SB The Greek Alphabet Number 116 THE GREEK ALPHABET It is cause for thanksgiving that in the providence of God the language barrier that once stood between the common man and the truth of God has been broken. The New Testament was written in the common Greek of the first century, usually called koine Greek, and for centuries many of the vital facts of divine revelation were hidden from the average man. He had to rely on fallible human authorities in a realm where accuracy and certainty were most vital. He had no means of verifying the correctness of a translation. Now, all this has been changed, so that any person of ordinary intelligence who will apply himself to the task can discover for himself what God has actually said. All he needs to do is make use of the tools that men of God have made available. By "tools" I refer to such monumental works as * Young's Analytical Concordance; * The Englishman's Greek Concordance by George Wigram; * The Greekï¿½-English Lexicon of the New Testament by Thayer; * The Englishman's Greek New Testament (an interlinear by Bagster); * The Analytical Greek Lexicon (Bagster).

The last mentioned contains an alphabetical arrangement of every inflexion of every word in the Greek New Testament with a grammatical analysis of each word. However, if the student wants to use these books speedily and effectively he must know the Greek alphabet, and be able to transpose upon sight the Greek characters into their English equivalents. For example, when he comes upon the word.avOpwIIo ( sorry, computer limitations ï¿½ O is Theta, II is Pi, Ed.), he should be able on sight to change this into anthropos. There are twenty-four letters in the koine Greek alphabet. Each letter has a name, and it is these names that should first be memorized. Then we must learn its sign and how it was constructed, both as to capitals and small letters. In the koine period only capitals were used, but it is the lower-case letters in which we are most interested. These will now be displayed for some visual training. There are numerous helps that will aid the student in handling the Greek alphabet. It can be divided into six groups of four letters each, learning the first four names, then advancing to the second group. The first letter is named alpha.

I assume every Bible student is familiar with the passage wherein the Lord says: "I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last." If so, you have the first and last letters of the alphabet already with only twenty-two more to go. And since you are learning the alphabet, you have the first and second letters, alpha and beta. The third letter gamma should be easy since it is used in many English words such as gamma-ray and gamma-globulin. The fourth letter delta should be very easy since we have brought it into English to describe the formation made by the mouth of a river, which is shaped somewhat like the Greek letter 1::..Now we have alpha, beta, gamma, delta - the first four - and omega, the last letter, so only nineteen more to go. The student should learn to write the Greek letters with careful attention being given to the small ones. Alpha is made the same as our letter a, both small and capital letters. It is pronounced aas in cat and ah as in father. Beta is made the same as our capital B. In writing the small letter begin with an upward stroke a little below the line. Gamma in its capital looks like a gallows, and the small letter resembles our y.

If the top were closed it would look like our g. It is a letter that varies in sound so when it is followed by another gamma (yy), a kappa (YK), an xi (y_) it is pronounced as an n. Thus aggelos becomes angelos when pronounced. Delta is an easy letter to make. The capital is a simple triangle, but in making the small letter be sure to get the curl at the top. Epsilon is the short e, made the same as in English in the capital, but the small letter is a semicircle with a horizontal mark in the middle. Zeta is pronounced as if it had a D in front of it. In making the small letter be sure to add the little mark on the top and the hook on the bottom. Etais the long e. It could be somewhat confusing since the capital is made like an H, and the small letter like an n. In making it be sure the rightï¿½hand stroke comes below the line, and in transliterating it put a mark over it so it will not be confused with the short e. Theta is a circle with a bar across the middle, and the small letter is an upright oval with the same bar.

Iota is the smallest of all the characters and is used figuratively to signify something insignificant. Kappa is easy since it is made the same as our letter K. Lambda is pecular since the capital looks line an inverted V. An oddity about the small letter will make it easy to remember. Notice the leaning right-hand stroke with the little bar on the left to keep it from falling backward. . Muhas a long left-hand stroke, a shorter right-hand stroke, and a sagging bridge that ties them together. Nuis the same as our N, but the small letter looks like our v. It should be made with a slight outward curve to the right-hand stroke. Xi (pronounced ksee) demands close scrutiny. The capital is three horizontal lines, the middle line being a little shorter. This is not the same as our letter X, even though it is made like it. You can remember its distinctive character from the trade name Xerox (Kseerox). The small letter is made like a backward number 3, and it should have the small mark at the top and the curved tail at the bottom, a little below the line. Omicron is the short 0 and is pronounced as in box.

Pi is familiar to all who have studied geometry, but the pronunciation is pee, not pie.ï¿½ Rhoshould be given close attention since it looks like the English letter P. Sigma can be difficult. The capital is easy to recognize, but the small letter looks like an 0, so it must have the short horizontal stroke at the top in order to distinbuish it from omicron. When sigma occurs at the end of a word, it is made like the letter S, but the lower curve should be about half the size of the upper. Tauis simple, corresponding to our letter T. Upsilon in the small letter is the same as our U, but the capital should be given that slight palm-tree effect. The last four letters form an interesting quartet. Phi is the equivalent of our ph and is made like an 0 with a perpendicular line through it. Chi is made, both capital and small, like our letter X. However, it is not our X, and it transliterates as ch. It is often used as a shorthand symbol for Christ, as can be seen in our contracted word Xmas. Psi is the equivalent of our ps.

As a memory aid, think of it as a little like two lips with a tongue protruding from them. Omega is the long 0 as in home. The capital looks a little like a horseshoe, and the small letter looks like a double O. In transliterating it is identified by the mark over the top (0). The student will find many transliterated words that begin with an H, and this may puzzle him when he sees nothing in the Greek that represents this letter. In all Greek words that begin with a vowel, a mark will be found over them which curves either to the left ( .) or to the right ( , ). If the hook (not the curve) of this mark is to the right so that it looks like the word could be hung on it, it takes the h sound, and an h should be added to it when transliterating. Remember, you are learning the alphabet only so that you can use the available tools. Furthermore, I do not advise anyone to rush out and buy the six expensive books mentioned earlier in this study. I would recommend that he start with Young's Concordance and then add to this The Englishman's Greek New Testament.

Type a Greek Letter—Wolfram Language Documentation "How to" Topics How to | Type a Greek Letter The Wolfram Language allows Greek letters to be integrated into symbol names, strings, graphics, and text. Greek letters can be input from palettes or by using keyboard shortcuts. This page requires that JavaScript be enabled in your browser. Learn how » Selected examples from the video: There are two main ways to type any special character in the Wolfram Language. You can use its full name or its alias. To type a Greek letter (or any character) by its full name, start with a backslash and an open square bracket, followed by the name of the character: Finish the character by typing a closing square bracket. As soon as you type the closing square bracket, the special character will be displayed: Here, the Greek letters beta and gamma are also entered. Note that like all built-in Wolfram Language functions, the names of the special characters are capitalized: Finish typing gamma by entering the closing square bracket: To type capital Greek letters, use the prefix Capital. So to type a capital delta, you would type the following, but also include the closing square bracket: The other way to type a special character is by using its alias.

An alias is usually a shorter way to type the character, which can often be more convenient. To type an alias, press EscaliasEsc, where alias represents the specific alias for the character you are entering. Much like the closing square bracket above, as soon as you press the Esc key a second time, the alias will display as the special character. The Wolfram Language interprets the Esc key as a series of three vertical dots. Here, the alias for alpha is entered without the second Esc key being pressed: Aliases for Greek letters are the letters of the English alphabet. So alpha can be typed as EscaEsc, beta can be typed as EscbEsc, and gamma can be typed as EscgEsc. Here, the alias for gamma is entered without the second Esc key being pressed: The corresponding capital Greek letters can be typed with capitalized aliases, such as EscAEsc for capital alpha, and so on. The alias for capital alpha is entered here without the second Esc key being pressed: A Greek letter in the Wolfram Language can also be entered by using its HTML name as an alias.

So if you happen to know that &alpha; is the HTML command for alpha, you can type Esc&alpha;Esc to enter it in the Wolfram Language. Here, the HTML alias for alpha is entered without the second Esc key being pressed: The Greek letters are also all listed on the Special Characters palette, along with their full names and primary aliases. Open the Special Characters palette from the Palettes menu: If you mouse over a character, a tooltip will show the alias you can use to type in the character: You can also enter a character directly from the palette by clicking it. Lesson 2: The Greek Alphabet: more familiar than you think! | EDSITEment Lesson 2: The Greek Alphabet: more familiar than you think! Tools Introduction "Omega" is the last letter in the Greek alphabet. And the Greeks took up the letters from the Phoenicians, and once they had changed their shape somewhat, they used them. And when they used them, they called them “Phoenicians”, as was just, since the Phoenicians brought the letters to Greece.

—(Herodotus, History of the Persian Wars, 5.58.2) This second lesson of the curriculum unit, The Alphabet is Historic, is about the Greeks, who inherited the alphabet invented by the Phoenicians, and used it to write their great literature. Guiding Questions Who were the Greeks and where did they live? How did they come to inherit the Phoenician alphabet? Can we see that the Greek alphabet is starting to look more like our alphabet? What are some other things, besides the alphabet, that we inherited from the ancient Greeks? Learning Objectives After completing this lesson, students will be able to: Show that the Greeks and Phoenicians both lived on the shores of the Mediterranean. Tell that the Greeks learned the alphabet from Phoenician traders. Say why the alphabet was important for the Greeks. Tell one or two other things, besides the alphabet, that we inherited from the ancient Greeks. Compare some Greek letters to our own letters. Do an art activity or write a short paragraph related to the Greek alphabet. Background Like the Phoenicians, the ancient Greeks lived in cities all over their rocky peninsula, and they also engaged in a lot of trade.

But they were also unlike the Phoenicians in some ways, and in particular they had different forms of government. The Phoenicians had kings. But the Greeks passed through many different forms of government in their cities, and eventually the people at Athens invented democracy, which is rule by the people instead of by kings or nobles. The ancient Greeks also had a lot of other ideas and customs that are important for us: the Olympic games, for instance, began in ancient Greece. The reason we know about democracy in ancient Greece, or about the Olympic games, is that the ancient Greeks wrote all about them. Once the Greeks had an alphabet, it seems they could not stop writing. They pioneered many of the kinds of writing we consider standard today. They wrote speeches, books about science and learning, plays, poems, and long histories of the things that happened to them. The alphabet was a very important part of Greek culture! Preparation Instructions Project the map of the Mediterranean region as you introduce Greece. Point out Greece and Athens on the map. Lesson Activities Activity 3. Art Activity: A Teacher and Student Vase Activity 1.

Greek Alphabet Activity Begin the lesson on the Greek Alphabet by asking the students if they still remember the Phoenician traders who were trading purple cloth for olive oil at Athens. Ask the children: What would the Greeks think when they saw the Phoenician ship returning to Athens, a few weeks later, all loaded up with the stuff the Phoenicians had asked for in their letter? Do you think they would want to learn to write? You could tell them that the Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet so that they could start writing down all the things that were important to them. At this point you could show the students the Greek alphabet . The Greek alphabet is about 2,700 years old. Nevertheless, there are many letters in the ancient Greek alphabet that you and your students will immediately recognize. Show the children the letters A, B, E, I, K, M, N, O, S, and T. These Greek letters are essentially identical to the letters we use today. If your students are very young, or if time is lacking, it will be sufficient for this lesson to have shown the students that the alphabet was developing into the alphabet they know.

But many students will also be interested in knowing about some of the letters they do not recognize. Included is a short explanation of a few of the differences between our alphabet and the ancient Greek alphabet: you might choose to use none of this, just a few points, or all of it, depending on your class and students. The following are some examples of how the Greek alphabet differs from the Roman alphabet we use: The third letter, for instance, which looks like an upside-down L, is Gamma, our G. The Greek G does not look anything like our G, and we say "ABC", not "ABG". Over time G got bumped from the third to the seventh place in the alphabet and also changed his shape to the round shape he wears today. The fourth letter (the one that looks like a triangle) is Delta. This letter is our D. Over the years, D changed shape somewhat, but D got to keep his place as the fourth letter of the alphabet. Again, look at the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. That's Z! In the Greek alphabet Z was in the middle of the alphabet instead of at the end. But over time, the letter Z got bumped clear to the back.

Two letters down from Z, after the "H", there is a letter that looks like a circle with a line inside of it. That is a Theta. That letter sounds a "th", and we don't have that letter at all anymore. We use two letters, T and H, to show that sound. In other words, letters don't only change, they also sometimes appear and disappear. These are a few examples of the many changes the alphabet underwent on its way from the Greeks to us. As with the Phoenician alphabet, the students might enjoy copying down some of the strange looking Greek letters, just to try them out. You might also point out that people living in Greece still use this alphabet for everything they write, just the way we use our alphabet. The fact that the Greeks changed the Phoenician alphabet, or that the Romans changed the Greek alphabet, does not mean that either one was deficient, but only that each subsequent group needed to change the letters to accommodate their language and culture. Activity 2. Greek Vase Activity Show Greek vase Berlin F2285 . On this "image browser" page there are 19 thumbnail images of a Greek vase shaped like a large shallow bowl.

The vase depicts a school and ancient Greek children learning in school. Click first on the thumbnail image called Side A: School. A large image will appear. As your students look at the image, point out that on this side of the vase a child is learning to read a poem, and another child is learning to play a Greek instrument called a lyre. Return to the image browser page. Now select the image called Side A: Teacher and Student with Writing Tablet. This is a close-up of the image you just looked at. Point out the paper in the teacher's hand: the letters are clearly visible. The teacher is showing the student a poem. The first word is spelled M-O-I-S-A. It means “muse.” The poem is addressed to one of the muses, the goddesses of art and music. Point out to your students that they can recognize the Greek letters and learn to read a word. They can do this because our alphabet comes from the Greek alphabet, and so we still know some of the Greek letters. Congratulate the children on learning to read a Greek word! Return to the image browser page. Now select the image called Side B: Teacher and Student with Stylus.

Here a teacher is showing a student how to write on a tablet. Or perhaps he is correcting the student's letters! Return again to the image browser page. Now select the image called Side A: Teacher and Student Practicing Lyre. Here a teacher and a student are practicing music together. Point out the prominent place of music in this depiction of school life. Music was a very important part of ancient Greek elementary education. delta, delt-; Δ, δ - Word Information delta, delt-; Δ, δ (Greek: triangular; fourth letter; Δ, δ, of the Greek alphabet) delt (s) ( noun ), delts (pl) A slang term for the deltoid muscle which is often used in the plural: Hank's delts are aching from the excessive exercise he did today. delta (s) ( noun ), deltas (pl) 1. The fourth letter of the Greek alphabet (Δ, δ) corresponding to English d, and as a number, it indicates 4. 2. An object shaped like a triangle. 3. Usually a triangular alluvial or sedimental deposit of sand and earth at the mouth of a river. 4. A similar deposit at the mouth of a tidal inlet, caused by tidal currents.

A Greek letter sits at the mouth of many rivers. Noticing the resemblance between the island formed by sediment at the mouth of a river; such as, the Nile and the triangular shape of their letter delta, the Greeks gave the name "delta" to such an island. The English language incorporated this sense from Greek, although the word delta appeared first in English as the name of the letter, in a work written possibly around 1200 A.D. The sense of "alluvial deposit" was not recorded until 1555 A.D., when delta was used with reference to the "Nile River delta". Delta Aquarids ( noun ) (plural used as singular) A diffuse meteor shower that appears to come from an area near the star Delta in Aquarius: The Delta Aquarids is an annual meteor shower that reaches a broad peak of activity usually in late July and early August. delta bar (s) ( noun ), delta bars (pl) A ridge-like accumulation of alluvial material formed by a tributary stream that is building a delta into the channel of the main stream.

delta connection (s) ( noun ), delta connections (pl) The mesh connection of three elements in a three-phase system in a triangular arrangement resembling the Greek letter delta, with each element connected between two phase conductors, and no connection to the neutral conductor. delta flat (s) ( noun ), delta flats (pl) A low-lying area that is formed by sediment which is deposited by a stream entering a body of standing water: A delta flat is formed when a stream flows into stationary waters; such as, a pond, lake, reservoir, or calm ocean or sea. A decrease in the velocity of the flowing is decreased in speed and lowers the stream's capacity, causing its contents to be deposited as a delta flat. delta front (s) ( noun ), delta fronts (pl) A narrow, continuous sheet of sand that marks the zone where deposition in a delta is most active. delta function (s) ( noun ), delta functions (pl) In mathematics, the Greek letter δ (lowercase) or Δ (uppercase); often used to represent a small distance or a small change in the value of a variable or function.

delta iron, delta ferrite (s) ( noun ); delta irons, delta ferrites (pl) In metallurgy, the high-temperature variety of body-centered cubic iron. delta kame, kame delta (s) ( noun ); delta kames, kame deltas (pl) A hill of stratified sand and gravel that was deposited by a meltwater stream flowing into a proglacial lake. delta lake (s) ( noun ), delta lakes (pl) A lake that is formed along the edge of or within a delta. delta matched antenna, Y antenna (s) ( noun ); delta matched antennas, Y antennas (pl) In electricity, a single-wire antenna to which the leads of an open-wire transmission line are connected in the shape of a Y. delta matching transformer (s) ( noun ), delta matching transformers (pl) A device which matches the impedance to an open-wire transmission line to an antenna: The delta-matching transformer is commonly used for connecting a half-wave antenna to a balanced transmission line. delta plain (s) ( noun ), delta plains (pl) A plain formed by the deposition of alluvium on the landward part of a large delta.

delta ray (s) ( noun ); delta rays (pl) An electron emitted when an ionizing element; such as, an alpha particle, passes through matter. You can see all of the letters of the Greek Alphabet on this page. <img src="/img/left_arrow_sm.gif" alt="" /> 1 2 3 Showing page 1 out of 3 pages of 34 main-word entries or main-word-entry groups. The Greek Alphabet ﻿ The Greek Alphabet The alphabet is among the few linguistic elements that have remained essentially unchanged between the Ancient and Modern Greek languages. Before listing the letters, let us make a brief comment on the pronunciation of the language, as it evolved through the millennia. Pronunciation How close is the sound of Modern Greek to that of Classic Greek? Phonetically, Classic Greek would sound rather alien to contemporary Greeks, but don’t ever say this to them! It is an issue that most Greeks, even educated ones, ignore. (1) I suspect it is because the alphabet has stayed unchanged, so Greeks can read classic texts with no trouble at all (pronouncing in Modern Greek). After all, it all looks Greek to them!

If any (non-Greek) scholar attempts to pronounce classic texts in the reconstructed (2) pronunciation, that, to Greeks is tantamount to sacrilege. As a contemporary Greek myself , I can give you my personal feeling for how the reconstructed pronunciation sounds: it is as if a barbarian is trying to speak Greek. (3) For example, take the word “barbarian” itself (which is of Greek origin): in Classic Greek it would be pronounced [bár·ba·ros]. In Modern Greek, it is [vár·va·ros]. In general, the second letter of the alphabet, beta, was pronounced as [b] in Plato’s time, but was changed to [v] by the time the Gospels were written. Now, to the modern Greek ear, [v] is a soft sound (a “fricative” in linguistics), sort of smooth and gentle, while [b] is a hard one (a “plosive”), kind of rough and crass.

The same can be said about the letter delta, which was pronounced as [d] by Plato, and as [ð] (as in this) since around Christ’s time; and the letter gamma ([g] in Classic Greek, [γ] later the latter sound is a “voiced velar fricative”; click here to see the full repertoire of Modern Greek sounds). Greek readers of this text who do not believe that Plato, Socrates, etc., were sounding so barbaric, may take a clue from this very word: “barbaros” was coined after somebody who, as a non-native speaker of Greek would produce incomprehensible speech, which sounded like... well, what? Could it be “var-var-var”? Wouldn’t it sound more barbaric if it were like “bar-bar-bar”? Besides this word, direct evidence for beta comes from a fragment of Attic comedy where it is said that the voice of the sheep is BH-BH. (4) In Modern Greek this would read as “vi-vi”, rather un-sheepish-like; while in the reconstructed way it would be “beeh-beeh”, exactly the sound that we, contemporary Greeks, attribute to the animal.

(If the reader would like to make a comment on the above issues, email to me , and let me know what you think; but please make sure to have first read the links that say “Evidence” on the rightmost column of the table, below.) However, the truth is when non-Greek scholars attempt to pronounce Classic Greek in the reconstructed way, they think they pronounce accurately. To me, American scholars sound distinctly American (like Platos with spurs and cowboy hats), Germans sound German, etc. Probably nobody can reproduce exactly the Classic Greek pronunciation: we might know the rules of the reconstructed system, but when it comes to moving our jaws, tongue, and lips, something different comes out of our mouths. As native speakers of this or that language we necessarily carry over our native phonology. Finally, let it be noted that Classic Greek used pitch to differentiate vowels in words, while nearly all modern European languages (including Modern Greek) use stress instead. (5) The Alphabet (Click on the speaker icon, next to the letter name, to hear the pronunciation in Modern Greek) 1 Alpha [a], as in “father”. Same as [a] in Spanish and Italian.

Phonetically, this sound is: open, central, and unrounded. As in Modern Greek 2 Beta [v], as in “vet”; a voiced labiodental fricative. [b], as in “bet”; a voiced bilabial plosive. Evidence 3 Gamma [γ], a sound that does not exist in English. If followed by the sound [u] then it sounds almost like the initial sound in “woman”, but with the back of the tongue touching more to the back (soft) palate. To pronounce [γa], try to isolate “w” from “what” without rounding your lips, and then say [a]. In Castilian Spanish this sound exists in “amiga”. Same is true for [γo]: try eliminating the [u] sound from “water”. (C. Spanish: “amigo”.) On the other hand, due to a phonetic phenomenon called palatalization , [γe] sounds a bit like “ye” in “yes”, and [γi] sounds a bit like “yi” in “yield”. Phonetically, gamma is a voiced velar fricative.

(Its palatalized version is a voiced palatal fricative.) [g], as in “got”; a voiced velar plosive. Evidence 4 Delta [th], as in “this”; a voiced dental fricative. [d], as in “do”; a voiced alveolar plosive. Evidence 5 Epsilon [e] as in “pet”, except that the [e] in “pet” (and other similar English words) is lax, whereas in Greek it is tense. To pronounce a tense [e] pull the edges of your lips to the sides a bit more than when you say “pet”. (We pull the edges of our lips to the sides when we smile; but I don’t mean you need to smile every time you pronounce the Greek epsilon, OK? ) As in Modern Greek 6 Zeta [z], as in “zone”, a voiced alveolar fricative. Actually, the remark for sigma (see below) applies to zeta as well (it is shifted a bit toward [ʒ], as in “pleasure”). Read the remark for sigma to understand why, and how to pronounce it. [zd], as in “Mazda”.

Also: [z], and even: [dz]. Evidence 7 Eta [i], as in “meet”, but shorter, not so long. This is one of the three [i]’s in the Greek alphabet; they all have identical pronunciation. The reason for this redundancy has to do with Classic Greek, where they were not redundant. long open mid-[e], as in “thread” (but long). Evidence 8 Theta [θ], as in “think”; a voiceless dental fricative. In Castilian Spanish: “zorro”. [th], as in “top”, but more aspirated. Evidence 9 Iota [i], exactly like eta (see above). The name of the letter is pronounced “yota” in Modern Greek. (The reason for the y-sound in front of the letter’s name is due to the phonetic transformation of [io] into [yo]). As in Modern Greek 10 Kappa [k], as in “skip”. Notice that in English [k] is aspirated if it appears word-initially; Greek makes no such distinction.

When followed by the vowels [e] or [i] it becomes palatalized — for the exact pronunciation please check the page on palatalization . Phonetically, it is a voiceless velar plosive. (Its palatalized version is a voiceless palatal plosive.) As in Modern Greek 11 Lambda [l] as in “lap”. When followed by the vowel [i] it becomes palatalized, turning to a sound that does not exist in English (check the page on palatalization ). The name of the letter is pronounced [lamða] ([b] is eliminated because it is difficult to pronounce it between [m] and [ð]). A voiced alveolar lateral approximant. As in Modern Greek 12 Mu [m], as in “map”; a voiced bilabial nasal. Notice that the name of the letter is pronounced [mi] (mee), not “mew” as in American English. As in Modern Greek 13 Nu [n], as in “noble”; a voiced alveolar nasal.

When followed by the vowed [i] it becomes palatalized, turning to a sound that does not exist in English (but exists in Spanish, written as ñ; see the page on palatalization ). Notice that the name of the letter is pronounced [ni] (ñee), not “new” as in American English. As in Modern Greek 14 Ksi [ks] as in “fox”. Contrary to the English “x”, the letter ksi does not change pronunciation at the beginning of a word (it does not become a [z]; Greeks have no trouble starting a word with [k]+[s]). For example, in the word ksenofovia (ξενοφοβία = xenophobia) the initial sound [k] is not omitted. Don’t put any aspiration between [k] and [s] when pronouncing this letter. The remark for sigma applies to the [s]-sound of ksi, too. As in Modern Greek 15 Omicron Same like [o] in “got” the way it is pronounced in British English. Notice how the vowel in British “got” is tense, which means that you should really round your lips when you pronounce the Greek [o].

A mid-close back rounded vowel. As in Modern Greek 16 Pi [p], as in “spot”; a voiceless bilabial plosive. Notice that in English [p] is aspirated if it appears word-initially; Greek makes no such distinction. As in Modern Greek 17 Rho [r]: between vowels it is a sound that exists in American English in the pronunciation of “tt” in “butter” (but not in Brittish English). Sounds like the Spanish [r] in “pero”. (Spanish speakers: in Greek there is no difference in whether you trill your rho as in “perro” or not; but normally Greeks pronounce it more as in “pero” than as in “perro”.) Otherwise it’s a trill, like the Italian [r]. Almost every Greek can pronounce rho as a long trill if they wish (like the Russian [r]), and you will hear it pronounced like that in some Greek songs. Phonetically, it is a voiced alveolar tap (and occasionally a trill). Probably as in Modern Greek when single, and as a trill when double.

Word-initially: aspirated: [hr] 18 Sigma [s], as is “soap”; a voiceless alveolar fricative. Actually, if you listen carefully to native Greek speakers, it sounds a bit like between [s] and [sh] (probably because there is no [sh] in Greek, so the sound is somewhat shifted in the phonological space). However, to the native English ear it sounds much closer to [sh] than to [s], whereas every native Greek speaker would swear they pronounce it exactly like the English [s], unless forced to admit the difference by looking at spectrograms. In reality, you can produce it like this: feel where your tongue is when you say [s]: very close to the front teeth, right? Now feel where it is when you say [sh] (far back). Place it somewhere midway, and you will produce the Greek [s]. You’ll find that you’ll need to make a similar adjustment to the shape of your lips, midway through rounded for [sh] and tense for [s]; in the Greek sigma the lips are relaxed. This is the way “s” is pronounced in Castilian Spanish (as opposed to Latin American Spanish).

Notice that the second way of writing the lower case sigma is used exclusively when the letter appears at the end of a word (there is only one capital form). Probably as in Modern Greek 19 Tau [t], as in “stop”; a voiceless alveolar plosive. Notice that in English [t] is aspirated if it appears word-initially; Greek makes no such distinction. As in Modern Greek 20 Upsilon [i], exactly like eta and iota (see above). The name of the letter is pronounced [ipsilon] (ee-psee-lon), not “yupsilon” as it is called in American English. Rounded [i], as in French “une”. Evidence 21 Phi [f] as in “fat”; a voiceless labiodental fricative. [ph], as in “pit”, but more aspirated. Evidence 22 Chi [x], a sound that does not exist in English (but exists in Scottish, as in “loch”; German: “Bach”; Spanish: “Jorge”). When followed by vowels [e] or [i] it is pronounced as in German “ich”.

For the exact pronunciation in this case, please check the page on palatalization . Phonetically, it is a voiceless velar fricative. (Its palatalized version is a voiceless palatal fricative.) [kh], as in “cut”, but more aspirated. Evidence 23 Psi [ps] as in “lopsided”. Contrary to English, the sound of the letter does not change at the beginning of a word (it does not become a [s]; Greeks have no trouble starting a word with [p]+[s]). For example, in the word psychologia (ψυχολογία = psychology) the initial sound [p] is not omitted. Don’t put any aspiration between [p] and [s] when pronouncing this letter. The remark for sigma applies to the [s]-sound of psi, too. As in Modern Greek 24 Omega [o], exactly like omicron. (Once again, the reason for the redundancy is to be found in Classic Greek.) Long open mid-back [o], as in “law”. Evidence Phonology and Orthography Oops! Twenty-four letters only? Surely some sounds must be missing? That’s correct.

There are sounds common in other languages that do not exist in Greek. Such sounds are all the postalveolar fricatives and postalveolar affricates ([ʃ] as in “shop”, [ʒ] as in “pleasure”, [tʃ] as in “church”, and [dʒ] as in “job”). So what do Greeks do when they want to pronounce foreign words with these sounds? If they are not trained to pronounce correctly, they simply transform these postalveolar sounds to their corresponding alveolar ones: [ʃ] → [s], [ʒ] → [z], [tʃ] → [ts], [dʒ] → [dz]. Ask a Greek to pronounce “fish ’n chips” next time you want to have some linguistic fun. And what about other very common sounds, like [b], [d], [g], etc.? These seem to be missing from the alphabet, too! Are they also missing from the repertoire of the sounds of the language? No! These are existent as sounds in the language. It is just that there are no single letters to denote them.

When Greeks want to write those sounds they write them as two-letter combinations: [b] is written as μπ (mu + pi), [d] as ντ (nu + tau), and [g] as γκ (gamma + kappa), or as γγ (double gamma). Why all this trouble? Remember, as explained in the introductory paragraph on this page, the sounds [b], [d], and [g] used to exist in Classic Greek. Later, probably some time after the New Testament was written in the so-called Koine (common) Greek, these three sounds had shifted in pronunciation to the corresponding “soft” ones ([v], [ð], and [γ]). This left a void in the phonological space. Words that contained combinations like “mp” and “nt” started being pronounced as [mb] and [nd], respectively. So the “plosive” sounds were re-introduced, but pairs of letters were used now to denote them. There is one more sound in the language which is absent from the alphabet: it is [ŋ], the “ingma”, the last consonant in “king”.

This sound is very rare in Greek, and when it appears (as in “άγχος”: anxiety; “έλεγχος”: checking) it is denoted by the combination gamma + chi, with the gamma pronounced as [ŋ]. All of the above plus much more, including the pervasive phenomenon of palatalization, can be found in this page on the details of Modern Greek pronunciation, which includes sound samples with the author’s voice for all of the presented examples. You may also find useful this page, showing the sounds of Modern Greek against all possible sounds of any language in the world . The tables for consonants and vowels in that page are very familiar to linguists, but you don’t need to be a linguist to understand it. For your convenience, here is a table to use as quick reference, listing the two-letter clusters that result in new sounds, not included in the Greek alphabet: Cluster Further: ΜΠ μπ [b], as in “bee”, at the beginning of words or in loanwords; otherwise: [mb], as in “combat”.

ΝΤ ντ [d], as in “do”, at the beginning of words or in loanwords; otherwise: [nd], as in “fund”. ΓΚ γκ ΓΓ γγ [g], as in “go”, at the beginning of words or in loanwords; otherwise: [ŋg], as in “fungus”. Note: the form γγ never appears at the beginning of words, so it is always [ g], as in “fungus”. ΓΞ γξ In front of χ (chi) the letter γ (gamma) is pronounced as an “ingma”: [ŋ] (king), followed by χ. In front of ξ (ksi) the letter γ (gamma) is pronounced as an “ingma”: [ŋ] (king), followed by ξ. Note: the cluster γξ is too rare; it appears only in uncommon words such as λυγξ (the lynx). Arguably, there are also the following pairs, which do not result in unique sounds but are perceived as “one thing” by native speakers of Greek: Cluster ΤΣ τσ [ts], as in “cuts”, but without separating [t] from [s].

Note: in rare cases where τσ is at the end of a word, the sigma (σ) is written as a final sigma (ς); thus: τς. What about vowels? Is there any similarity with the English vowels, or with those of any other language? Vowels in Greek are easy. That is, if you are not a native speaker of English! That’s because although English is very rich in vowel sounds, still, it lacks almost completely the Greek vowels. The latter are more like the vowels of Italian, Spanish, or Japanese: they are the five sounds [a], [e], [i], [o], and [u] (6) . Now, there are three letters for [i] in the alphabet (eta, iota, and upsilon), pronounced identically, and two letters for [o] (omicron and omega), also pronounced identically. For the sound [u] (as in “loot”) the combination ου (omicron + upsilon) is used. Here are three good rules of thumb for native English speakers: Greek vowels never sound like glides.

That is, English speakers tend to pronounce Greek [e] almost always as [ei] (as in “bay”, “buffet”, “claim”, etc.), a phenomenon known as gliding. In Greek that’s wrong! Try to avoid adding the sound [i] at the end just stay with [e] (almost like “bet”, but notice, that [e] in “bet” is lax; whenever the tense [e] is pronounced in English, it glides and sounds like [ei]). The same is true for [o]: Avoid pronouncing it as [ow] (as in “rope”, “bone”); just stay with [o], as in “awe”, “law”, etc., but make it a bit shorter (and don’t open your mouth as much as is required by “awe”; that’s suitable for omega of the Classic Greek times; Modern Greek [o] is a bit more closed). If you know Spanish, Italian, or Japanese (6) , there is a one-to-one correspondence between the five vowel sounds in these languages and Greek. Trust your knowledge then, and use it.

Greek words often end in [s] (sigma), and when English speakers hear Greeks pronouncing such endings they think they hear “sh”. (For an explanation read the comments of the letter sigma, in the table.) If you can’t reproduce the Greek sigma exactly, simply approximate it with English “s”, as in “boss”. Remember, there is no “sh” in Greek (except in the dialect of Crete, to be accurate), and that’s why hearing “sh” sounds very foreign to the Greek ear. So, sounds simple. Is there anything else about vowels? Not in pronunciation. In writing, however, there is. There are three so-called “diphthongs”, which are not diphthongs anymore, but digraphs.

(A diphthong is a long vowel with more than one part, each of which has a different quality, such as the ou in “loud”, or the oy in “boy”; a digraph is two letters which, when put together, are read as one unit, such as the English th in “think”, or the ph in “graph”.) Here are the Greek digraphs of vowels: Exactly like ε (epsilon, 5th letter, see above) [ai], as in “buy”. Evidence Exactly like ι (iota, 9th letter, see above) [ei], as in “bay”. Evidence Exactly like ι (iota, 9th letter, see above) [oi], as in “boy”. Evidence Exactly like ι (iota, 9th letter, see above; also read comment below) ~[yui]. Evidence [u], already explained in a previous paragraph As in Modern Greek [av] if the following sound is voiced, and [af] if the following sound is unvoiced [au], as in “loud”. Evidence [ev] if the following sound is voiced, and [ef] if the following sound is unvoiced [eu].

Evidence [iv] if the following sound is voiced, and [if] if the following sound is unvoiced ~[e:u]. Evidence Notes: Thus, Archimedes’s famous “eureka!” (εύρηκα) in Modern Greek is pronounced as [évrika] (with the stress on epsilon); but in ancient Greek it should be [éure:ka] (again with the stress on the first vowel of the diphthong, i.e., the [e]). The digraph ηυ (eta + upsilon) is extremely rare in Modern Greek; it appears in three verb-forms only: εφηύρα [efivra] (=“I invented”), απηύδησα [apivthisa] (=“I got fed up”), and απηύθυνα [apifthina] (=“I directed my speech to sb.”); it was much more common in ancient Greek, though.

The digraph υι (upsilon + iota) appears only in a very small number of Modern Greek words: υιός [ios] (=“son”, but this form is obsolete; the modern one is γιος), and its derivatives: υιοθετώ (=“adopt”), υιοθεσία (=“adoption”), υιικός (=“filial”) and a few rare ones, such as άρπυια (~a mythological creature), καθεστηκυία (=“established, prevailing” [fem.]), etc. If you want to know the reason why these weird-looking combinations of letters exist, once again, blame ancient Greek, in which those were true diphthongs. When later the vowel space was flattened to its present five members, and no long vowels existed anymore, the diphthongs were transformed as the table above shows. Does that mean that the sound [ai] (as in “buy”), for example, can never occur in Modern Greek, because if written as αι it would be pronounced [e]?

It is possible to have the letters alpha and iota next to each other and producing the sound [ai], but then we need to show this in writing. We do this by putting a pair of dots, the diaeresis, over the iota, like this: αϊ, as in the word παϊδάκι [paithaki] (=“rib steak”). It is even possible to have the stress together with the diaeresis over the iota: παΐδι [paithi] (=“rib”). The diaeresis can “dismiss” any of the vowel-digraphs: αϊ, εϊ, οϊ, υϊ, οϋ, αϋ, and εϋ (whereas ηϋ does not occur in Modern Greek), in which case the two constituent vowels are pronounced separately. More about the diaeresis in my page on accent marks . What are those short straight lines placed over some vowels in Greek texts? That’s the stress. It shows which syllable should be pronounced slightly higher in pitch and volume than the rest. I suggest that you click here to learn all the details about how to place accent marks to show the stress in Greek.

But if you want only a brief description, perhaps the following two paragraphs would suffice. In Modern Greek, the accent mark is placed only in lowercase writing, and only over the vowel of the stressed syllable. If the vowel is written with a digraph (see above), the accent mark is placed over the second letter of the pair. Monosyllabic words are not shown with stress, since the information would be redundant. In Greek (of all times), only one of the last three syllables of a word can be stressed. Native Greek speakers “internalize” this rule (they also learn it explicitly at school), and tend to apply it even to languages that allow placement of stress on any syllable, such as English. (For example, the word difficulty is often pronounced [dee-`fee-kal-tee] by Greeks who start learning English as a second language.) In Classic Greek there were no lowercase letters, only capitals. So there were no accent marks over the letters. Later, during the Hellenistic times (last three centuries BC) lowercase letters were introduced, and along with them, the accent marks.

However, the situation was quite complex, because there were three marks for the stress, and two “aspiration marks”, placed over the initial vowel of a word, if any. One of the latter two (the “rough breathing mark”, written like a tiny “c”) stood in place of the by-then-obsolete initial letter H, and was pronounced like English [h]. (In Classic times this letter was actually written.) So, words like “history”, “hydrogen”, “hour”, “Hellenic”, and many others, passed into English (filtered first through Latin) with the initial “h” written and pronounced, while the corresponding Greek words were written with the rough breathing mark over the initial vowel. Later, even the pronunciation of this mark was dropped, so one had to learn what breathing mark to put over the initial vowel without having any clue from pronunciation. This situation lasted until fairly recently. (As a child, I had to learn those orthographic rules, too.) In 1982, all breathing marks were officially dropped, and the three types of stress marks were reduced to one and even that one is used only on multisyllabic words. Do Greek letters have some inherent meaning?

(7) What are the dictionary definitions of words like “alpha”, “beta”, etc.? No, there is no meaning in Greek letters. You are probably thinking of Chinese ideograms, or ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, which are symbols with some associated meaning. Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, etc., bear no more meaning in Greek than a, bee, cee, dee, etc., bear in English. Their names are just a bit longer, that’s all, that’s why they might look like meaningful words. Now, there is an English letter the name of which can be said to have some meaning, however trivial: it’s w, which we pronounce “double-u”. The name of this letter is derived from ancient forms of it, when it was written as two U’s, joined like this: UU. Similarly, there are a handful of Greek letters that can be said to have such trivial meanings, associated always with their pronunciation: epsilon (εψιλον) is really e-psilon, meaning “light e”, “bare e”, or “mere e”, a name introduced in Byzantine times, to distinguish it from the other [e], the digraph alpha-iota (see above).

In ancient (e.g., classical) times this distinction was unnecessary, because ε and αι had completely different sounds, so the name of this letter was simply ε. Similarly, upsilon (υψιλον) is really u-psilon, meaning “mere u”, distinguishing it from the other two [i]’s: ι and η; in ancient Greek its name was υ. Finally, omicron (ομικρον) is o-micron, or “little o”, to distinguish it from o-mega (ωμεγα), or “great o”. Again, these names were introduced in later times, when the pronunciations of the two letters had become identical; in ancient times their names were simply ο and ω. That said, it should be mentioned that the origin of the Greek letters, which is the ancient Phoenician alphabet, did assign meaning to each letter. For example, the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet (a close cousin of the Hebrew alphabet, the first three letters of which are aleph, beth, and gimel) was written as an inverted A, a stylized depiction of the triangular head of an ox with its horns.

In Phoenician, the name of the letter was the word for “ox”. Similarly, the letter gamma (Hebrew gimel) is derived from the Phoenician word for “camel”; and so on. But this is not specific to Greek, it is present in Semitic languages. In Greek, the letters are just symbols, devoid of meaning. Footnotes (clicking on the footnote-number, on the left, brings back to the text) (1) . As I was informed recently by a Greek reader of this page, now they do learn at school that the ancient pronunciation was different. Good, that’s progress; in my high school years (late 70’s) we were left in the dark. However, I tested this reader’s information by asking a couple of young Greek students (friends’ children), and found out that just about the only thing they learn is that some vowels, such as the omega and eta, were pronounced differently by the ancients; at least that’s what was registered in those young students’ memory. (2) .

An earlier version of this page referred to the “Erasmian” pronunciation of Greek, after the Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536), who established a pronunciation system for ancient Greek that was geared towards the phonological abilities of speakers of Dutch. Later, his system was adopted by speakers of various other languages, who adjusted it slightly to their own needs. Since today it is not known what exactly one refers to when one mentions “the Erasmian system”, this page refers to the “reconstructed” system of pronunciation, as shown on the rightmost column, “Classic Greek Pronunciation (Attic)”, and as explained if you follow the links that say “Evidence”. (3) . Some readers (esp. fellow Greeks) took this comment to mean that I do not believe the reconstructed pronunciation is right. Wrong! I do believe it is right. However, what I believe or not is totally inconsequential. One should believe their eyes (looking at data, that is) and that is why I have collected the data (which is known to me) under those links that say “Evidence” (last column of the table; you know, those blue underlined things? Click on them!).

I made this comment to explain to non-Greeks what it feels to hear the reconstructed pronunciation if you are a Greek, and if you have been educated thinking that Pericles could have said to his wife, “Ασπασία, τι γκαντεμιά! Εγώ τη ψυλλιάζομαι τη δουλειά, φιρί-φιρί το πάνε να μας την πέσουν οι Λακεδαιμόνιοι. Πρέπει να τους σπάσουμε τον τσαμπουκά!” (4) . Cratinus, in Dionysalexandros: the fool goes about like a sheep saying “ba ba”. (5) . Not really all modern Indo-European languages, though; Serbo-Croatian, for example, uses pitch. There are probably other I-E languages using pitch as well. (6) .

But, English speakers beware: the symbol [e] does not stand for the sound of “ee” as in “meet”, but for the sound of “e” as in “get”. Likewise, [i] stands for a shorter version of “ee” as in “meet”. Also note, since the Japanese language was mentioned: actually the Japanese [u] is unrounded, whereas the Greek [u] is rounded. (7) . Occasionally young people from the U.S.A. who want to establish a new fraternity or sorority ask me this question, because they want to choose “meaningful” Greek letters for their organization. If you are one of those people and are disappointed by the answer of this question, there is still hope. Select two or three English words that are meaningful to you, ask me what the corresponding Greek words are, and choose the initial Greek letters for your fraternity or sorority.

Question: Which letter of the Greek alphabet, when written as a capital, looks like a triangle?
Answer: Delta