Language/Modern-greek-1453/Pronunciation/Alphabet

The Greek Alphabet

The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters and used since 900 BC to write the Greek Language. It is the first writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel and consonant and the oldest alphabetic system that is still in use. Greek Letters today are used for writing modern greek and symbols in mathematics and science.

The Greek alphabet gave rise to the Gothic, Glagolitic, Cyrillic, Coptic, and Latin alphabets. The Greek originally had only a single form of each letter.

It developed the letter case distinction between uppercase and lowercase in parallel with Latin during the modern era, apart from its use in writing the Greek language, in both its ancient and its modern forms. This alphabet is based on inscriptions from Crete dated to about 800 BC. Greek was written mainly from right to left in horizontal lines at this time.

It is uncertain what names were given to the letters, and some letters had more than one form.

 

The uppercase and lowercase forms of the 24 letters are:

Denomination Ονομασία	Prononciation Προφορά.	Equivalent to the International Phonetic Alphabet
Α  α	alpha : voyelle	a, as in cat
Β  β	vita	v, as in vase
Γ  γ	gamma	between y as in yes and g as in go, but with no hard 'g' sound, e.g. weather
Δ  δ	delta	th, as in the
Ε  ε	épsilon : voyelle	e, as in very
Ζ  ζ	zêta	z, as in zoo
Η  η	îta =voyelle	ee, as in bee
Θ  θ	thîta	th, as in think
Ι  ι	iota : voyelle	ee, as in beer or i, as in sit
Κ  κ	kappa	k, as in look
Λ  λ	lamda	l, as in love
Μ  μ	mi	m, as in money
Ν  ν	ni	n, as in night
Ξ ξ	ksi	x, as in box
Ο  ο	ômicron : voyelle	o, as in box
Π  π	pi	p, as in path
Ρ  ρ	ro	r, as in road
Σ  σ / ς : Τελικό	sigma	s, as in sit
Τ  τ	taf	t, as in table
Υ  υ	Ypsilon : voyelle	ee, as in bee
Φ  φ	fi	ph, as in photo
Χ  χ	chi	h, as in house
Ψ  ψ	psi	ps, as in upstairs
Ω  ω	oméga : voyelle

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➡ Marianthi

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Related Lessons

• The Greek sentence types
• Punctuation
• Paronyms and Homonyms
• Word Accentuation
• Discours direct indirect
• Verbes auxiliaires
• The combinations «αυ» and «ευ»
• Irregular adjectives
• Accentuation
• Past Tense