Contributions

Pav mastihi

Posted on 25 Jun 2019

FOOD AND PRODUCT LABELS 1

I somehow ended up at a Greek Cypriot shop food called Despina’s in Southgate today, for the first time ever.

I was intrigued to see so many food or product labels written in Greek and English.

Some are direct translations but others, but others like ‘κερί led’ combine both languages. (I assume this was a candle used for religious rituals, but not sure).

And the Rosewater bottle says ‘Produced and packaged by’ in English followed by ‘καφεκοπτιον της Αμαλιας’ in Greek. Αs i haven't been to cyprus in years, im nor sure if the labeling is like the there, or whether the languages are combined for the UK export market only.

Terms like τα ‘σπιτικά της Νίκης’ are not translated in literally as ' Niki's, home made products, but simply as traditional sweets.

I probably have always been aware of this mix, but got reminded of it again being in the mindset of the Grenglish projects.

As a very young adult I thought that αφροζα was some kind of magical and exotic stomach remedy that me mum and aunties knew about. I was so disappointed to find out eventually that it was just sherbet. The afroza packaging i saw today reminded me of this.

Attached are some photos of signs and labels I took of αφροζα, γλυκό, μέλι etc. The computer only allows 2 photos at a time, so after the first submission with this full text, i will label each submission, as FOOD AND PRODUCT LABELS 1, 2, 3 ETC

Download file