I.e. if there was NO international term such as “lesbian” and suddenly someone decided to start “The Lesbians”, of course people who had been originally called “Lesbian”(tm) from an island “Lesbos”(tm) would have a right to complain (and might even win their case in court).

Now, the above are FACTS. LOGIC. FINITO:
NO possibility for dispute, it’s like saying “1+1=3″. SORRY.

I.e. it is IMPOSSIBLE for Greece (or anyone else) to DICTATE to the world, to stop using a common international word, which also exists in dictionaries, because of a “copyright” or “geographic right”.

Well, human language is KNOWN to occasionally require what is called “DISAMBIGUATION”. There are hundreds of words with multiple meanings and a country CANNOT prohibit an established alternative meaning of a word, just because of self-centred interest to impose ONE alternative meaning of a word at the expense of other meanings, other Semantics.

So, as regards your statement
“Greece has every right to continue with naming disputes”
- YES, Greece has every right to be STUPID, ARROGANT, SELFISH and NATIONALISTIC, as well as totally IRRATIONAL, and also get away with it in a light-hearted sort of way.

- WHY? Because everyone knows (by now) that Greece is FULL of such shit. And Greece is ALSO forgiven, because people Also love Greece.
(At least Lesbian women HAD loved it, which is why they held their annual World Conferences every year in the island of Lesbos, which has also generated lots of… free tourist advertising).

I mean, look at it another way:

WHY do you think that the singer Sting (and others) called their music group “Police”, when they started it?
- Because, in this way, they got LOTS of FREE ADVERTISING.

So, logically, the Greek island of Lesbos, just like Sting and the group “Police”, actually BENEFITS from the fact that the same word is used by Lesbian women all over the world.

Unfortunately the (internal) Greek problem seems unsolvable!
There is no way to distinguish between Lesvians and Lesbians in Greek.

However, my suggestions mightl save our face internationally!

PS
The “Tsopanaraioi” tag is alive and well, except that there are so many new tags now that it was probably over-shadowed by them. (Will have a look in a minute to see what happened to it).

P.S. Where is the “Tsopanaraioi” tag”?

(brief summary for non-Greek readers: What this gent has said, is that in Greek we STILL have a problem of confusion between “lesbians” and “Lesvians”, but it might work out, somehow; this is because “b” in Greek is confused with “v” anyway; but we can still use “mp” which in Greek sounds “b”)…

I think the whole story is basically nonsensical, anyway. It might even be an attempt by those people in Lesvos to want free… advertising for their island, by creating this issue!…

Maybe they DO want the world to know all about Sappho, and the Lesbian conference each year in the island, etc….

ευχαριστούμε για την επίσκεψη και το σχόλιο στο
http://animats.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/lworld/
όπου, αφήσαμε το παρακάτω ως απάντηση:

καλά για την αγγλική γραφή και προφορά (όντως το Lesvian με v προφέρεται διαφορετικά από το lesbian με b), αλλά σε σχέση με τον ελληνικό όρο, ποιός θα μπορούσε να είναι;

εκτός κι αν. σε αντιστοιχία με τα αντίστοιχους αγγλικούς όρους που προτείνετε, να έχουμε στα ελληνικά τα Λέσβιος / Λέσβια ή Λεσβία (για τη δήλωση καταγωγής από το νησί) και το λεσμπία (από το lesbian) δηλωτικό του ερωτικού / σεξουαλικού προσανατολισμού

αντίστοιχα για το ουδέτερο τις λέξεις λεσβιακό (για το νησί) και λεσμπιακό (για το σεξουαλικό χαρακτηρισμό)

κατά τα άλλα, διαβάζοντας το post εύχομαι όλος αυτός ο θόρυβος να έχει και κάτι θετικό, δηλαδή να σας βοηθήσει να ξαναβρεθείτε με την Gabrielle καθώς όπως μάλλον γνωρίζετε οι λεσμπίες (σύμφωνα με την ορολογία που προτείναμε παραπάνω) δεν παύουν να είναι πολύ ενδιαφέρουσες και θερμές γυναίκες