Letters and sounds

Note that there are long and short vowels, but the difference seems sometimes to have been more in length of time the sound is held rather than a different shape of the mouth.

Note also that “h” is indicated in several ways. Every initial vowel has an initial “h” or not. Vowels with this “h” sound (“aspirated”, ) have a “rough breathing” indicated over it: for instance, ὁ “ho” but ὀ “o”. “Aspiration” refers to this “h” sound, a puff of air.

Another sort of aspiration involves consonants, specifically “t” and “p”.

In English, a t or p at the beginning of the word is always aspirated, whereas elsewhere in the word it never is.

Example: say “pit” and “spit” with your finger in front of your lips. You will feel a little breath of air with initial “p” but not with “sp”.

In Greek aspiration of t and p is a little more complicated (and see references like Sihler, below, for even more complications.) In Greek, a consonant could be aspirated or not anywhere in the word, and by classical times different letters had been developed to show this difference. Aspirated consonants were the rho and the compound consonants: th (theta), ph (phi), ch (chi), the aspirated forms of t, p, and k. For each of these, think of them as the consonant you know followed by a puff of air, as an English-speaker would pronounce them when they are the first vowel in the word.

What is the evidence for that? It might seem that aspirated “p”, that is, “φ” (phi) is like an “f” sound: Latin philosophia should be like English, right? But there is a bit of negative evidence for this: when a Roman writer translated philosophy from Greek (ph = phi), he spelled it with a “ph” (and so do we). But there was a perfectly good “f” sound in Latin, however, in words such as “filius”, son, so if Roman writers didn’t use that letter for “philosophia”, that is evidence that the Greeks, and they, did not pronounce philosophy with an “f”. (The fact that modern Greek and the Romance languages, and English, now do pronounce it like an “f” is another story.)

The Alphabet. The correspondences below are of course approximate. Note that the symbol “·” (like the top half of a colon) is a semi-colon or colon; a “;” (like English semi-colon) is a question mark.

Α α· alpha, “a” as in father. πατήρ pater, father.

Β β· beta, “b” as in boot. βοῦς bous (“boose”), ox

Γ γ· gamma, “g” as in good, but unaspirated (see above). Ὰγαμέμνων Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and leader of the expedition to Troy.

γγ· gg: “ngg” as in “ng” plus “g”, nasal. ἄγγελος angelos (hard “g”), messenger

Δ δ· delta, “d” as in delta. Ὀδυσσεύς Odysseus (or Ulysses),

Ε ε· epsilon, short “e” as in egg. ἐγώ ego, I.

Ζ ζ· zeta, “zd”. Ζεύς, Zeus, pronounced “Zdeus”

Η η· eta, long e, as in “ate”. ἥλιος helios, sun. (rough breathing, ἡ = h, “hate”)

Θ θ· theta, “t” aspirated (see above). βοηθεῖ, boetei, remember the “t” is like “top” .

Ι ι· iota. short as in it· ἐστί, esti, he/she/it is.

Or long, ee as in intrigue. δῖος dios, divine or god-like

Κ κ· kappa, k. καλός kalos, good

Λ λ· lambda, “l”. ἥλιος helios, sun.

Μ μ· mu, “m”. μακρός makros, long.

Ν ν· nu, “n”. πόνος, ponos, toil/work

Ξ ξ· xi, pronounced “ksi” as in “hex”, or “ks”. ξύλον xylon (ksylon), wood. “ksi” does not exist in English at the beginning of a word; it tends to turn into “z”, like xylophone.

Ο ο· omicron, short “o”. χρόνος khronos, time.

Π π· pi, “p”. πολύς polys, much/many (poly-)

Ρ ρ· rho. “r”, probably a “flap” like Spanish or Italian. γέρων geron, old/old man

Σ σ ς· sigma, “s”. κοῦρος kouros, boy/young man; also used to designate a sculptural type, a young man.

Τ τ· tau, “t”, unaspirated (like stop not top), even at the beginning of the word. Νέστωρ, Nestor, king of Pylos and elder statesman among the Greek kings and chiefs at Troy.

Υ υ· upsilon, “u” somewhat like French “u”. νύξ nux, night. Often transliterated as “y”.

Φ φ· phi, “p” aspirated as in English “pot”, related to π (as in “spot”) the same way θ is related to τ. τρίγλυφος trigluphos, triglyph, the 3-grooved slab along the frieze of Doric temples.

Χ χ· chi, “kh”, aspirated “k”, like theta and tau, phi and pi. χρόνος khronos, time.

Ψ ψ· psi, “psee”. This consonant cluster does not exist at the beginning of an English word (like ξ ksi above). ψευδής pseudes, which turns into “s” in English: pseudo.

Ω ω· omega, long o. ἄνθρωπος anthropos, man/human: human as distinguished from animal, not (usually) man as distinguished from woman.

Diphthongs

αι· pronounced “eye”. χαίρει chirei, rejoice.

αυ· like “ow” as in “ouch”. αὐτό auto (aw-to), self.

ει· as in “hey!” εἴδωλον, eydolon, shadow or likeness, image.

ευ· as in e-u. καθεύδει katheudei, he/she/it sleeps.

ηυ· ηὕρηκα heureka. eureka!

οι· οἶκος oikos. home, dwelling place.

ου· like “ooh”. οὐ ooh, not. Οὔτις, Nobody, what Odysseus told the Cyclops his name was.

υι· like French “oui”. υἱός houios, son.

The Greek alphabet was borrowed from the semitic alphabet, used by Phoenicians (note that the letter names are ancestors of Hebrew). To the right is the Linear B syllabary, a writing system representing what turns out to be an early form of Greek but written with an entirely unrelated system of characters representing a whole syllable.

letter	Greek letter	Phoenician	Linear B (syllabary) Transliterated values—see below for actual signs.
alpha	Α, α	Aleph	a
beta	Β, β	Beth
gamma	Γ, γ	Gimel
delta	Δ, δ	Daleth	da
			de
			di
			do
			du
epsilon	Ε, ε	He	e
zeta	Ζ, ζ	Zayin
eta	Η, η	Heth
theta	Θ, θ	Teth
iota	Ι, ι	Yodh	i
			ja
			je
			jo
			ju
kappa	Κ, κ	Kaph	ka
			ke
			ki
			ko
			ku
lambda	Λ, λ	Lamedh
mu	Μ, μ	Mem	ma
			me
			mi
			mo
			mu
nu	Ν, ν	Nun
xi	Ξ, ξ	Samekh
omicron	Ο, ο	'Ayin	o
pi	Π, π	Pe	pa
			pe
			pi
			po
			pu
			qa
			qe
			qi
			qo
rho	Ρ, ρ	Resh	ra
			re
			ri
			ro
			ru
sigma	Σ, σ, ς	Shin	sa
			se
			si
			so
			su
tau	Τ, τ	Taw	ta
			te
			ti
			to
			tu
upsilon	Υ, υ	Waw

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