Wolfy posted about her neighbor from the Ukraine.  It inspired me to pull
out my Greek-English dictionaries to look up the word 'ferret'.  I was
not surprised that there was more than one word listed.  It is very
common for there to be at least 2 words for the same thing.  The western
islands of the nation of Greece (the Ionian Islands) were at one time
under Italian rule, hence a number of Italian words pepper the dialect.
Conversely, the eastern islands (the Aegean Islands) and part of the
mainland were under Turkish rule, hence a smattering of Turkish words
in the dialects.
 
Now, I spent my first 17 summers in a small village on an Ionian island.
I know that there are weasels on the island, having seen them flash
across the roads in front of the car.  I've never seen one up close
unfortunately, at least for me, not for my relatives who dislike the
things for their taste for chickens and eggs.  The name for these
animals, at least on my island, is 'kounavi' (pronounced koonavee,
accent on na).
 
Both of my dicationaries, the Divry's Dictionary and the Oxford
Dictionary of Modern Greek, translate kounavi as marten.  I thought
marten were bigger than my memory of the little dark brown critters
running through the headlights' glare but I could, of course, be
mistaken.  They're fast little things.
 
Another word for ferret is 'iktis' (pronounced eekteese, accent on teese
which rhymes with geese).  The word is translated alternately as weasel,
ferret, or marten.
 
Yet another word is 'nifitsa' (pronounced neefeetsa, accent on fee).
Nifitsa is translated as weasel, ferret, or mink.
 
As an aside, the Oxford dictionary translates mink as 'vizon' (veezoan,
accent on zoan which rhymes with moan), but I don't find the word
anywhere else.
 
Thus endeth the language lesson for the day!  And if you've seen 'My Big
Fat Greek Wedding', you've met my relatives!
 
Anastasia Kidd
[Posted in FML issue 3934]