# pide



## Aoyama

Hello everybody.
What would be the pronounciation of "pide" (the bread) ?
"pidé", " pidè" ?
I am mixing questions here, but it concerns the same word :
is "pide" linked to "pita" *and ultimately to "pizza" ?


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## dawar

The pronunciation would be more like "pidé". And Pide comes from greek. So there is absolutely a connection with "pita". And maybe with "pizza" too, but i can't affirm it.


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## vatrahos

It seems that no one can confirm the etymology of _pizza_. Some argue that it's ultimately of Germanic origin (from Old High German *bizzo* / *pizzo*), while others argue that indeed it comes from the Greek *pita*. No one seems to know for sure.

As for the Greek word, most argue that it comes from the word *πίσσα* (_pissa_) _-- _or, in the Attic dialect, *πίττα* (_pitta_) -- which literally means "pitch." They argue that the dough of this bread was apparently very thick (and black?), and so they called it _pitta_, due to its resemblence to pitch. This became, in Modern Greek, *πίτα* (_pita_).

I don't really know much about the veracity of these claims. I'd be interested to hear others' opinions.


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## macrotis

Nişanyan has something to say about its etymology here: http://www.taraf.com.tr/makale/3307.htm

As for pronunciation, I repeated it myself several times. The emphasis seems to fall on the last syllable (de) but both syllables are short.


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## Aoyama

Thank you for the link, seems interesting but my inexistent Turkish does not allow me to understand it . Nevertheless I can guess some of it .


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## macrotis

Aoyama said:


> Thank you for the link, seems interesting but my inexistent Turkish does not allow me to understand it . Nevertheless I can guess some of it .



Here is the 1st paragraph:



> _Flat bread specific to Eastern Mediterranean cultures. Its most important feature is that it's cooked on an iron plate without requiring a container. The form Pita appears in the 2nd century aD, almost simultaneously in both Greek and in Jewish religious books that were written in Aramaic in the country today called Iraq. The direction of interaction is uncertain, that is, the Greeks may have borrowed it from the Middle East, but the reverse is also possible. It was a common word in Byzantine Greek. It's certain that it was borrowed into Turkish from (Anatolian) Greek._


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## Aoyama

Thank you for the trouble macrotis !! I really appreciate it. Especially that part :


> _The form Pita appears in the 2nd century aD, almost simultaneously in both Greek and in Jewish religious books that were written in Aramaic in the country today called Iraq_


extremely precious !


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