{"id":52831,"date":"2021-11-28T12:55:35","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T17:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=52831"},"modified":"2021-11-28T12:55:35","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T17:55:35","slug":"the-missing-variant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=52831","title":{"rendered":"The missing variant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WHO \u2014 You cannot be Xi-rious!<\/a>\u00a0The WHO\u2019s decision to skip the Greek letter Xi in its ludicrous naming system shows exactly who controls it\", by David Spencer, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer, 2021\/11\/28:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
(source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From AntC:<\/p>\n

You might remember when this latest Covid mutation was first found in Southern Africa, it was going to be named Nu.<\/p>\n

But it ended up being named Omicron. I had assumed that's because a couple of lesser-known variants had already been in the pipeline. But no (allegedly), Nu was skipped because it was too close to a homophone for 'New'.<\/p>\n

Xi (pronounced 'Chi', or 'Ki' with long 'i'\/'aye' in Brit English) was skipped because it was too close to a homograph for … you cannot be Xi-rious. (Gotta love the pun.)<\/p>\n

The Taiwan News correspondent must have had a lot of fun writing that piece.<\/p>\n

… or too close to a homophone for a certain \"brand of personal lubricant\"?<\/p>\n

Checking the facts:<\/p>\n

\"WHO skipped two Greek alphabet letters in naming coronavirus variant<\/a>\", AP Fact Check (11\/27\/21):<\/p>\n

CLAIM: The World Health Organization skipped two letters of the Greek alphabet, nu and xi, when naming omicron, a newly identified variant of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

AP\u2019S ASSESSMENT: True. The agency said it did so to stop people confusing nu with \u201cnew\u201d and to avoid \u201ccausing offense\u201d because Xi is a common last name.<\/p>\n

THE FACTS: The WHO on Friday\u00a0gave the name<\/a>\u00a0\u201comicron\u201d to a new variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The agency also deemed it a \u201cvariant of concern<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Omicron was first reported to the U.N. health agency by scientists in South Africa and has been identified in several other countries as well, The Associated Press has\u00a0reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile:<\/p>\n

In 2013 the\u00a0Fuxi Institution<\/a>\u00a0compiled a ranking of the 400 most common surnames in China….\u00a0 According to the study, the following surnames are not among the 400 most common surnames…\u00a0X\u00ed\u00a0<\/a>(\u4e60\/\u7fd2)\"<\/p>\n

(source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

If those in charge of such matters keep skipping like this, they'll soon run out of Greek letters to name all the future variants.<\/p>\n

Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\n