So, it seems that the form Ευάνγελος in reference to Vangelis is, simply, a mistake and that even if the form is not completely unknown in Greek, its presence is punctual.They could be two transcriptions from the same word, because that is the change of a word spelled in one alphabet to another alphabet, matching with the specific conventions for a language and trying to reflect the sounds, so the same word is transcript differently in every language of reception. I don't know if the Latin evangelium is simply an adaptation from the Greek εὐαγγέλος or there was a variant εὐανγέλος in this language.
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
vote up1vote down

Replies

A placeholder till the more knowledgeable reply:In Greek, γγ has long been pronounced ng. I do not know the exact origin of this and, to top it, Greek pronounciation has undergone major changes (stops have become fricatives in non-nasal contexts), and lost much of the dialectical variations, so that modern pronounciation is not a good guide to many phenomenon. But, at least in the gamma-gamma and the gamma-chi contexts, the first gamma is a nasal sound, and in gamma-kappa it is a non-nasal stop, not a fricative. (More understandably, a preceding nasal often merely marks a modern fricative as a stop.)In any case, at least today, it is an orthographic issue: and Evaggelos is a transliteration which captures the orthography and *not* the pronounciation, Evangelos does the opposite. I do not know where the use of ni-gamma appeared in the few examples on Google: whether they are mistakes or regional orthography.
vote up1vote down
The examples on Google with ni-gamma were: http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/publications/vol3b/vol3b_names/v3bme_u.html
Since this link is from the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, by Oxford, the 5 occurrences of Evangelos are correct.http://www.greece.org/hec/hecbylaw_gr.html
In this website, the form appears as name of a person from Greek descent. But since he is from the USA, it is probable that his name is Evangelos and Ευάνγελος is just a transliteration to Greek (more or less like some Irish names Anglicized and later reIrishized having the English form as base).http://www.parrocchiasantavaleria.it/lettori/incontri/Lettori01.pdf
An Italian webpage about the Bible and the Gospels. But since the word is even spelled ευανγέλοσ, with σ instead of ς, the realiability of the source is very doubtful.http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelizaci%C3%B3n
The Spanish Wikipedia, mirrored in some other websites. (The English version have the spelling with gamma-gamma, even it says "transliterated" when it obviously is not a transliteration but a transcription.)
vote up1vote down