page_title: Greek diacritics
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Greek diacritics / History
caption_attribution_description: Codex sinaticus Deutsch: Luk. 11,2 im Codex Sinaiticus.
context_page_description: Greek orthography has used a variety of diacritics starting in the Hellenistic period. The more complex polytonic orthography notates Ancient Greek phonology. The simpler monotonic orthography, introduced in 1982, corresponds to Modern Greek phonology, and requires only two diacritics.
  Polytonic orthography is the standard system for Ancient Greek and Medieval Greek. The acute accent, the circumflex, and the grave accent indicate different kinds of pitch accent. The rough breathing indicates the presence of the sound before a letter, while the smooth breathing indicates the absence of.
  Since in Modern Greek the pitch accent has been replaced by a dynamic accent, and was lost, most polytonic diacritics have no phonetic significance, and merely reveal the underlying Ancient Greek etymology.
  Monotonic orthography is the standard system for Modern Greek. It retains two diacritics: a single accent or tonos that indicates stress, and the diaeresis, which usually indicates a hiatus but occasionally indicates a diphthong: compare modern Greek παϊδάκια, with a diphthong, and παιδάκια with a simple vowel.
context_section_description: The original Greek alphabet did not have diacritics. The Greek alphabet is attested since the 8th century BC, and until 403 BC, variations of the Greek alphabet—which exclusively used what are now known as capitals—were used in different cities and areas. From 403 on, the Athenians decided to employ a version of the Ionian alphabet. With the spread of Koine Greek, a continuation of the Attic dialect, the Ionic alphabet superseded the other alphabets, known as epichoric, with varying degrees of speed. The Ionian alphabet, however, also only consisted of capitals.
caption: The Lord's Prayer in a 4th-century uncial manuscript Codex Sinaiticus, before the adoption of minuscule polytonic. Note spelling errors: elthatō ē basilia (ΕΛΘΑΤΩΗΒΑΣΙΛΙΑ) instead of elthetō ē basileia (ΕΛΘΕΤΩ Η ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑ).
exif: {}