Greek alphabet

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Note: This article contains special characters.
Greek alphabet
Α α Alpha Β β Beta
Γ γ Gamma Δ δ Delta
Ε ε Epsilon Ζ ζ Zeta
Η η Eta Θ θ Theta
Ι ι Iota Κ κ Kappa
Λ λ Lambda Μ μ Mu
Ν ν Nu Ξ ξ Xi
Ο ο Omicron Π π Pi
Ρ ρ Rho Σ σ Sigma
Τ τ Tau Υ υ Upsilon
Φ φ Phi Χ χ Chi
Ψ ψ Psi Ω ω Omega
obsolete letters
Ϝ ϝ Digamma Ϻ ϻ San
Ϙ ϙ Qoppa Ϡ ϡ Sampi

The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since about the 9th century B.C.E. It was the first true alphabet and is the oldest alphabet in use today. The letters are also used to represent numbers—Greek numerals—in the same sorts of contexts as Roman numerals. Besides writing modern Greek, today its letters are used as mathematical symbols, as names of stars, in the names of fraternities and sororities, in the naming of supernumerary tropical cyclones, and for other purposes. The Greek alphabet originated as a modification of the Phoenician alphabet and in turn gave rise to the Latin, Cyrillic, and other alphabets, as documented in History of the alphabet. The Greek alphabet is unrelated to Linear B, an earlier writing system for Greek.

Contents

Main table

The Greek letters and their derivations are as follows (pronunciations transcribed using the International Phonetic Alphabet):

Letter Name Pronunciation2 Corresponding
Phoenician
letter 		Transliteration3
Greek English ancient modern ancient modern
Α α ἄλφα Alpha [a] [aː] [a] Image:Phoenician aleph.png 'Aleph a a
Β β βῆτα Beta [b] [v] Image:Phoenician beth.png Beth b v
Γ γ γάμμα Gamma [g] [ʝ] before [e̞] or [i]; [ɣ] otherwise Image:Phoenician gimel.png Gimel g g
Δ δ δέλτα Delta [d] [ð] Image:Phoenician daleth.png Daleth d d
Ε ε ἒ ψιλόν Epsilon [e] [e̞] Image:Phoenician he.png He e e
Ϝ ϝ 1 Ϝαυ ? Digamma [w] - Image:Phoenician waw.png Waw w -
Ζ ζ ζῆτα Zeta [zd], later [zː] [z] Image:Phoenician zayin.png Zayin z z
Η η ἦτα Eta [ɛː] ([h]) [i] Image:Phoenician heth.png Heth e i
Θ θ θῆτα Theta [tʰ] [θ] Image:Phoenician teth.png Teth th th
Ι ι ἰῶτα Iota [i] [iː] [i], [j] Image:Phoenician yodh.png Yodh i i
Κ κ κάππα Kappa [k] [c] before [e̞] or [i]; [k] otherwise Image:Phoenician kaph.png Kaph k, c k
Λ λ λάμβδα Lambda [l] [l] Image:Phoenician lamedh.png Lamedh l l
Μ μ μῦ Mu [m] [m] Image:Phoenician mem.png Mem m m
Ν ν νῦ Nu [n] [n] Image:Phoenician nun.png Nun n n
Ξ ξ ξῖ Xi [ks] [ks] Image:Phoenician samekh.png Samekh x x
Ο ο ὄ μικρόν Omicron [o] [o̞] Image:Phoenician ayin.png 'Ayin o o
Π π πῖ Pi [p] [p] Image:Phoenician pe.png Pe p p
M 1 (Ϻ ϻ)   San ([z]) - Image:Phoenician sade.png Tsade s -
Q 1 (Ϟ ϙ)   Qoppa ([k]) - Image:Phoenician qof.png Qoph q -
Ρ ρ ῥῶ Rho [r], [r̥] [ɾ] Image:Phoenician res.png Resh r (ῥ: rh) r
Σ σ
ς (final) 		σῖγμα Sigma [s] [s] Image:Phoenician sin.png Shin s, ss (between vowels) s
Τ τ ταῦ Tau [t] [t] Image:Phoenician taw.png Taw t t
Υ υ ὒ ψιλόν Upsilon ([u]) [y] [yː] [i] from Image:Phoenician waw.png Waw u, y (between consonants) y, v, f
Φ φ φῖ Phi [pʰ] [f] origin disputed (see text) ph f
Χ χ χῖ Chi [kʰ] ([ks]) [ç] before [e̞] or [i]; [x] otherwise ch ch
Ψ ψ ψῖ Psi [ps] [ps] ps ps
Ω ω ὦ μέγα Omega [ɔː] [o̞] o, ô o
Ϡ ϡ 1   Sampi ([ss] [ks]) - ss, x -

(1): Letter removed from the alphabet in early times, before the period that is now called "classical". Only majuscules were written; the minuscule forms are a medieval development of the uncial script.
(2): Archaic pronunciations (before the classical period) are shown between parentheses.
(3): For details and different transliteration systems see Transliteration of Greek into English.

Letter combinations and diphthongs

Letters Pronunciation Latin transliteration
archaic classical modern
ᾳ [aːɪ] [aː] [a] a
αι   [aɪ] [e̞] ae
ει [eɪ] [eː] [i] i
ῃ [eːɪ] [eː] [i] e
οι   [oɪ] [i] oe, i (final)
υι   [yɪ] [i] ui
ῳ [ɔːɪ] [ɔː] [o̞] o
αυ   [aʊ] [av] before vowel or voiced consonant;
[af] before voiceless sound		 au, av
ευ   [eʊ] [e̞v] before vowel or voiced consonant;
[e̞f] before voiceless sound		 eu, ev
ηυ   [ɛːʊ] [iv] before vowel or voiced consonant;
[if] before voiceless sound		 eu
ου [oʊ]
[oː]		 [uː] [u] u, ou
γγ*   [ŋg] [ŋg] in formal speech (palatalised to [ŋɟ] before [e̞] or [i]), but often reduced to [g] (palatalised to [ɟ] before [e̞] or [i]);
also pronounced [ŋɣ] in some contexts (palatalised to [ŋʝ] before [e̞])		 ng
γκ*   [ŋk] [g] at the beginning of a word (palatalised to [ɟ] before [e̞] or [i]);
[ŋg] otherwise (palatalised to [ŋɟ] before [e̞] or [i]), but often reduced to [g] (palatalised to [ɟ] before [e̞] or [i])		 nc, nk
γξ*   [ŋks] [ŋks] nx, nks
γχ*   [ŋx] [ŋç] before [e̞] or [i];
[ŋx] otherwise		 nch, nkh
μπ - - [b] at the beginning of a word;
[mb] otherwise, but often reduced to [b]		 mp
ντ - - [d] at the beginning of a word;
[nd] otherwise, but often reduced to [d]		 nt

Ligatures

Before the days of printing, scribes made use of a number of ligatures to save space, in Greek as in other languages. The ligature for ου — resembling a V above an O — is still sometimes seen. For a modern use of this in the Latin alphabet, see Ou (letter)

Greek in Unicode

There are 2 main blocks of Greek characters in Unicode. The first is "Greek and Coptic" (U+0370 — 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 language. 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.

To write polytonic Greek (Old Greek or Katharevousa), one may use combining diacritical marks. However, Unicode also includes a full set of precomposed characters in the "Greek Extended" block (U+1F00 – U+1FFF).

Greek and Coptic

  0123456789ABCDEF
370 ͰͱͲͳʹ͵Ͷͷ͸͹ͺͻͼͽ;Ϳ
380 ΀΁΂΃΄΅Ά·ΈΉΊ΋Ό΍ΎΏ
390 ΐΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟ
3A0 ΠΡ΢ΣΤΥΦΧΨΩΪΫάέήί
3B0 ΰαβγδεζηθικλμνξο
3C0 πρςστυφχψωϊϋόύώϏ
3D0 ϐϑϒϓϔϕϖϗϘϙϚϛϜϝϞϟ
3E0 ϠϡϢϣϤϥϦϧϨϩϪϫϬϭϮϯ
3F0 ϰϱϲϳϴϵ϶ϷϸϹϺϻϼϽϾϿ

Greek Extended (precomposed polytonic Greek)

  0123456789ABCDEF
1F00 ἀἁἂἃἄἅἆἇἈἉἊἋἌἍἎἏ
1F10 ἐἑἒἓἔἕ἖἗ἘἙἚἛἜἝ἞἟
1F20 ἠἡἢἣἤἥἦἧἨἩἪἫἬἭἮἯ
1F30 ἰἱἲἳἴἵἶἷἸἹἺἻἼἽἾἿ
1F40 ὀὁὂὃὄὅ὆὇ὈὉὊὋὌὍ὎὏
1F50 ὐὑὒὓὔὕὖὗ὘Ὑ὚Ὓ὜Ὕ὞Ὗ
1F60 ὠὡὢὣὤὥὦὧὨὩὪὫὬὭὮὯ
1F70 ὰάὲέὴήὶίὸόὺύὼώ὾὿
1F80 ᾀᾁᾂᾃᾄᾅᾆᾇᾈᾉᾊᾋᾌᾍᾎᾏ
1F90 ᾐᾑᾒᾓᾔᾕᾖᾗᾘᾙᾚᾛᾜᾝᾞᾟ
1FA0 ᾠᾡᾢᾣᾤᾥᾦᾧᾨᾩᾪᾫᾬᾭᾮᾯ
1FB0 ᾰᾱᾲᾳᾴ᾵ᾶᾷᾸᾹᾺΆᾼ᾽ι᾿
1FC0 ῀῁ῂῃῄ῅ῆῇῈΈῊΉῌ῍῎῏
1FD0 ῐῑῒΐ῔῕ῖῗῘῙῚΊ῜῝῞῟
1FE0 ῠῡῢΰῤῥῦῧῨῩῪΎῬ῭΅`
1FF0 ῰῱ῲῳῴ῵ῶῷῸΌῺΏῼ´῾῿

Combining and letter-free diacritics

Combining and spacing (letter-free) diacritical marks pertaining to Greek language are:

combiningspacingsampledescription
U+0300U+0060(  ̀ )"varia / grave accent"
U+0301U+00B4, U+0384(  ́ )"oxia / tonos / acute accent"
U+0304U+00AF(  ̄ )"macron"
U+0306U+02D8(  ̆ )"vrachy / breve"
U+0308U+00A8(  ̈ )"dialytika / diaeresis"
U+0313 (  ̓ )"psili / comma above" (spiritus lenis)
U+0314 (  ̔ )"dasia / reversed comma above" (spiritus asper)
U+0342 (  ͂ )"perispomeni" (circumflex)
U+0343 (  ̓ )"koronis" (= U+0313)
U+0344U+0385(  ̈́ )"dialytika tonos" (deprecated, = U+0308 U+0301)
U+0345U+037A(  ͅ )"ypogegrammeni / iota subscript".

History

edit
History of the Alphabet

Wadi el-Hol 19th c. BC
Proto-Canaanite 14th c. BC

Meroitic 3rd c. BC

The most notable change, compared to its predecessor, the Phoenician alphabet, is the introduction of written vowels, without which Greek — unlike Phoenician — would be unintelligible. In fact most alphabets that contain vowels are derived ultimately from Greek, although there are exceptions (Hangul, Orkhon script, Ethiopic alphabet, Indic alphabets, and Old Hungarian script). The first vowels were alpha, epsilon, iota, omicron, and upsilon (copied from waw), modifications of either glides or breathing marks, which were mostly superfluous in Greek. In eastern Greek, which lacked breaths entirely, the letter eta was also used for a long e, and eventually the letter omega was introduced for a long o. Vowels were originally not used in Semitic alphabets, but even in the very old Ugaritic alphabet matres lectionis were used, i.e. consonant signs were used to denote vowels.

Greek also introduced three new consonants, appended to the end of the alphabet as they were developed. The consonants were to mainly to make up for the lack of aspirates in Phoenician. In west Greek, actually, chi was used for /ks/ and psi for /kʰ/ — hence the value of our letter x, derived from chi. Over the middle ages these aspirates disappeared, so now theta, phi, and chi stand for /θ/, /f/, and /x/. The origin of those letters is disputed.

The letter san was used at variance with sigma, and by classical times the latter won out, san disappearing from the alphabet. The letters waw (later called digamma) and qoppa disappeared, too, the former only needed for the western dialects and the latter never really needed at all. These lived on in the Ionic numeral system, however, which consisted of writing a series letters with precise numerical values. Sampi (apparently in a rare local glyph form from Ionia) was introduced at the end - to stand for 900. Thousands were written using a mark at the upper left ('A for 1000, etc).

Originally there were several variants of the Greek alphabet, most importantly western (Chalcidian) and eastern (Ionic) Greek; the former gave rise to the Old Italic alphabet and thence to the Latin alphabet. Athens took the Ionic script to be its standard in 403 BC, and shortly thereafter the other versions disappeared. By then Greek was always written left to right, but originally it had been written right to left (with asymmetrical characters flipped), and in-between written either way - or, most likely, boustrophedon, so that the lines alternate direction.

During the Middle ages, the Greek scripts underwent changes paralleling those of the Roman alphabet: while the old forms were retained as a monumental script, uncial and eventually minuscule hands came to dominate. The letter σ is even written ς at the ends of words, paralleling the use of the long and short s at the time. Aristophanes of Byzantium also introduced the process of accenting Greek letters for easier pronunciation.

Because Greek minuscules arose at a (much) later date, no historic minuscule actually exists for san. Minuscule forms for the other letters were only used numerically. For number 6, modern Greeks use an old digraph called stigma (Ϛ, ϛ) instead of digamma or use στ if it is not available. For 90 they use modern z-shaped qoppa forms: Ϟ, ϟ (Note that some web browser/font combinations will show the other qoppa here).

Additional information

For extended discussion of problematic Greek letter forms see: Greek Unicode Issues

For a clear presentation of the Greek letters with pronunciation suggestions for Modern and Classical Greek, see The Greek Alphabet at Greek-language.com

For a table of 14 different Greek character encodings that have been used in IT systems see RFC 1947 - Greek Character Encoding for Electronic Mail Messages

For learning the Greek alphabet online, see The Greek Script Online Trainer.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:

Special characters

Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. Such characters may be rendered as boxes, question marks, or other nonsense symbols, depending on your browser, operating system, and installed fonts. Even if you have ensured that your browser is interpreting the article as UTF-8 encoded and you have installed a font that supports a wide range of Unicode, such as Code2000, Arial Unicode MS, Lucida Sans Unicode or one of the free software Unicode fonts, you may still need to use a different browser, as browser capabilities in this regard tend to vary.

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