Ancient Greek/Alphabet

Ancient Greeks wrote their language in many related regional alphabets. These epichoric alphabets used letter shapes related to early forms of the Hebrew and Arabic writing systems, but the exact shape and sound value of Greek letters varied. The most important early alphabet was the Ionic alphabet with 24 letters which was developed in the eastern Aegean. The Athenians adopted this writing system by law in 403 B.C. and it has been the basis of Greek spelling ever since. Modern Greek still uses this alphabet, although the sounds have shifted over 2400 years.

Diacritical marks were developed in the Hellenistic Period (after 323 B.C.) to mark the sound [h], which existed in Attic but not Ionic, and to help with the pronunciation of historical texts. Punctuation was developed in this period too. Lower-case forms of letters were developed in the Byzantine Period, in about the 10th century.

Modern editions use the Ionic alphabet with upper- and lower-case letters, accents and other diacritical marks, and punctuation for all ancient Greek texts, even if they were not originally written that way. This wikibook will use the modern conventions.

1. ↑ Gamma is the only consonant which has two different sounds. It is a hard [g] normally but [ŋ] before other guttural consonants, e.g. ἄγγελος, ángelos, 'messenger'. This is called nasal gamma.
2. ↑ The lower-case sigma is written ς at the end of words, e.g. βάσις (but ΒΑΣΙΣ). This is called final sigma. Some texts use a simplified Hellenistic form, Ϲ ϲ, called lunate sigma, because it looks like a crescent moon.
3. ↑ Like u in French or ü in German. Can be pronounced by pronouncing ee while pursing the lips as if for the oo in "food."

There are no recordings of ancient Greek. It is difficult, but not impossible, to reconstruct the pronunciation of an ancient language. Through various methods, particularly by comparison with other languages, and observation of sounds that are confused, we can form good estimates.

This wikibook uses one common reconstruction of the pronunciation of Greek as it would have been spoken in fifth-century Athens. However, please note that scholars do not agree on the pronunciation of Ancient Greek. If you ever take a formal class in Ancient Greek, you may find that your professor or teacher pronounces the words differently depending upon the reconstructed model which they learned in school.

Also, just as English pronunciation has changed over time and is different in different regions of the English speaking world, Ancient Greek pronunciation was dependent both on dialect and era. Many dialectical differences are reflected in the spelling of words (so it is not necessary to explain those here), but it is important to note that Ionic Greek (including the language of Homer) had some differences from Attic Greek. Greek spelling became fixed, so many changes in pronunciation from the Hellenistic Period onwards are not reflected in the spelling.

In addition to the table above, some particular points need to be raised over pronunciation.

• Normally, γ is pronounced with a 'hard' g sound. However, before κ, χ, γ, it is pronounced as a nasal [ŋ].
• the letters ξ, ζ, and ψ all represent double consonant sounds (ks, zd, ps).
• While many pronounce θ, φ and χ according to the English sounds "th" (as in thin) and "ph" (as in photo) and the Scottish "ch" (as in loch), scholars suggest that this is not the correct ancient pronunciation. Evidence for this comes to us from Coptic, a language once spoken in Egypt. Coptic, unlike Greek, has a letter that corresponds to the English letter "H", which is ϩ or hori (Greek only has the rough breathing mark). When one word ends with either τ, π, or κ, and the word directly following begins with ϩ , the last letter of the first word will often contract with the first letter of the second word, resulting in θ, φ, and χ, respectively (e.g. πετ ϩοογ >> πεθοογ). While this affected the spelling it did not affect pronunciation, resulting in two pronounced sounds (t-h, p-h, k-h). The following "H" sound is called aspiration.

• The letters ι, α, and υ can represent short and long vowels. The letters ε and ο are short, and η and ω are long. Due to changes in the English language over time, the terms "long" and "short" are confusing here. The Greek letters epsilon and omicron were short and contrasted with the long eta and omega. In English, the "long" ā sound in "bait" is actually short when compared to the word "bayed." Similarly, the "short" ĕ sound of "bed" is long when compared to the word "bet." (It's the following consonant that determines the length in English.) In Ancient Greek, short epsilon had the sound of ā in "bait," while long eta had the sound of ĕ in "bed." The story is similar for omicron and omega (but because of variation in the way English is pronounced, it is not easy to find example words). The most important thing to remember, though, is that epsilon and omicron are short, whereas eta and omega are long.
• ι is normally a separate vowel. However, in certain circumstances, it is possible to pronounce it as a semivowel [j] (like English y). Generally, the effect is the same.

Notice the short line under the long vowels α, η, ω in three instances: this is the iota subscript. It indicates that there was originally an iota after the vowel, i.e. ῳ = ωι. Some texts simply print an iota after the vowel: this is known as an iota adscript, and some texts mix the two, using a subscript with lowercase letters, and an adscript for capitals (Ωιομην for ῳομην). By Classical times, these had become monophthongs (one vowel sound) equivalent to their non-iotized counterparts, and can simply be pronounced as such. Note that when alpha takes the iota subscript, one can infer that the alpha was originally long, whereas the diphthong αι is formed from short alpha.

The letters θ, φ, χ are not fricatives: they are not the same as the sounds th, f, ch in thin, foot, and loch (although these are the sounds they have become in Modern Greek). These letters have hard sounds, but are pronounced with an exhalation, like an h sound. Listen hard to your voice when you pronounce the examples above: you'll find that there is a difference between the p in pot and in spot. Don't worry if you have too much difficulty making this distinction; many teachers and students prefer to use the fricative versions (th, f, kh) so that they are easier to distinguish for speakers and listeners.

You will notice that many Greek letters have marks over them, and you will likely recognise the more common accents from other languages.

Most important are the breathing marks. Breathings normally occur only at the beginning of a word, though they will, at times, be present in the middle - where two words have been joined together. Greek has two types of breathing, the smooth breathing, ᾿, and the rough breathing, ῾. Unlike accents, these are quite important, and you should try to learn them. A word that begins with a rough breathing on a vowel should be pronounced with an 'h'. So the Greek word ὅρος, meaning 'boundary', should be read 'horos', while ὄρος, a mountain, should be read 'oros'. Be careful never to confuse breathings with quotation marks or accents; when you write or quote Greek, the breathings should look like half-rings to clearly distinguish them from other marks. When rho occurs at the beginning of a word, it too takes a rough breathing mark and is transliterated rh, whereas when two rhos occur consecutively, the first takes a smooth breathing and the second a rough, although these breathing marks are not always indicated. Whenever upsilon occurs at the beginning of a word, it takes a rough breathing, except in the name of the letter itself. As with accent marks, breathing marks are written on the second of the two characters of a diphthong. Accents and breathings are usually written to the left of capital letters: Ἇ for ἇ.

The diaeresis, ¨, is not strictly an accent, nor is it an umlaut, as used in German. It is mainly found on iotas to indicate that the letter should be pronounced separately from the vowel before it. For example, Verdi's opera Aïda is not pronounced 'eye-da', but 'a-yee-da'. Likewise, whereas αι is a diphthong, αϊ is two separate vowels.

In Greek, the accent does not mark stress (as in Spanish) or a change in vowel quality (as in French), but the pitch. Do not worry about remembering accents to begin with - it is quite possible to have a degree in Classics with only the vaguest knowledge of accents.

Greek has three accents: the acute or oxytone accent, written ´, and indicating a rise in pitch, the grave accent, `, indicating either a fall in pitch or a normal pitch (no one knows for sure), and a circumflex, or a perispomenon, ῀, which indicates a rise, followed by a fall. In some texts this appears as a rounded carat, like the sign ^, in others, like a tilde, ~. Accents only appear on vowels. If a diphthong is accented, the accent appears on the second character.

Ancient Greek was a language that distinguished between long and short syllables. Recall that the letters omicron and epsilon always denote short vowels for the purposes of accentuation (length can be determined differently for the sake of meter). Alpha, iota, and upsilon (α, ι, υ) can denote either short or long. but the letters eta and omega are always long, and all the diphthongs (αι, οι, ει, υι, αυ, ευ, ου) and vowels with an iota subscript (ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ) are long, except that αι and οι are usually short at the end of a word (exceptions will be noted). αι and οι are long when (1) they are not at the end of a word, (2) they end a verb in the optative mood, (3) they end noun in the locative, e.g οἴκοι (4) they end certain adverbs, e.g. αἰαῖ.

The basic unit of meter is a mora. The difference between long and short vowel is the number of morae (singular: mora) it contains. A short vowel counts as one mora, and a long vowel counts as two.

1. Almost every Ancient Greek word has an accent, and the accent will always fall on one of the last three syllables.^[1] Examples: ποταμός (river; accent on the ultima), ἵππος (horse; accent on the penult) ἰπποπόταμος (hippopotamus; accent on the antepenult).^[2]
2. The rules for accents vary based on the type of word being accented, e.g. nouns and verbs^[3] are accented differently.

1. Most verbs have recessive accents (they go as close to the beginning of the word as possible), except infinitives and participles (which have persistent accents) and forms of a few verbs like εἰμί which have enclitic forms.
2. Recessive accents always appear over the antepenult or penult. They appear over the antepenult if the last syllable is short, and over the penult if the last syllable is long.
3. In the optative, αι and οι are long at the end of a word
4. Contract Verbs (and other contract words) have accents that reflect the uncontracted form of the words
   • If the accented syllable is not the one that contracts, there is no effect on the accent.
   • If the accented vowel is the first of the two vowels that contract, the resulting vowel will have a circumflex
   • If the accented vowel is the second vowel in the contracted pair, it will have an acute accent.
5. Consider the example of παιδευσαι: παίδευσαι 2nd person singular aorist middle imperative, (αι is short) παιδεύσαι 2nd person singular aorist active optative (αι is long), παιδεῦσαι aorist active infinitive (accent is persistent).

1. Nouns by default have persistent accent: that is to say, the accent (whichever it is) remains, as the same accent, on the same syllable (given by the principal parts of the noun) regardless of the declensional endings it might take on, unless prohibited by a rule of accentuation.

1. When a short vowel takes the acute accent, its pitch is rising. When a long vowel takes the acute, its second mora has a rising pitch. The mora immediately following has a falling pitch, even if it is on the next word.
2. A circumflex can occur only over a long vowel. It indicates that the first mora has a rising pitch and the second a falling pitch. It is only allowed to occur on the last two syllables.
3. The pronunciation of the grave accent is not precisely known. An acute accent on the last syllable (the ultima) changes into a grave unless the word stands last in its clause. The grave does not occur under any other circumstances. Example: ὁρ-ῶ αὐ-τό, but αὐ-τὸ ὁ-ρῶ.
4. If the last syllable is long, the accent will not fall on the third last syllable (the antepenult). (This rule has exceptions, but don't worry about them right now.)
5. If the second last syllable (the penult) is long and it takes the accent:

The accent will be an acute if and only if the ultima is long. Examples: βαί-νω, σῴ-ζω

The accent will be a circumflex if and only if the ultima is short. Examples: βαῖ-νε, σῷ-ζε

Ancient Greek is generally punctuated in texts for the reader's convenience. Full stops and commas are used in roughly the same way as English. However, there is no exclamation mark, and the Greek question mark is used—it looks like a semicolon ( ; ). Instead of colons and semicolons, Greek texts have a raised dot ( · ).

1. ↑ Words that do not have accents are called enclitics. These tend to be small particles. They are also explained below.
2. ↑ Betts, Gavin and Alan Henry. Teach Yourself Ancient Greek. Ontario, Canada: McGraw-Hill, 2009. p.5
3. ↑ The notes on recessive accents are taken from Platonic Psychology summarized from Eleanor Dickey's unpublished Greek Prose Composition

• Anki Deck: Ancient Greek Alphabet