Language/Modern-greek-1453/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Modern Greek Alphabet, IPA Pronuncation, Video, Virtual Keyboard...

Hello Polyglots,

In today's lesson, you will learn how to write the different letters of the Modern Greek alphabet, how to pronounce these letters whether it is through the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), or through a video with the pronunciation of the letters by a native speaker.

You will also find at the end of this lesson a virtual keyboard to be able to type each special character of this language.

Modern Greek Alphabet and IPA Pronunciation

Letter	Α α	Β β	Γ γ	Δ δ	Ε ε	Ζ ζ	Η η	Θ θ	Ι ι	Κ κ	Λ λ	Μ μ	Ν ν	Ξ ξ	Ο ο	Π π	Ρ ρ	Σ σ/ς	Τ τ	Υ υ	Φ φ	Χ χ	Ψ ψ	Ω ω
Name	alpha, άλφα	beta, βήτα	gamma, γάμμα	delta, δέλτα	epsilon, έψιλον	zeta, ζήτα	eta, ήτα	theta, θήτα	iota, ιώτα	kappa, κάππα	lambda, λάμδα	mu, μυ	nu, νυ	xi, ξι	omicron, όμικρον	pi, πι	rho, ρώ	sigma, σίγμα	tau, ταυ	upsilon, ύψιλον	phi, φι	chi, χι	psi, ψι	omega, ωμέγα
IPA	[a]	[v]	[ɣ]~[ʝ], [ŋ]~[ɲ]	[ð]	[e]	[z]	[i]	[θ]	[i], [ʝ], [ɲ]	[k]~[c]	[l]	[m]	[n]	[ks]	[o]	[p]	[r]	[s]~[z]	[t]	[i]	[f]	[x]~[ç]	[ps]	[o]

Digraphs and letter combinations

Several letter combinations have special conventional sound values different from those of their single components. Among them are several digraphs of vowel letters that formerly represented diphthongs but are now monophthongized. In addition to the four mentioned above (Template:Angbr), there is also Template:Angbr, and Template:Angbr, pronounced Template:IPA. The Ancient Greek diphthongs Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr are pronounced Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA in Modern Greek. In some environments, they are devoiced to Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA respectively.<ref>Additionally, the more ancient combination Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr can occur in ancient especially in Ionic texts or in personal names.</ref> The Modern Greek consonant combinations Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr stand for Template:IPA and Template:IPA (or Template:IPA and Template:IPA) respectively; Template:Angbr stands for Template:IPA and Template:Angbr stands for Template:IPA. In addition, both in Ancient and Modern Greek, the letter Template:Angbr, before another velar consonant, stands for the velar nasal Template:IPA; thus Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr are pronounced like English Template:Angbr. In analogy to Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr is also used to stand for Template:IPA. There are also the combinations Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr.

Combination	Pronunciation	Devoiced pronunciation
Template:Angbr	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Template:Angbr	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Template:Angbr	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Template:Angbr	Template:IPA	–
Template:Angbr	Template:IPA	–
Template:Angbr	Template:IPA	–
Template:Angbr	Template:IPA	–
Template:Angbr	Template:IPA	–

Diacritics

In the polytonic orthography traditionally used for ancient Greek, the stressed vowel of each word carries one of three accent marks: either the acute accent (Template:Big), the grave accent (Template:Big), or the circumflex accent (Template:Big or Template:Big). These signs were originally designed to mark different forms of the phonological pitch accent in Ancient Greek. By the time their use became conventional and obligatory in Greek writing, in late antiquity, pitch accent was evolving into a single stress accent, and thus the three signs have not corresponded to a phonological distinction in actual speech ever since. In addition to the accent marks, every word-initial vowel must carry either of two so-called "breathing marks": the rough breathing (Template:Big), marking an Template:IPA sound at the beginning of a word, or the smooth breathing (Template:Big), marking its absence. The letter rho (ρ), although not a vowel, also carries a rough breathing in word-initial position. If a rho was geminated within a word, the first Template:Lang always had the smooth breathing and the second the rough breathing (ῤῥ) leading to the transliteration rrh.

The vowel letters Template:Angbr carry an additional diacritic in certain words, the so-called iota subscript, which has the shape of a small vertical stroke or a miniature Template:Angbr below the letter. This iota represents the former offglide of what were originally long diphthongs, Template:Angbr (i.e. Template:IPA), which became monophthongized during antiquity.

Another diacritic used in Greek is the diaeresis (Template:Big), indicating a hiatus.

This system of diacritics was first developed by the scholar Aristophanes of Byzantium (Template:Circa 257 – Template:Circa 185/180 BC), who worked at the Musaeum in Alexandria during the third century BC.Template:Sfn Aristophanes of Byzantium also was the first to divide poems into lines, rather than writing them like prose, and also introduced a series of signs for textual criticism.Template:Sfn In 1982, a new, simplified orthography, known as "monotonic", was adopted for official use in Modern Greek by the Greek state. It uses only a single accent mark, the acute (also known in this context as tonos, i.e. simply "accent"), marking the stressed syllable of polysyllabic words, and occasionally the diaeresis to distinguish diphthongal from digraph readings in pairs of vowel letters, making this monotonic system very similar to the accent mark system used in Spanish. The polytonic system is still conventionally used for writing Ancient Greek, while in some book printing and generally in the usage of conservative writers it can still also be found in use for Modern Greek.

Although it is not a diacritic, the comma has a similar function as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing Template:Wikt-lang (ó,ti, "whatever") from Template:Wikt-lang (óti, "that").<ref name=nicky>Nicolas, Nick. "Greek Unicode Issues: Punctuation Template:Webarchive". 2005. Accessed 7 Oct 2014.</ref>

Romanization

Template:Main There are many different methods of rendering Greek text or Greek names in the Latin script.Template:Sfn The form in which classical Greek names are conventionally rendered in English goes back to the way Greek loanwords were incorporated into Latin in antiquity.Template:Sfn In this system, Template:Angbr is replaced with Template:Angbr, the diphthongs Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr are rendered as Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr (or Template:Angbr) respectively; and Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr are simplified to Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr respectively.Template:Sfn Smooth breathing marks are usually ignored and rough breathing marks are usually rendered as the letter Template:Angbr.Template:Sfn In modern scholarly transliteration of Ancient Greek, Template:Angbr will usually be rendered as Template:Angbr, and the vowel combinations Template:Angbr as Template:Angbr respectively.Template:Sfn The letters Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr are generally rendered as Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr; Template:Angbr as either Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr; and word-initial Template:Angbr as Template:Angbr.Template:Sfn

Multiple different transcription conventions exist for Modern Greek.Template:Sfn These differ widely, depending on their purpose, on how close they stay to the conventional letter correspondences of Ancient Greek-based transcription systems, and to what degree they attempt either an exact letter-by-letter transliteration or rather a phonetically-based transcription.Template:Sfn Standardized formal transcription systems have been defined by the International Organization for Standardization (as ISO 843),Template:Sfn<ref name="ISO843">Template:Cite book</ref> by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> by the Library of Congress,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and others.

Letter	Traditional Latin transliterationTemplate:Sfn
Template:Lang	A a
Template:Lang	B b
Template:Lang	G g
Template:Lang	D d
Template:Lang	E e
Template:Lang	Z z
Template:Lang	Ē ē
Template:Lang	Th th
Template:Lang	I i
Template:Lang	C c, K k
Template:Lang	L l
Template:Lang	M m
Template:Lang	N n
Template:Lang	X x
Template:Lang	O o
Template:Lang	P p
Template:Lang	R r, Rh rh
Template:Lang/ς	S s
Template:Lang	T t
Template:Lang	Y y, U u
Template:Lang	Ph ph
Template:Lang	Ch ch, Kh kh
Template:Lang	Ps ps
Template:Lang	Ō ō

Greek (Modern) Online Virtual Keyboard