Greek alphabet - wikipedia Greek alphabet Greek alphabet Type Alphabet Languages Greek Time period c. 800 BC -- present Parent systems Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto - Sinaitic alphabet Phoenician alphabet Greek alphabet Child systems Gothic Glagolitic Cyrillic Coptic Armenian Old Italic Latin Georgian Direction Left - to - right ISO 15924 Grek, 200 Unicode alias Greek Unicode range U + 0370 -- U + 03FF Greek and Coptic U + 1F00 -- U + 1FFF Greek Extended The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th century BC or early 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the first alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as well as consonants. It is the ancestor of the Latin and Cyrillic scripts. Apart from its use in writing the Greek language, in both its ancient and its modern forms, the Greek alphabet today also serves as a source of technical symbols and labels in many domains of mathematics, science and other fields. In its classical and modern forms, the alphabet has 24 letters, ordered from alpha to omega. Like Latin and Cyrillic, Greek originally had only a single form of each letter ; it developed the letter case distinction between upper - case and lower - case forms in parallel with Latin during the modern era. Sound values and conventional transcriptions for some of the letters differ between Ancient Greek and Modern Greek usage, because the pronunciation of Greek has changed significantly between the 5th century BC and today. Modern and Ancient Greek use different diacritics. The traditional orthography, which is used for Ancient Greek and sometimes for Modern Greek, has many diacritics, such as accent marks for pitch accent ( `` polytonic '' ), the breathing marks for the presence and absence of the initial / h / sound, and the iota subscript for the final historical / i / sound. In standard Modern Greek spelling, orthography has been simplified to a monotonic system, which uses only two diacritics : the acute accent and diaeresis. Contents 1 Letters 1.1 Sound values 1.2 Digraphs and letter combinations 1.3 Diacritics 1.4 Romanization 2 History 2.1 Origins 2.2 Archaic variants 2.3 Letter names 2.4 Letter shapes 3 Derived alphabets 4 Other uses 4.1 Use for other languages 4.1. 1 Antiquity 4.1. 2 Middle Ages 4.1. 3 Early modern 4.2 In mathematics and science 4.3 Astronomy 4.4 International Phonetic Alphabet 4.5 Use as numerals 4.6 Use in naming student fraternities and sororities 5 Glyph variants 6 Computer encodings 6.1 ISO / IEC 8859 - 7 6.2 Greek in Unicode 6.2. 1 Combining and letter - free diacritics 6.3 Encodings with a subset of the Greek alphabet 7 Chapter letters 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Bibliography 12 External links Letters Letter Name Sound Ancient Modern Α α alpha, άλφα ( a ) ( aː ) Β β beta, βήτα Γ γ gamma, γάμμα ( ɡ ), ( ŋ ) ( ɣ ) ~ ( ʝ ), ( ŋ ) ~ ( ɲ ) Δ δ delta, δέλτα ( d ) ( ð ) Ε ε epsilon, έψιλον Ζ ζ zeta, ζήτα ( zd ) ( z ) Η η eta, ήτα ( ɛː ) ( i ) Θ θ theta, θήτα ( th ) ( θ ) Ι ι iota, ιώτα ( i ) ( iː ) ( i ), ( ʝ ), ( ɲ ) Κ κ kappa, κάππα ( k ) ( k ) ~ ( c ) Λ λ lambda, λάμδα ( l ) Μ μ mu, μυ ( m ) Or ( dz ). Letter Name Sound Ancient Modern Ν ν nu, νυ ( n ) Ξ ξ xi, ξι ( ks ) Ο ο omicron, όμικρον ( o ) Π π pi, πι ( p ) Ρ ρ rho, ρώ ( r ) Σ σ / ς sigma, σίγμα ( s ) ( s ) ~ ( z ) Τ τ tau, ταυ Υ υ upsilon, ύψιλον ( y ) ( yː ) ( i ) Φ φ phi, φι ( ph ) ( f ) Χ χ chi, χι ( kh ) ( x ) ~ ( ç ) Ψ ψ psi, ψι ( ps ) Ω ω omega, ωμέγα ( ɔː ) ( o ) Examples Jump up ^ For example, ἀγκών. Jump up ^ For example, εγγραφή. Jump up ^ For example, εγγεγραμμένος. Jump up ^ For example, βια. Jump up ^ For example, μια. Sound values Main article : Greek orthography Further information : Manners of articulation In both Ancient and Modern Greek, the letters of the Greek alphabet have fairly stable and consistent symbol - to - sound mappings, making pronunciation of words largely predictable. Ancient Greek spelling was generally near - phonemic. For a number of letters, sound values differ considerably between Ancient and Modern Greek, because their pronunciation has followed a set of systematic phonological shifts that affected the language in its post-classical stages. Among consonant letters, all letters that denoted voiced plosive consonants ( / b, d, g / ) and aspirated plosives ( / ph, th, kh / ) in Ancient Greek stand for corresponding fricative sounds in Modern Greek. The correspondences are as follows : Former voiced plosives Former aspirates Letter Ancient Modern Letter Ancient Modern Labial Β β / b / / v / Φ φ / ph / / f / Dental Δ δ / d / / ð / Θ θ / th / / θ / Dorsal Γ γ / ɡ / ( ɣ ) ~ ( ʝ ) Χ χ / kh / ( x ) ~ ( ç ) Among the vowel symbols, Modern Greek sound values reflect the radical simplification of the vowel system of post-classical Greek, merging multiple formerly distinct vowel phonemes into a much smaller number. This leads to several groups of vowel letters denoting identical sounds today. Modern Greek orthography remains true to the historical spellings in most of these cases. As a consequence, the spellings of words in Modern Greek are often not predictable from the pronunciation alone, while the reverse mapping, from spelling to pronunciation, is usually regular and predictable. The following vowel letters and digraphs are involved in the mergers : Letter Ancient Modern Letter Ancient Modern Η η ɛː > i Ω ω ɔː > o Ι ι i ( ː ) Ο ο o ΕΙ ει ei Ε ε > e Υ υ u ( ː ) > y ΑΙ αι ai ΟΙ οι oi > y ΥΙ υι yː > y Modern Greek speakers typically use the same, modern symbol -- sound mappings in reading Greek of all historical stages. In other countries, students of Ancient Greek may use a variety of conventional approximations of the historical sound system in pronouncing Ancient Greek. Digraphs and letter combinations Several letter combinations have special conventional sound values different from those of their single components. Among them are several digraphs of vowel letters that formerly represented diphthongs but are now monophthongized. In addition to the three mentioned above ( ⟨ ει, αι, οι ⟩ ) ( and in some cases the ancient Greek υι, for example υιός ), there is also ⟨ ου ⟩, pronounced / u /. The Ancient Greek diphthongs ⟨ αυ ⟩, ⟨ ευ ⟩ and ⟨ ηυ ⟩ are pronounced ( av ), ( ev ) and ( iv ) respectively in voicing environments in Modern Greek ( or alternatively as ( af ), ( ef ) and ( if ) respectively in devoicing environments ) The more ancient combination ⟨ ωυ ⟩ or ⟨ ωϋ ⟩ can occur in ancient especially in Ionic texts or in personal names. The Modern Greek consonant combinations ⟨ μπ ⟩ and ⟨ ντ ⟩ stand for ( b ) and ( d ) ( or ( mb ) and ( nd ) ) respectively ; ⟨ τζ ⟩ stands for ( dz ) and ⟨ τσ ⟩ stands for ( t͡s ). In addition, both in Ancient and Modern Greek, the letter ⟨ γ ⟩, before another velar consonant, stands for the velar nasal ( ŋ ) ; thus ⟨ γγ ⟩ and ⟨ γκ ⟩ are pronounced like English ⟨ ng ⟩. ( Analogously to ⟨ μπ ⟩ and ⟨ ντ ⟩, ⟨ γκ ⟩ is also used to stand for ( g ). ) There are also the combinations ⟨ γχ ⟩ and ⟨ γξ ⟩. Combination Pronunciation Devoiced pronunciation ⟨ αυ ⟩ ( av ) ( af ) ⟨ ευ ⟩ ( ev ) ( ef ) ⟨ ηυ ⟩ ( iv ) ( if ) ⟨ μπ ⟩ ( b ) ⟨ ντ ⟩ ( d ) ⟨ τζ ⟩ ( dz ) ⟨ τσ ⟩ ( t͡s ) Diacritics Main article : Greek diacritics In the polytonic orthography traditionally used for ancient Greek, the stressed vowel of each word carries one of three accent marks : either the acute accent ( ά ), the grave accent ( ὰ ), or the circumflex accent ( α̃ or α̑ ). These signs were originally designed to mark different forms of the phonological pitch accent in Ancient Greek. By the time their use became conventional and obligatory in Greek writing, in late antiquity, pitch accent was evolving into a single stress accent, and thus the three signs have not corresponded to a phonological distinction in actual speech ever since. In addition to the accent marks, every word - initial vowel must carry either of two so - called `` breathing marks '' : the rough breathing ( ἁ ), marking an / h / sound at the beginning of a word, or the smooth breathing ( ἀ ), marking its absence. The letter rho ( ρ ), although not a vowel, also carries a rough breathing in word - initial position. If a rho was geminated within a word, the first ρ always had the smooth breathing and the second the rough breathing ( ῤῥ ) leading to the transiliteration rrh. The vowel letters ⟨ α, η, ω ⟩ carry an additional diacritic in certain words, the so - called iota subscript, which has the shape of a small vertical stroke or a miniature ⟨ ι ⟩ below the letter. This iota represents the former offglide of what were originally long diphthongs, ⟨ ᾱι, ηι, ωι ⟩ ( i.e. / aːi, ɛːi, ɔːi / ), which became monophthongized during antiquity. Another diacritic used in Greek is the diaeresis (  ̈ ), indicating a hiatus. In 1982, a new, simplified orthography, known as `` monotonic '', was adopted for official use in Modern Greek by the Greek state. It uses only a single accent mark, the acute ( also known in this context as tonos, i.e. simply `` accent '' ), marking the stressed syllable of polysyllabic words, and occasionally the diaeresis to distinguish diphthongal from digraph readings in pairs of vowel letters, making this monotonic system very similar to the accent mark system used in Spanish. The polytonic system is still conventionally used for writing Ancient Greek, while in some book printing and generally in the usage of conservative writers it can still also be found in use for Modern Greek. Although it is not a diacritic, the comma has a similar function as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό, τι ( ó, ti, `` whatever '' ) from ότι ( óti, `` that '' ). Romanization Main article : Romanization of Greek There are many different methods of rendering Greek text or Greek names in the Latin script. The form in which classical Greek names are conventionally rendered in English goes back to the way Greek loanwords were incorporated into Latin in antiquity. In this system, ⟨ κ ⟩ is replaced with ⟨ c ⟩, the diphthongs ⟨ αι ⟩ and ⟨ οι ⟩ are rendered as ⟨ ae ⟩ and ⟨ oe ⟩ ( or ⟨ æ, œ ⟩ ) respectively ; and ⟨ ει ⟩ and ⟨ ου ⟩ are simplified to ⟨ i ⟩ and ⟨ u ⟩ respectively. In modern scholarly transliteration of Ancient Greek, ⟨ κ ⟩ will usually be rendered as ⟨ k ⟩, and the vowel combinations ⟨ αι, οι, ει, ου ⟩ as ⟨ ai, oi, ei, ou ⟩ respectively. The letters ⟨ θ ⟩ and ⟨ φ ⟩ are generally rendered as ⟨ th ⟩ and ⟨ ph ⟩ ; ⟨ χ ⟩ as either ⟨ ch ⟩ or ⟨ kh ⟩ ; and word - initial ⟨ ρ ⟩ as ⟨ rh ⟩. For Modern Greek, there are multiple different transcription conventions. They differ widely, depending on their purpose, on how close they stay to the conventional letter correspondences of Ancient Greek - based transcription systems, and to what degree they attempt either an exact letter - by - letter transliteration or rather a phonetically based transcription. Standardized formal transcription systems have been defined by the International Organization for Standardization ( as ISO 843 ), by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, by the Library of Congress, and others. History Main article : History of the Greek alphabet Origins Dipylon inscription, one of the oldest known samples of the use of the Greek alphabet, c. 740 BC During the Mycenaean period, from around the 16th century to the 12th century BC, Linear B was used to write the earliest attested form of the Greek language, known as Mycenaean Greek. This writing system, unrelated to the Greek alphabet, last appeared in the 13th century BC. In the late 9th century BC or early 8th century BC, the Greek alphabet emerged. The period between the use of the two writing systems, during which no Greek texts are attested, is known as the Greek Dark Ages. The Greeks adopted the alphabet from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, one of the closely related scripts used for the West Semitic languages. However, the Phoenician alphabet is limited to consonants. When it was adopted for writing Greek, certain consonants were adapted to express vowels. The use of both vowels and consonants makes Greek the first alphabet in the narrow sense, as distinguished from the abjads used in Semitic languages, which have letters only for consonants. Greek initially took over all of the 22 letters of Phoenician. Five were reassigned to denote vowel sounds : the glide consonants / j / ( yodh ) and / w / ( waw ) were used for ( i ) ( Ι, iota ) and ( u ) ( Υ, upsilon ) respectively ; the glottal stop consonant / ʔ / ( aleph ) was used for ( a ) ( Α, alpha ) ; the pharyngeal / ʕ / ( ʿayin ) was turned into ( o ) ( Ο, omicron ) ; and the letter for / h / ( he ) was turned into ( e ) ( Ε, epsilon ). A doublet of waw was also borrowed as a consonant for ( w ) ( Ϝ, digamma ). In addition, the Phoenician letter for the emphatic glottal / ħ / ( heth ) was borrowed in two different functions by different dialects of Greek : as a letter for / h / ( Η, heta ) by those dialects that had such a sound, and as an additional vowel letter for the long / ɛː / ( Η, eta ) by those dialects that lacked the consonant. Eventually, a seventh vowel letter for the long / ɔː / ( Ω, omega ) was introduced. Greek also introduced three new consonant letters for its aspirated plosive sounds and consonant clusters : Φ ( phi ) for / ph /, Χ ( chi ) for / kh / and Ψ ( psi ) for / ps /. In western Greek variants, Χ was instead used for / ks / and Ψ for / kh /. The origin of these letters is a matter of some debate. Phoenician Greek aleph / ʔ / Α alpha / a /, / aː / beth / b / Β beta / b / gimel / ɡ / Γ gamma / ɡ / daleth / d / Δ delta / d / he / h / Ε epsilon / e /, / eː / waw / w / Ϝ ( digamma ) / w / zayin / z / Ζ zeta ( zd ) ( ? ) heth / ħ / Η eta / h /, / ɛː / teth / tʕ / Θ theta / th / yodh / j / Ι iota / i /, / iː / kaph / k / Κ kappa / k / lamedh / l / Λ lambda / l / mem / m / Μ mu / m / nun / n / Ν nu / n / Phoenician Greek samekh / s / Ξ xi / ks / ʿayin / ʕ / Ο omicron / o /, / oː / pe / p / Π pi / p / ṣade / sʕ / Ϻ ( san ) / s / qoph / q / Ϙ ( koppa ) / k / reš / r / Ρ rho / r / šin / ʃ / Σ sigma / s / taw / t / Τ tau / t / ( waw ) / w / Υ upsilon / u /, / uː / -- Φ phi / ph / -- Χ chi / kh / -- Ψ psi / ps / -- Ω omega / ɔː / Early Greek alphabet on pottery in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens Three of the original Phoenician letters dropped out of use before the alphabet took its classical shape : the letter Ϻ ( san ), which had been in competition with Σ ( sigma ) denoting the same phoneme / s / ; the letter Ϙ ( qoppa ), which was redundant with Κ ( kappa ) for / k /, and Ϝ ( digamma ), whose sound value / w / dropped out of the spoken language before or during the classical period. Greek was originally written predominantly from right to left, just like Phoenician, but scribes could freely alternate between directions. For a time, a writing style with alternating right - to - left and left - to - right lines ( called boustrophedon, literally `` ox - turning '', after the manner of an ox ploughing a field ) was common, until in the classical period the left - to - right writing direction became the norm. Individual letter shapes were mirrored depending on the writing direction of the current line. Archaic variants Main article : Archaic Greek alphabets There were initially numerous local variants of the Greek alphabet, which differed in the use and non-use of the additional vowel and consonant symbols and several other features. A form of western Greek native to Euboea, which among other things had Χ for / ks /, was transplanted to Italy by early Greek colonists, and became the ancestor of the Old Italic alphabets and ultimately, through Etruscan, of the Latin alphabet. Athens used a local form of the alphabet until the 5th century BC ; it lacked the letters Ξ and Ψ as well as the vowel symbols Η and Ω. The classical 24 - letter alphabet that became the norm later was originally the local alphabet of Ionia ; this was adopted by Athens in 403 BC under archon Eucleides and in most other parts of the Greek - speaking world during the 4th century BC. Letter names When the Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet, they took over not only the letter shapes and sound values, but also the names by which the sequence of the alphabet could be recited and memorized. In Phoenician, each letter name was a word that began with the sound represented by that letter ; thus ʾaleph, the word for `` ox '', was used as the name for the glottal stop / ʔ /, bet, or `` house '', for the / b / sound, and so on. When the letters were adopted by the Greeks, most of the Phoenician names were maintained or modified slightly to fit Greek phonology ; thus, ʾaleph, bet, gimel became alpha, beta, gamma. The Greek names of the following letters are more or less straightforward continuations of their Phoenician antecedents. Between Ancient and Modern Greek they have remained largely unchanged, except that their pronunciation has followed regular sound changes along with other words ( for instance, in the name of beta, ancient / b / regularly changed to modern / v /, and ancient / ɛː / to modern / i /, resulting in the modern pronunciation vita ). The name of lambda is attested in early sources as λάβδα besides λάμβδα ; in Modern Greek the spelling is often λάμδα, reflecting pronunciation. Similarly, iota is sometimes spelled γιώτα in Modern Greek ( ( ʝ ) is conventionally transcribed ⟨ γ ( ι, η, υ, ει, οι ) ⟩ word - initially and intervocalically before back vowels and / a / ). In the tables below, the Greek names of all letters are given in their traditional polytonic spelling ; in modern practice, like with all other words, they are usually spelled in the simplified monotonic system. Greek alphabet The names of the letters in spoken Standard Modern Greek Problems playing this file ? See media help. Letter Name Pronunciation Greek Phoenician original English Greek ( Ancient ) Greek ( Modern ) English Α ἄλφα aleph alpha ( alpha ) ( ˈalfa ) / ˈælfə / ( listen ) Β βῆτα beth beta ( bɛːta ) ( ˈvita ) / ˈbiːtə /, US : / ˈbeɪtə / Γ γάμμα gimel gamma ( ɡamma ) ( ˈɣama ) / ˈɡæmə / Δ δέλτα daleth delta ( delta ) ( ˈðelta ) / ˈdɛltə / Η ἦτα heth eta ( hɛːta ), ( ɛːta ) ( ˈita ) / ˈiːtə /, US : / ˈeɪtə / Θ θῆτα teth theta ( thɛːta ) ( ˈθita ) / ˈθiːtə /, US : / ˈθeɪtə / ( listen ) Ι ἰῶτα yodh iota ( iɔːta ) ( ˈʝota ) / aɪ ˈoʊtə / ( listen ) Κ κάππα kaph kappa ( kappa ) ( ˈkapa ) / ˈkæpə / ( listen ) Λ λάμβδα lamedh lambda ( lambda ) ( ˈlamða ) / ˈlæmdə / ( listen ) Μ μῦ mem mu ( myː ) ( mi ) / ˈmjuː / ( listen ) ; occasionally US : / ˈmuː / Ν νῦ nun nu ( nyː ) ( ni ) / ˈnjuː / ( US : / ˈnuː / ) Ρ ῥῶ reš rho ( rɔː ) ( ro ) / ˈroʊ / ( listen ) Τ ταῦ taw tau ( tau ) ( taf ) / ˈtaʊ / or / ˈtɔː / In the cases of the three historical sibilant letters below, the correspondence between Phoenician and Ancient Greek is less clear, with apparent mismatches both in letter names and sound values. The early history of these letters ( and the fourth sibilant letter, obsolete san ) has been a matter of some debate. Here too, the changes in the pronunciation of the letter names between Ancient and Modern Greek are regular. Letter Name Pronunciation Greek Phoenician original English Greek ( Ancient ) Greek ( Modern ) English Ζ ζῆτα zayin zeta ( zdɛːta ) ( ˈzita ) / ˈziːtə /, US : / ˈzeɪtə / Ξ ξεῖ, ξῖ samekh xi ( kseː ) ( ksi ) / ˈzaɪ /, / ˈksaɪ / Σ σίγμα šin siɡma ( siɡma ) ( ˈsiɣma ) / ˈsɪɡmə / In the following group of consonant letters, the older forms of the names in Ancient Greek were spelled with - εῖ, indicating an original pronunciation with - ē. In Modern Greek these names are spelled with - ι. Letter Name Pronunciation Greek English Greek ( Ancient ) Greek ( Modern ) English Ξ ξεῖ, ξῖ xi ( kseː ) ( ksi ) / ˈzaɪ /, / ˈksaɪ / Π πεῖ, πῖ pi ( peː ) ( pi ) / ˈpaɪ / Φ φεῖ, φῖ phi ( pheː ) ( fi ) / ˈfaɪ / Χ χεῖ, χῖ chi ( kheː ) ( çi ) / ˈkaɪ / ( listen ) Ψ ψεῖ, ψῖ psi ( pseː ) ( psi ) / ˈsaɪ /, / ˈpsaɪ / ( listen ) The following group of vowel letters were originally called simply by their sound values as long vowels : ē, ō, ū, and ɔ. Their modern names contain adjectival qualifiers that were added during the Byzantine period, to distinguish between letters that had become confusable. Thus, the letters ⟨ ο ⟩ and ⟨ ω ⟩, pronounced identically by this time, were called o mikron ( `` small o '' ) and o mega ( `` big o '' ) respectively. The letter ⟨ ε ⟩ was called e psilon ( `` plain e '' ) to distinguish it from the identically pronounced digraph ⟨ αι ⟩, while, similarly, ⟨ υ ⟩, which at this time was pronounced ( y ), was called y psilon ( `` plain y '' ) to distinguish it from the identically pronounced digraph ⟨ οι ⟩. Letter Name Pronunciation Greek ( Ancient ) Greek ( Medieval ) Greek ( Modern ) English Greek ( Ancient ) Greek ( Modern ) English Ε εἶ ἐ ψιλόν ἔψιλον epsilon ( eː ) ( ˈepsilon ) / ˈɛpsɪlɒn /, some UK : / ɛpˈsaɪlən / Ο οὖ ὀ μικρόν ὄμικρον omicron ( oː ) ( ˈomikron ) / ˈɒmɪkrɒn / ( listen ), traditional UK : / oʊ ˈmaɪkrɒn / Υ ὖ ὐ ψιλόν ὔψιλον upsilon ( uː ), ( yː ) ( ˈipsilon ) / juː pˈsaɪlən /, / ˈʊpsɪlɒn /, also UK : / ʌpˈsaɪlən /, US : / ˈʌpsɪlɒn / Ω ὦ ὠ μέγα ὠμέγα omega ( ɔː ) ( oˈmeɣa ) US : / oʊ ˈmeɪɡə /, traditional UK : / ˈoʊmɪɡə / Some dialects of the Aegean and Cypriot have retained long consonants and pronounce ( ˈɣamːa ) and ( ˈkapha ) ; also, ήτα has come to be pronounced ( ˈitha ) in Cypriot. Letter shapes A 16th - century edition of the New Testament ( Gospel of John ), printed in a renaissance typeface by Claude Garamond Theocritus Idyll 1, lines 12 - 14, in script with abbreviations and ligatures from a caption in an illustrated edition of Theocritus. Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer : Carmina bucolica, Leiden 1779. Like Latin and other alphabetic scripts, Greek originally had only a single form of each letter, without a distinction between uppercase and lowercase. This distinction is an innovation of the modern era, drawing on different lines of development of the letter shapes in earlier handwriting. The oldest forms of the letters in antiquity are majuscule forms. Besides the upright, straight inscriptional forms ( capitals ) found in stone carvings or incised pottery, more fluent writing styles adapted for handwriting on soft materials were also developed during antiquity. Such handwriting has been preserved especially from papyrus manuscripts in Egypt since the Hellenistic period. Ancient handwriting developed two distinct styles : uncial writing, with carefully drawn, rounded block letters of about equal size, used as a book hand for carefully produced literary and religious manuscripts, and cursive writing, used for everyday purposes. The cursive forms approached the style of lowercase letter forms, with ascenders and descenders, as well as many connecting lines and ligatures between letters. In the 9th and 10th century, uncial book hands were replaced with a new, more compact writing style, with letter forms partly adapted from the earlier cursive. This minuscule style remained the dominant form of handwritten Greek into the modern era. During the Renaissance, western printers adopted the minuscule letter forms as lowercase printed typefaces, while modelling uppercase letters on the ancient inscriptional forms. The orthographic practice of using the letter case distinction for marking proper names, titles etc. developed in parallel to the practice in Latin and other western languages. Inscription Manuscript Modern print Archaic Classical Uncial Minuscule Lowercase Uppercase α Α β Β γ Γ δ Δ ε Ε ζ Ζ η Η θ Θ ι Ι κ Κ λ Λ μ Μ ν Ν ξ Ξ ο Ο π Π ρ Ρ σς Σ τ Τ υ Υ φ Φ χ Χ ψ Ψ ω Ω Derived alphabets The earliest Etruscan abecedarium, from Marsiliana d'Albegna, still almost identical with contemporaneous archaic Greek alphabets A page from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th - century Bible manuscript in Gothic The Greek alphabet was the model for various others : The Latin alphabet, together with various other ancient scripts in Italy, adopted from an archaic form of the Greek alphabet brought to Italy by Greek colonists in the late 8th century BC, via Etruscan The Gothic alphabet, devised in the 4th century AD to write the Gothic language, based on a combination of Greek and Latin models The Glagolitic alphabet, devised in the 9th century AD for writing Old Church Slavonic The Cyrillic script, which replaced the Glagolitic alphabet shortly afterwards It is also considered a possible ancestor of the Armenian alphabet, which in turn influenced the development of the Georgian alphabet. Other uses Use for other languages Apart from the daughter alphabets listed above, which were adapted from Greek but developed into separate writing systems, the Greek alphabet has also been adopted at various times and in various places to write other languages. For some of them, additional letters were introduced. Antiquity Most of the alphabets of Asia Minor, in use c. 800 -- 300 BC to write languages like Lydian and Phrygian, were the early Greek alphabet with only slight modifications -- as were the original Old Italic alphabets. Some Paleo - Balkan languages, including Thracian. For other neighboring languages or dialects, such as Ancient Macedonian, isolated words are preserved in Greek texts, but no continuous texts are preserved. The Greco - Iberian alphabet was used for writing the ancient Iberian language in parts of modern Spain. Gaulish inscriptions ( in modern France ) used the Greek alphabet until the Roman conquest The Hebrew and Aramaic text of the Bible was written in Greek letters in Origen 's Hexapla. The Bactrian language, an Iranian language spoken in what is now Afghanistan, was written in the Greek alphabet during the Kushan Empire ( 65 -- 250 AD ). It adds an extra letter ⟨ þ ⟩ for the sh sound ( ʃ ). The Coptic alphabet adds eight letters derived from Demotic. It is still used today, mostly in Egypt, to write Coptic, the liturgical language of Egyptian Christians. Letters usually retain an uncial form different from the forms used for Greek today. Middle Ages An 8th - century Arabic fragment preserves a text in the Greek alphabet. An Old Ossetic inscription of the 10th -- 12th centuries found in Arxyz, the oldest known attestation of an Ossetic language. The Old Nubian language of Makuria ( modern Sudan ) adds three Coptic letters, two letters derived from Meroitic script, and a digraph of two Greek gammas used for the velar nasal sound. Various South Slavic dialects, similar to the modern Bulgarian and Macedonian languages, have been written in Greek script. The modern South Slavic languages now use modified Cyrillic alphabets. Early Modern 18th century title page of a book printed in Karamanli Turkish Turkish spoken by Orthodox Christians ( Karamanlides ) was often written in Greek script, and called Karamanlidika. Tosk Albanian was often written using the Greek alphabet, starting in about 1500. The printing press at Moschopolis published several Albanian texts in Greek script during the 18th century. It was only in 1908 that the Monastir conference standardized a Latin orthography for both Tosk and Gheg. Greek spelling is still occasionally used for the local Albanian dialects ( Arvanitika ) in Greece. Aromanian ( Vlach ) has been written in Greek characters. There is not yet a standardized orthography for Aromanian, but it appears that one based on the Romanian orthography will be adopted. Gagauz, a Turkic language of the northeast Balkans. Surguch, a Turkic language spoken by a small group of Orthodox Christians in northern Greece. Urum or Greek Tatar. Pomak language in Western Thrace. Judaeo - Spanish language, a Jewish dialect of Spanish, has occasionally been published in Greek characters in Greece. In mathematics and science Main article : Greek letters used in mathematics, science, and engineering Greek symbols are used as symbols in mathematics, physics and other sciences. Many symbols have traditional uses, such as lower case epsilon ( ε ) for an arbitrarily small positive number, lower case pi ( π ) for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, capital sigma ( Σ ) for summation, and lower case sigma ( σ ) for standard deviation. Astronomy Main article : Bayer designation Greek letters are used to denote the brighter stars within each of the eighty - eight constellations. In most constellations the brightest star is designated Alpha and the next brightest Beta etc. For example, the brightest star in the constellation of Centaurus is known as Alpha Centauri. For historical reasons, the Greek designations of some constellations begin with a lower ranked letter. International phonetic alphabet Several Greek letters are used as phonetic symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet ( IPA ). Several of them denote fricative consonants ; the rest stand for variants of vowel sounds. The glyph shapes used for these letters in specialized phonetic fonts is sometimes slightly different from the conventional shapes in Greek typography proper, with glyphs typically being more upright and using serifs, to make them conform more with the typographical character of other, Latin - based letters in the phonetic alphabet. Nevertheless, in the Unicode encoding standard, the following three phonetic symbols are considered the same characters as the corresponding Greek letters proper : β beta U + 03B2 voiced bilabial fricative θ theta U + 03B8 voiceless dental fricative χ chi U + 03C7 voiceless uvular fricative On the other hand, the following phonetic letters have Unicode representations separate from their Greek alphabetic use, either because their conventional typographic shape is too different from the original, or because they also have secondary uses as regular alphabetic characters in some Latin - based alphabets, including separate Latin uppercase letters distinct from the Greek ones. Greek letter Phonetic letter Uppercase φ phi ɸ U + 0278 Latin small letter phi Voiceless bilabial fricative -- γ gamma ɣ U + 0263 Latin small letter gamma Voiced velar fricative Ɣ U + 0194 ε epsilon ɛ U + 025B Latin small letter open e ( alias : epsilon ) Open - mid front unrounded vowel Ɛ U + 0190 α alpha ɑ U + 0251 Latin small letter alpha Open back unrounded vowel Ɑ U + 2C6D υ upsilon ʊ U + 028A Latin small letter upsilon near - close near - back rounded vowel Ʊ U + 01B1 ι iota ɩ U + 0269 Latin small letter iota Obsolete for near - close near - front unrounded vowel now ɪ Ɩ U + 0196 The symbol in Americanist phonetic notation for the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is the Greek letter lambda ⟨ λ ⟩, but ⟨ ɬ ⟩ in the IPA. The IPA symbol for the palatal lateral approximant is ⟨ ʎ ⟩, which looks similar to lambda, but is actually an inverted lowercase y. Use as numerals Main article : Greek numerals Greek letters were also used to write numbers. In the classical Ionian system, the first nine letters of the alphabet stood for the numbers from 1 to 9, the next nine letters stood for the multiples of 10, from 10 to 90, and the next nine letters stood for the multiples of 100, from 100 to 900. For this purpose, in addition to the 24 letters which by that time made up the standard alphabet, three otherwise obsolete letters were retained or revived : digamma ⟨ Ϝ ⟩ for 6, koppa ⟨ Ϙ ⟩ for 90, and a rare Ionian letter for ( ss ), today called sampi ⟨ Ͳ ⟩, for 900. This system has remained in use in Greek up to the present day, although today it is only employed for limited purposes such as enumerating chapters in a book, similar to the way Roman numerals are used in English. The three extra symbols are today written as ⟨ ϛ ⟩, ⟨ ϟ ⟩ and ⟨ ϡ ⟩ respectively. To mark a letter as a numeral sign, a small stroke called keraia is added to the right of it. Αʹ αʹ alpha Βʹ βʹ beta Γʹ γʹ gamma Δʹ δʹ delta Εʹ εʹ epsilon 5 ϛʹ digamma ( stigma ) 6 Ζʹ ζʹ zeta 7 Ηʹ ηʹ eta 8 Θʹ θʹ theta 9 Ιʹ ιʹ iota 10 Κʹ κʹ kappa 20 Λʹ λʹ lambda 30 Μʹ μʹ mu 40 Νʹ νʹ nu 50 Ξʹ ξʹ xi 60 Οʹ οʹ omicron 70 Πʹ πʹ pi 80 ϟʹ koppa 90 Ρʹ ρʹ rho 100 Σʹ σʹ sigma 200 Τʹ τʹ tau 300 Υʹ υʹ upsilon 400 Φʹ φʹ phi 500 Χʹ χʹ chi 600 Ψʹ ψʹ psi 700 Ωʹ ωʹ omega 800 ϡʹ sampi 900 Use in naming student fraternities and sororities In North America, many college fraternities and sororities are named with combinations of Greek letters, and are hence also known as `` Greek letter organizations ''. This naming tradition was initiated by the foundation of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, in 1776. Glyph variants Some letters can occur in variant shapes, mostly inherited from medieval minuscule handwriting. While their use in normal typography of Greek is purely a matter of font styles, some such variants have been given separate encodings in Unicode. The symbol β ( `` curled beta '' ) is a cursive variant form of beta ( β ). In the French tradition of Ancient Greek typography, β is used word - initially, and β is used word - internally. The letter epsilon can occur in two equally frequent stylistic variants, either shaped ε ( displaystyle epsilon , ! ) ( ' lunate epsilon ', like a semicircle with a stroke ) or ε ( displaystyle \varepsilon , ! ) ( similar to a reversed number 3 ). The symbol ε ( U + 03F5 ) is designated specifically for the lunate form, used as a technical symbol. The symbol θ ( `` script theta '' ) is a cursive form of theta ( θ ), frequent in handwriting, and used with a specialized meaning as a technical symbol. The symbol κ ( `` kappa symbol '' ) is a cursive form of kappa ( κ ), used as a technical symbol. The symbol π ( `` variant pi '' ) is an archaic script form of pi ( π ), also used as a technical symbol. The letter rho ( ρ ) can occur in different stylistic variants, with the descending tail either going straight down or curled to the right. The symbol ρ ( U + 03F1 ) is designated specifically for the curled form, used as a technical symbol. The letter sigma, in standard orthography, has two variants : ς, used only at the ends of words, and σ, used elsewhere. The form ς ( `` lunate sigma '', resembling a Latin c ) is a medieval stylistic variant that can be used in both environments without the final / non-final distinction. The capital letter upsilon ( Υ ) can occur in different stylistic variants, with the upper strokes either straight like a Latin Y, or slightly curled. The symbol Υ ( U + 03D2 ) is designated specifically for the curled form, ( Υ ( displaystyle , \Upsilon ) ) used as a technical symbol, e.g. in physics. The letter phi can occur in two equally frequent stylistic variants, either shaped as φ ( displaystyle \textstyle phi , ! ) ( a circle with a vertical stroke through it ) or as φ ( displaystyle \textstyle \varphi , ! ) ( a curled shape open at the top ). The symbol φ ( U + 03D5 ) is designated specifically for the closed form, used as a technical symbol. Computer encodings For the usage in computers, a variety of encodings have been used for Greek online, many of them documented in RFC 1947. The two principal ones still used today are ISO / IEC 8859 - 7 and Unicode. ISO 8859 - 7 supports only the monotonic orthography ; Unicode supports both the monotonic and polytonic orthographies. ISO / IEC 8859 - 7 For the range A0 -- FF ( hex ) it follows the Unicode range 370 -- 3CF ( see below ) except that some symbols, like ©, 1⁄2, § etc. are used where Unicode has unused locations. Like all ISO - 8859 encodings it is equal to ASCII for 00 -- 7F ( hex ). Greek in Unicode Main articles : Greek and Coptic and Greek Extended Unicode supports polytonic orthography well enough for ordinary continuous text in modern and ancient Greek, and even many archaic forms for epigraphy. With the use of combining characters, Unicode also supports Greek philology and dialectology and various other specialized requirements. Most current text rendering engines do not render diacritics well, so, though alpha with macron and acute can be represented as U + 03B1 U + 0304 U + 0301, this rarely renders well : ᾱ́. There are two main blocks of Greek characters in Unicode. The first is `` Greek and Coptic '' ( U + 0370 to U + 03FF ). This block is based on ISO 8859 - 7 and is sufficient to write Modern Greek. There are also some archaic letters and Greek - based technical symbols. This block also supports the Coptic alphabet. Formerly most Coptic letters shared codepoints with similar - looking Greek letters ; but in many scholarly works, both scripts occur, with quite different letter shapes, so as of Unicode 4.1, Coptic and Greek were disunified. Those Coptic letters with no Greek equivalents still remain in this block ( U + 03E2 to U + 03EF ). To write polytonic Greek, one may use combining diacritical marks or the precomposed characters in the `` Greek Extended '' block ( U + 1F00 to U + 1FFF ). Greek and Coptic Official Unicode Consortium code chart ( PDF ) 0 5 6 7 8 9 U + 037x Ͱ ͱ Ͳ ͳ ʹ ͵ Ͷ ͷ  ͅ ͻ ͼ ͽ ; Ϳ U + 038x  ́  ̈́ Ά Έ Ή Ί Ό Ύ Ώ U + 039x ΐ Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο U + 03Ax Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω Ϊ Ϋ ά έ ή ί U + 03Bx ΰ α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο U + 03Cx π ρ ς σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω ϊ ϋ ό ύ ώ Ϗ U + 03Dx β θ Υ Ύ Ϋ φ π ϗ Ϙ ϙ Ϛ ϛ Ϝ ϝ Ϟ ϟ U + 03Ex Ϡ ϡ Ϣ ϣ Ϥ ϥ Ϧ ϧ Ϩ ϩ Ϫ ϫ Ϭ ϭ Ϯ ϯ U + 03Fx κ ρ ς ϳ Θ ε ϶ Ϸ ϸ Σ Ϻ ϻ ϼ Ͻ Ͼ Ͽ Notes 1. ^ As of Unicode version 10.0 2. ^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points Greek Extended Official Unicode Consortium code chart ( PDF ) 0 5 6 7 8 9 U + 1F0x ἀ ἁ ἂ ἃ ἄ ἅ ἆ ἇ Ἀ Ἁ Ἂ Ἃ Ἄ Ἅ Ἆ Ἇ U + 1F1x ἐ ἑ ἒ ἓ ἔ ἕ Ἐ Ἑ Ἒ Ἓ Ἔ Ἕ U + 1F2x ἠ ἡ ἢ ἣ ἤ ἥ ἦ ἧ Ἠ Ἡ Ἢ Ἣ Ἤ Ἥ Ἦ Ἧ U + 1F3x ἰ ἱ ἲ ἳ ἴ ἵ ἶ ἷ Ἰ Ἱ Ἲ Ἳ Ἴ Ἵ Ἶ Ἷ U + 1F4x ὀ ὁ ὂ ὃ ὄ ὅ Ὀ Ὁ Ὂ Ὃ Ὄ Ὅ U + 1F5x ὐ ὑ ὒ ὓ ὔ ὕ ὖ ὗ Ὑ Ὓ Ὕ Ὗ U + 1F6x ὠ ὡ ὢ ὣ ὤ ὥ ὦ ὧ Ὠ Ὡ Ὢ Ὣ Ὤ Ὥ Ὦ Ὧ U + 1F7x ὰ ά ὲ έ ὴ ή ὶ ί ὸ ό ὺ ύ ὼ ώ U + 1F8x ᾀ ᾁ ᾂ ᾃ ᾄ ᾅ ᾆ ᾇ ᾈ ᾉ ᾊ ᾋ ᾌ ᾍ ᾎ ᾏ U + 1F9x ᾐ ᾑ ᾒ ᾓ ᾔ ᾕ ᾖ ᾗ ᾘ ᾙ ᾚ ᾛ ᾜ ᾝ ᾞ ᾟ U + 1FAx ᾠ ᾡ ᾢ ᾣ ᾤ ᾥ ᾦ ᾧ ᾨ ᾩ ᾪ ᾫ ᾬ ᾭ ᾮ ᾯ U + 1FBx ᾰ ᾱ ᾲ ᾳ ᾴ ᾶ ᾷ Ᾰ Ᾱ Ὰ Ά ᾼ  ̓ ι  ̓ U + 1FCx  ͂  ̈͂ ῂ ῃ ῄ ῆ ῇ Ὲ Έ Ὴ Ή ῌ  ̓̀  ̓́  ̓͂ U + 1FDx ῐ ῑ ῒ ΐ ῖ ῗ Ῐ Ῑ Ὶ Ί  ̔̀  ̔́  ̔͂ U + 1FEx ῠ ῡ ῢ ΰ ῤ ῥ ῦ ῧ Ῠ Ῡ Ὺ Ύ Ῥ  ̈̀  ̈́ ` U + 1FFx ῲ ῳ ῴ ῶ ῷ Ὸ Ό Ὼ Ώ ῼ  ́  ̔ Notes 1. ^ As of Unicode version 10.0 2. ^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points Combining and letter - free diacritics Combining and spacing ( letter - free ) diacritical marks pertaining to Greek language : Combining Spacing Sample Description U + 0300 U + 0060 ( ̀ ) `` varia / grave accent '' U + 0301 U + 00B4, U + 0384 ( ́ ) `` oxia / tonos / acute accent '' U + 0304 U + 00AF ( ̄ ) `` macron '' U + 0306 U + 02D8 ( ̆ ) `` vrachy / breve '' U + 0308 U + 00A8 ( ̈ ) `` dialytika / diaeresis '' U + 0313 U + 02BC ( ̓ ) `` psili / comma above '' ( spiritus lenis ) U + 0314 U + 02BD ( ̔ ) `` dasia / reversed comma above '' ( spiritus asper ) U + 0342 ( ͂ ) `` perispomeni '' ( circumflex ) U + 0343 ( ̓ ) `` koronis '' ( = U + 0313 ) U + 0344 U + 0385 ( ̈́ ) `` dialytika tonos '' ( deprecated, = U + 0308 U + 0301 ) U + 0345 U + 037A ( ͅ ) `` ypogegrammeni / iota subscript ''. Encodings with a subset of the Greek alphabet IBM code pages 437, 860, 861, 862, 863, and 865 contain the letters ΓΘΣΦΩαδεπστφ ( plus β as an alternate interpretation for ß ). Chapter letters Not to be confused with the Greek - letter acronyms for the names of entire fraternities ( or sororities ), different chapters within the same fraternity are almost always ( with a handful of exceptions ) named using Greek letters as serial numbers. The founding chapter of each respective organization is its A Chapter. As an organization expands, it establishes a B Chapter, a Γ Chapter, and so on and so forth. In an organization that expands to more than 24 chapters, the chapter after Ω Chapter is AA Chapter, followed by AB Chapter, etc. Each of these is still a `` Chapter Letter, '' albeit a double - digit letter just as 10 through 99 are double - digit numbers. The Roman alphabet has a similar extended form with such double - digit letters when necessary, but it is used for columns in a table or chart rather than chapters of an organization. See also Greek ligatures Palamedes Notes Jump up ^ The letter sigma ⟨ Σ ⟩ has two different lowercase forms, ⟨ σ ⟩ and ⟨ ς ⟩, with ⟨ ς ⟩ being used in word - final position and ⟨ σ ⟩ elsewhere. ( In some 19th - century typesetting, ⟨ ς ⟩ was also used word - medially at the end of a compound morpheme, e.g. `` δυςκατανοήτων '', marking the morpheme boundary between `` δυς - κατανοήτων '' ( `` difficult to understand '' ) ; modern standard practice is to spell `` δυσκατανοήτων '' with a non-final sigma. ) ^ Jump up to : Epsilon ⟨ ε ⟩ and omicron ⟨ ο ⟩ originally could denote both short and long vowels in pre-classical archaic Greek spelling, just like other vowel letters. They were restricted to the function of short vowel signs in classical Greek, as the long vowels / eː / and / oː / came to be spelled instead with the digraphs ⟨ ει ⟩ and ⟨ ου ⟩, having phonologically merged with a corresponding pair of former diphthongs / ei / and / ou / respectively. References Jump up ^ Swiggers 1996. ^ Jump up to : Johnston 2003. Jump up ^ The date of the earliest inscribed objects ; A.W. Johnston, `` The alphabet '', in N. Stampolidis and V. Karageorghis, eds, Sea Routes from Sidon to Huelva : Interconnections in the Mediterranean 2003 : 263 - 76, summarizes the present scholarship on the dating. Jump up ^ Cook 1987, p. 9. Jump up ^ The Development of the Greek Alphabet within the Chronology of the ANE ( 2009 ), Quote : `` Naveh gives four major reasons why it is universally agreed that the Greek alphabet was developed from an early Phoenician alphabet. 1 According to Herodutous `` the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus... brought into Hellas the alphabet, which had hitherto been unknown, as I think, to the Greeks. '' 2 The Greek Letters, alpha, beta, gimmel have no meaning in Greek but the meaning of most of their Semitic equivalents is known. For example, ' aleph ' means ' ox ', ' bet ' means ' house ' and ' gimmel ' means ' throw stick '. 3 Early Greek letters are very similar and sometimes identical to the West Semitic letters. 4 The letter sequence between the Semitic and Greek alphabets is identical. ( Naveh 1982 ) '' ^ Jump up to : Coulmas 1996. ^ Jump up to : Woodard 2008, pp. 15 -- 17 ^ Jump up to : Holton, Mackridge & Philippaki - Warburton 1998, p. 31 Jump up ^ Hinge 2001, pp. 212 -- 234 Jump up ^ Nicholas, Nick ( 2004 ). `` Sigma : final versus non-final ''. Retrieved 2016 - 09 - 29. Jump up ^ Horrocks 2006, pp. 231 -- 250 Jump up ^ Nicolas, Nick. `` Greek Unicode Issues : Punctuation Archived 2012 - 08 - 06 at Archive.is ''. 2005. Accessed 7 Oct 2014. Jump up ^ ISO ( 2010 ). `` ISO 843 : 1997 ( Conversion of Greek characters into Latin characters ) ''. Missing or empty url = ( help ) Jump up ^ UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems ( 2003 ). `` Greek ''. Retrieved 2012 - 07 - 15. Jump up ^ `` Greek ( ALA - LC Romanization Tables ) ''. 2010. Missing or empty url = ( help ) Jump up ^ Daniels & Bright 1996, p. 4. Jump up ^ Liddell & Scott 1940, s.v. `` λάβδα '' Jump up ^ Newton, B.E. ( 1968 ). `` Spontaneous gemination in Cypriot Greek ''. Lingua. 20 : 15 -- 57. ISSN 0024 - 3841. doi : 10.1016 / 0024 - 3841 ( 68 ) 90130 - 7. ^ Jump up to : Thompson 1912, pp. 102 -- 103 Jump up ^ Murdoch 2004, p. 156 Jump up ^ Stevenson 2007, p. 1158 Jump up ^ Macrakis 1996. Jump up ^ Sims - Williams 1997. Jump up ^ Miletich 1920. Jump up ^ Mazon & Vaillant 1938. Jump up ^ Kristophson 1974, p. 11. Jump up ^ Peyfuss 1989. Jump up ^ Elsie 1991. Jump up ^ Verba Hispanica X : Los problemas del estudio de la lengua sefardí Archived 2008 - 04 - 07 at the Wayback Machine., Katja Šmid, Ljubljana, pages 113 -- 124 : Es interesante el hecho que en Bulgaria se imprimieron unas pocas publicaciones en alfabeto cirílico búlgaro y en Grecia en alfabeto griego... Jump up ^ Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge : University Press. 1999. pp. 176 -- 181. Jump up ^ For chi and beta, separate codepoints for use in a Latin - script environment were added in Unicode versions 7.0 ( 2014 ) and 8.0 ( 2015 ) respectively : U + AB53 `` Latin small letter chi '' ( ꭓ ) and U + A7B5 `` Latin small letter beta '' ( ꞵ ). As of 2017, the International Phonetic Association still lists the original Greek codepoints as the standard representations of the IPA symbols in question ( 1 ). Jump up ^ Vincent, Fran. The history of college fraternities.Greeklife.com, 1996, p. 1. Bibliography Cook, B.F. ( 1987 ). Greek inscriptions. University of California Press / British Museum. Coulmas, Florian ( 1996 ). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Oxford : Blackwell Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0 - 631 - 21481 - X. Daniels, Peter T ; Bright, William ( 1996 ). The World 's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. Elsie, Robert ( 1991 ). `` Albanian Literature in Greek Script : the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth - Century Orthodox Tradition in Albanian Writing '' ( PDF ). Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. 15 ( 20 ). Hinge, George ( 2001 ). Die Sprache Alkmans : Textgeschichte und Sprachgeschichte ( Ph. D. ). University of Aarhus. Holton, David ; Mackridge, Peter ; Philippaki - Warburton, Irini ( 1998 ). Grammatiki tis ellinikis glossas. Athens : Pataki. Horrocks, Geoffrey ( 2006 ). Ellinika : istoria tis glossas kai ton omiliton tis. Athens : Estia. ( Greek translation of Greek : a history of the language and its speakers, London 1997 ) Johnston, A.W. ( 2003 ). `` The alphabet ''. In Stampolidis, N. ; Karageorghis, V. Sea Routes from Sidon to Huelva : Interconnections in the Mediterranean 16th -- 6th c. B.C. Athens : Museum of Cycladic Art. pp. 263 -- 276. Kristophson, Jürgen ( 1974 ). `` Das Lexicon Tetraglosson des Daniil Moschopolitis ''. Zeitschrift für Balkanologie. 10 : 4 -- 128. Liddell, Henry G ; Scott, Robert ( 1940 ). A Greek - English Lexicon. Oxford : Clarendon. Macrakis, Stavros M ( 1996 ). `` Character codes for Greek : Problems and modern solutions ''. In Macrakis, Michael. Greek letters : from tablets to pixels. Newcastle : Oak Knoll Press. p. 265. Mazon, André ; Vaillant, André ( 1938 ). L'Evangéliaire de Kulakia, un parler slave de Bas - Vardar. Bibliothèque d'études balkaniques. 6. Paris : Librairie Droz. -- selections from the Gospels in Macedonian. Miletich, L. ( 1920 ). `` Dva bŭlgarski ru̐kopisa s grŭtsko pismo ''. Bŭlgarski starini. 6. Murdoch, Brian ( 2004 ). `` Gothic ''. In Murdoch, Brian ; Read, Malcolm. Early Germanic literature and culture. Woodbridge : Camden House. pp. 149 -- 170. Peyfuss, Max Demeter ( 1989 ). Die Druckerei von Moschopolis, 1731 -- 1769 : Buchdruck und Heiligenverehrung in Erzbistum Achrida. Wiener Archiv für Geschichte des Slawentums und Osteuropas. 13. Böhlau Verlag. Sims - Williams, Nicholas ( 1997 ). `` New Findings in Ancient Afghanistan -- the Bactrian documents discovered from the Northern Hindu - Kush ''. Archived from the original on 2007 - 06 - 10. Swiggers, Pierre ( 1996 ). `` Transmission of the Phoenician Script to the West ''. In Daniels ; Bright. The World 's Writing Systems. Oxford : University Press. pp. 261 -- 270. Stevenson, Jane ( 2007 ). `` Translation and the spread of the Greek and Latin alphabets in Late Antiquity ''. In Harald Kittel ; et al. Translation : an international encyclopedia of translation studies. 2. Berlin : de Gruyter. pp. 1157 -- 1159. Thompson, Edward M ( 1912 ). An introduction to Greek and Latin palaeography. Oxford : Clarendon. Woodard, Roger D. ( 2008 ). `` Attic Greek ''. In Woodard, Roger D. The ancient languages of Europe. Cambridge : University Press. pp. 14 -- 49. External links Look up Appendix : Greek script in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Greek alphabet. Greek and Coptic character list in Unicode Examples of Greek handwriting Greek Unicode Issues ( Nick Nicholas ) at Archive.is ( archived 2012 - 08 - 05 ) Unicode FAQ -- Greek Language and Script alphabetic test for Greek Unicode range ( Alan Wood ) numeric test for Greek Unicode range Classical Greek keyboard, a browser - based tool Collection of free fonts : greekfontsociety.gr Greek language Origin and genealogy Proto - Greek Pre-Greek substrate Graeco - Armenian Graeco - Aryan Graeco - Phrygian Hellenic languages Periods Mycenaean Greek ( c. 1600 -- 1100 BC ) Ancient Greek ( c. 800 -- 300 BC ) Koine Greek ( c. 300 BC -- AD 330 ) Jewish Koine Greek Medieval Greek ( c. 330 -- 1453 ) Modern Greek ( since 1453 ) Varieties Ancient Aeolic Arcadocypriot Attic and Ionic Doric Homeric Locrian Pamphylian Macedonian Modern Cappadocian Misthiotika Cretan Cypriot Demotic Himariote Italiot Greco / Calabrian Griko / Apulian Katharevousa Maniot Mariupolitan Pontic Tsakonian Yevanic Phonology Ancient ( accent / teaching ) Koine Standard Modern Grammar Ancient ( tables ) Koine Greek grammar Standard Modern Writing systems Cypriot syllabary Linear B Greek alphabet History Archaic forms Attic numerals Greek numerals Orthography Diacritics Braille Cyrillization and Romanization Greeklish Literature Ancient Byzantine Modern Promotion and study Hellenic Foundation for Culture Center for the Greek Language Other Exonyms Morphemes in English Terms of endearment Place names Proverbs Greek language question Types of writing systems Overview History of writing Grapheme Lists Writing systems undeciphered inventors constructed Languages by writing system / by first written accounts Types Abjads Numerals Aramaic Hatran Arabic Pitman shorthand Hebrew Ashuri Cursive Rashi Solitreo Tifinagh Manichaean Nabataean Old North Arabian Pahlavi Pegon Phoenician Paleo - Hebrew Proto - Sinaitic Psalter Punic Samaritan South Arabian Zabur Musnad Sogdian Syriac ʾEsṭrangēlā Serṭā Maḏnḥāyā Teeline Shorthand Ugaritic Abugidas Brahmic Northern Asamiya ( Ôxômiya ) Bānglā Bhaikshuki Bhujinmol Brāhmī Devanāgarī Dogri Gujarati Gupta Gurmukhī Kaithi Kalinga Khojki Khotanese Khudawadi Laṇḍā Lepcha Limbu Mahajani Meitei Mayek Modi Multani Nāgarī Nandinagari Odia ' Phags - pa Newar Ranjana Sharada Saurashtra Siddhaṃ Soyombo Sylheti Nagari Takri Tibetan Uchen Umê Tirhuta Tocharian Zanabazar Square Zhang - Zhung Drusha Marchen Marchung Pungs - chen Pungs - chung Southern Ahom Balinese Batak Baybayin Bhattiprolu Buhid Burmese Chakma Cham Grantha Goykanadi Hanunó'o Javanese Kadamba Kannada Kawi Khmer Kulitan Lanna Lao Leke Lontara Malayalam Maldivian Dhives Akuru Eveyla Akuru Thaana Mon Old Makassarese Old Sundanese Pallava Pyu Rejang Rencong Sinhala Sundanese Tagbanwa Tai Le Tai Tham Tai Viet Tamil Telugu Thai Tigalari Vatteluttu Kolezhuthu Malayanma Visayan Others Boyd 's syllabic shorthand Canadian syllabics Blackfoot Déné syllabics Fox I Ge'ez Gunjala Gondi Japanese Braille Jenticha Kayah Li Kharosthi Mandombe Masaram Gondi Meroitic Miao Mwangwego Sorang Sompeng Pahawh Hmong Thomas Natural Shorthand Alphabets Linear Abkhaz Adlam Armenian Avestan Avoiuli Bassa Vah Borama Carian Caucasian Albanian Coorgi -- Cox alphabet Coptic Cyrillic Deseret Duployan shorthand Chinook writing Early Cyrillic Eclectic shorthand Elbasan Etruscan Evenki Fox II Fraser Gabelsberger shorthand Garay Georgian Asomtavruli Nuskhuri Mkhedruli Glagolitic Gothic Gregg shorthand Greek Greco - Iberian alphabet Hangul IPA Kaddare Latin Beneventan Blackletter Carolingian minuscule Fraktur Gaelic Insular Kurrent Merovingian Sigla Sütterlin Tironian notes Visigothic Luo Lycian Lydian Manchu Mandaic Medefaidrin Molodtsov Mongolian Mru Neo-Tifinagh New Tai Lue N'Ko Ogham Oirat Ol Chiki Old Hungarian Old Italic Old Permic Orkhon Old Uyghur Osage Osmanya Pau Cin Hau Rohingya Hanifi Runic Anglo - Saxon Cipher Dalecarlian Elder Futhark Younger Futhark Gothic Marcomannic Medieval Staveless Sidetic Shavian Somali Tifinagh Vagindra Visible Speech Vithkuqi Wancho Zaghawa Non-linear Braille Maritime flags Morse code New York Point Semaphore line Flag semaphore Moon type Ideograms / Pictograms Adinkra Aztec Blissymbol Dongba Ersu Shaba Emoji IConji Isotype Kaidā Míkmaq Mixtec New Epoch Notation Painting Nsibidi Ojibwe Hieroglyphs Siglas poveiras Testerian Yerkish Zapotec Logograms Chinese family of scripts Chinese Characters Simplified Traditional Oracle bone script Bronze Script Seal Script large small bird - worm Hanja Idu Kanji Chữ nôm Zhuang Chinese - influenced Jurchen Khitan large script Sui Tangut Cuneiform Akkadian Assyrian Elamite Hittite Luwian Sumerian Other logo - syllabic Anatolian Bagam Cretan Isthmian Maya Proto - Elamite Yi ( Classical ) Logo - consonantal Demotic Hieratic Hieroglyphs Numerals Hindu - Arabic Abjad Attic ( Greek ) Muisca Roman Semi-syllabaries Full Celtiberian Northeastern Iberian Southeastern Iberian Khom Redundant Espanca Pahawh Hmong Khitan small script Southwest Paleohispanic Zhuyin fuhao Somacheirograms ASLwrite SignWriting si5s Stokoe Notation Syllabaries Afaka Bamum Bété Byblos Cherokee Cypriot Cypro - Minoan Ditema tsa Dinoko Eskayan Geba Great Lakes Algonquian syllabics Iban Japanese Hiragana Katakana Man'yōgana Hentaigana Sogana Jindai moji Kikakui Kpelle Linear B Linear Elamite Lisu Loma Nüshu Nwagu Aneke script Old Persian Cuneiform Vai Woleai Yi ( Modern ) Yugtun Braille ⠃ ⠗ ⠁ ⠊ ⠇ ⠇ ⠑ Braille cell 1829 braille International uniformity ASCII braille Unicode braille patterns Braille scripts French - ordered scripts ( see for more ) Albanian Amharic Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Belarusian Bharati Devanagari ( Hindi / Marathi / Nepali ) Bengali Punjabi Sinhalese Tamil Urdu etc. Bulgarian Burmese Cambodian Cantonese Catalan Chinese ( Mandarin, mainland ) Czech Dutch Dzongkha ( Bhutanese ) English ( Unified English ) Esperanto Estonian Faroese French Georgian German Ghanaian Greek Guarani Hawaiian Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Inuktitut ( reassigned vowels ) Iñupiaq IPA Irish Italian Kazakh Kyrgyz Latvian Lithuanian Maltese Mongolian Māori Nigerian Northern Sami Persian Philippine Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Samoan Scandinavian Slovak South African Spanish Tatar Taiwanese Mandarin ( largely reassigned ) Thai & Lao ( Japanese vowels ) Tibetan Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese Welsh Yugoslav Reordered scripts Algerian Braille ( obsolete ) Frequency - based scripts American Braille ( obsolete ) Independent scripts Japanese Korean Two - Cell Chinese Eight - dot scripts Luxembourgish Kanji Gardner -- Salinas braille codes ( GS8 ) Symbols in braille Braille music Canadian currency marks Computer Braille Code Gardner -- Salinas braille codes ( GS8 / GS6 ) International Phonetic Alphabet ( IPA ) Nemeth braille code Braille technology Braille e-book Braille embosser Braille translator Braille watch Mountbatten Brailler Optical braille recognition Perforation Perkins Brailler Refreshable braille display Slate and stylus Braigo Persons Louis Braille Charles Barbier Valentin Haüy Thakur Vishva Narain Singh Sabriye Tenberken William Bell Wait Organisations Braille Institute of America Braille Without Borders Japan Braille Library National Braille Association Blindness organizations Schools for the blind American Printing House for the Blind Other tactile alphabets Decapoint Moon type New York Point Night writing Vibratese Related topics Accessible publishing Braille literacy RoboBraille Ancient Greece Outline Timeline History Geography Periods Cycladic civilization Minoan civilization Mycenaean civilization Greek Dark Ages Archaic period Classical Greece Hellenistic Greece Roman Greece Geography Aegean Sea Aeolis Alexandria Antioch Cappadocia Crete Cyprus Doris Ephesus Epirus Hellespont Ionia Ionian Sea Macedonia Magna Graecia Miletus Peloponnesus Pergamon Pontus Taurica Ancient Greek colonies City states Politics Military City states Argos Athens Byzantion Chalcis Corinth Eretria Kerkyra Larissa Megalopolis Megara Rhodes Samos Sparta Syracuse Thebes Politics Boeotarch Boule Koinon Proxeny Strategos Tagus Tyrant Amphictyonic League Athenian Agora Areopagus Ecclesia Graphē paranómōn Heliaia Ostracism Spartan Apella Ephor Gerousia Harmost Macedon Synedrion Koinon Military Wars Athenian military Antigonid Macedonian army Army of Macedon Ballista Cretan archers Hellenistic armies Hippeis Hoplite Hetairoi Macedonian phalanx Phalanx Peltast Pezhetairos Sarissa Sacred Band of Thebes Sciritae Seleucid army Spartan army Toxotai Xiphos Xyston People List of ancient Greeks Rulers Kings of Argos Archons of Athens Kings of Athens Kings of Commagene Diadochi Kings of Lydia Kings of Macedonia Kings of Paionia Attalid kings of Pergamon Kings of Pontus Kings of Sparta Tyrants of Syracuse Philosophers Anaxagoras Anaximander Anaximenes Antisthenes Aristotle Democritus Diogenes of Sinope Empedocles Epicurus Gorgias Heraclitus Hypatia Leucippus Parmenides Plato Protagoras Pythagoras Socrates Thales Zeno Authors Aeschylus Aesop Alcaeus Archilochus Aristophanes Bacchylides Euripides Herodotus Hesiod Hipponax Homer Ibycus Lucian Menander Mimnermus Panyassis Philocles Pindar Plutarch Polybius Sappho Simonides Sophocles Stesichorus Theognis Thucydides Timocreon Tyrtaeus Xenophon Others Agesilaus II Agis II Alcibiades Alexander the Great Aratus Archimedes Aspasia Demosthenes Epaminondas Euclid Hipparchus Hippocrates Leonidas Lycurgus Lysander Milo of Croton Miltiades Pausanias Pericles Philip of Macedon Philopoemen Praxiteles Ptolemy Pyrrhus Solon Themistocles Groups Philosophers Playwrights Poets Tyrants By culture Ancient Greek tribes Thracian Greeks Ancient Macedonians Society Culture Society Agriculture Calendar Clothing Coinage Cuisine Economy Education Festivals Funeral and burial practices Homosexuality Law Olympic Games Pederasty Philosophy Prostitution Religion Slavery Warfare Wedding customs Wine Arts and science Architecture Greek Revival architecture Astronomy Literature Mathematics Medicine Music Musical system Pottery Sculpture Technology Theatre Religion Funeral and burial practices Mythology mythological figures Temple Twelve Olympians Underworld Sacred places Eleusis Delphi Delos Dodona Mount Olympus Olympia Structures Athenian Treasury Lion Gate Long Walls Philippeion Theatre of Dionysus Tunnel of Eupalinos Temples Aphaea Artemis Athena Nike Erechtheion Hephaestus Hera, Olympia Parthenon Samothrace Zeus, Olympia Language Proto - Greek Mycenaean Homeric Dialects Aeolic Arcadocypriot Attic Doric Ionic Locrian Macedonian Pamphylian Koine Writing Linear A Linear B Cypriot syllabary Greek alphabet Greek numerals Attic numerals Lists Cities in Epirus People Place names Stoae Temples Theatres Portal Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greek_alphabet&oldid=802156027 '' Categories : Scripts with ISO 15924 four - letter codes Greek alphabet Greek letters Scripts encoded in Unicode 1.0 Hidden categories : Articles containing Greek - language text Webarchive template archiveis links Pages using web citations with no URL Webarchive template wayback links Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages Wikipedia indefinitely move - protected pages Articles containing Ancient Greek - language text Articles with hAudio microformats Articles including recorded pronunciations ( English ) Articles including recorded pronunciations ( US English ) All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from March 2013 Articles including recorded pronunciations Pages using RFC magic links Talk View source Contents About Wikipedia Wikiversity Languages Afrikaans Alemannisch Aragonés ܐܪܡܝܐ Asturianu Azərbaycanca বাংলা Bân - lâm - gú Башҡортса Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Boarisch བོད ་ ཡིག Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Fiji Hindi Føroyskt Français Frysk Furlan Gaeilge Gaelg Gagauz Gàidhlig Galego ગુજરાતી 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Ilokano Bahasa Indonesia Interlingua Íslenska Italiano עברית Basa Jawa ಕನ್ನಡ Къарачай - малкъар ქართული Қазақша Kiswahili Kreyòl ayisyen Kurdî Лезги ລາວ Latina Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Magyar Македонски Malagasy മലയാളം मराठी მარგალური Bahasa Melayu Baso Minangkabau Mìng - dĕ̤ng - ngṳ̄ Nāhuatl Nederlands Nedersaksies 日本 語 Нохчийн Nordfriisk Norsk Norsk nynorsk Nouormand Occitan Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی پښتو ភាសា ខ្មែរ Picard Piemontèis Polski Português Română Runa Simi Русиньскый Русский Саха тыла Davvisámegiella Scots Shqip Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina کوردی Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Tagalog தமிழ் Taqbaylit తెలుగు ไทย ትግርኛ Тоҷикӣ Türkçe Українська اردو Vepsän kel ' Tiếng Việt Walon Winaray 吴语 ייִדיש 粵語 Zazaki Žemaitėška 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 24 September 2017, at 09 : 58. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: how many letters does the greek alphabet have
Answer: 24