μπούλιγκ = bullying
One of the surprising problems teachers encounter among English language learners is the -ing form of two-syllable verbs ending in “y” e.g bully, carry, marry, scurry, worry. Even good students will say and write bulling, carring , marring, scurring, worring, finding it hard to produce all three syllables. The problem is less likely to be resolved in Greece now that the two-syllable anglicism μπούλιγκ is being used instead of its three-syllable English original.
You hear it quite often on the news, and recently I read it in an article in Τα Νέα in the context of a middle-aged man who committed suicide following a campaign of harassment by people in his small community. The tragedy got nationwide attention because the man’s mother is a well-known TV chef.
I have noticed that awkward transcriptions are slowly being replaced by writing words in the Latin alphabet. If we look at μπούλιγκ, in Modern Greek the ‘b’ sound requires two letters μπ, and for the ‘ng’ sound Greek uses -γκ. Another problem is that μπ can be ‘mb’ or ‘b’ in the middle of a word. Similarly, γκ and γγ can be ‘ng’ or a hard ‘g’ sound. Learners at C1 or C2 Level in Greek are expected to know that the μπ in σόμπα is ‘b’ (soba) but ‘mb’ in εμπορική (emboriki). So, not only does one have to perfect one’s Greek, but one is also expected to have a working knowledge of etymology and historical linguistics. The exam descriptors say the candidate is expected know about nasalisation (ερρινοποίηση), so my advice is: do the speaking exam when you’ve got a heavy cold.
Anyway, μπούλιγκ would look like μπούλιϊγκ if it were transcribed as a three-syllable word. Quite ugly. Increasingly one will see “το bullying…” as in this article: https://www.ethnos.gr/lifestyle/article/248002/hlanadelreyepistrefeikaimilagiatobullyingsthnbillieeilishmiagynaikamoypetaxeenabibliogiatonfeminismostamoytra