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Greek alphabet

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

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 language is written in the Greek alphabet, developed in classical times (ca 9th century BC) and passed down to the present. In ancient Greece its letters were also used to represent numbers, called Greek numerals, analogous to Roman numerals. Besides writing modern Greek, today its letters are used as mathematical symbols, as names of stars and fraternities and sororities, and for other purposes.

The Greek alphabet was a modification of the Phoenician alphabet (represented in the table below by the Hebrew alphabet, a modern adaptation). It in turn has given rise to other scripts such as the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. See alphabet: history and diffusion.

Contents
1 Main table
2 Letter combinations and diphthongs
3 Ligatures
4 Greek in Unicode

4.1 Greek and Coptic
4.2 Greek Extended (precomposed polytonic Greek)
4.3 Combining diacritics

5 History
6 Additional information
7 See also
8 Special characters
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Main table

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

Letter Name Pronunciation Numeric value Corresponding Hebrew letter HTML entity Latin transliteration (but see diphthongs, etc.)
Greek Traditional transcription Pronunciation
classical modern old classical modern
Α α ἄλφα Alpha [ˈalfa] [ˈalfa]   [a] [a:] [a] 1 א 'Aleph α a
Β β βῆτα Beta [ˈbɛːta] [ˈvita]   [b] [v] 2 ב Bet β b
Γ γ γάμμα Gamma [ˈgamma] [ˈɣama]   [g] [j] before [e] or [i]; [ɣ] otherwise 3 ג Gimel γ g
Δ δ δέλτα Delta [ˈdelta] [ˈðelta]   [d] [ð] 4 ד Dalet δ d
Ε ε ἒ ψιλόν Epsilon [ˈe psiˈlon] [ˈepsilon]   [e] [e] 5 ה He ε e
Ϝ ϝ (1) Ϝαυ ? Digamma [ˈwau] ? [ˈðiɣama] [w] - - 6 ו Vav Ϝ w
Ζ ζ ζῆτα Zeta [ˈzdɛːta] [ˈzita]   [zd], later [zː] [z] 7 ז Zayin ζ z, s (between vowels)
Η η ἦτα Eta [ˈɛːta] [ˈita] [ɛː] [h] [ɛː] [i] 8 ח Het η ē, e, ê
Θ θ θῆτα Theta [ˈtʰθɛːta] [ˈθita]   [tʰ] [θ] 9 ט Tet θ th
Ι ι ἰῶτα Iota [ˈiɔːta] [ˈjota]   [i] [iː] [i] [j] 10 י Yod ι i
Κ κ κάππα Kappa [ˈkappa] [ˈkapa]   [k] [k] 20 ך כ Kaf κ k, c
Λ λ λάμβδα Lambda [ˈlambda] [ˈlamða]   [l] [l] 30 ל Lamed λ l
Μ μ μῦ Mu [myː] [mi]   [m] [m] 40 ם מ Mem μ m
Ν ν νῦ Nu [nyː] [ni]   [n] [n] 50 ן נ Nun ν n
Ξ ξ ξῖ Xi [ksiː] [ksi]   [ks] [ks] 60 ס Samekh ξ x, (ks)
Ο ο ὄ μικρόν Omicron [ˈo miˈkron] [ˈomikron]   [o] [o] 70 ע `Ayin ο o
Π π πῖ Pi [piː] [pi]   [p] [p] 80 ף פ Pe π p
M (1) (Ϻ ϻ)   San     [z] - - - ץ צ Tzadik Ϻ ϻ s
Q (1) (Ϙ ϙ)   Qoppa     [k] - - 90 ק Kuf Ϙ ϙ q
Ρ ρ ῥῶ Rho [r̥ɔː] [ro]   [r], [r̥] [r] 100 ר Resh ρ r, rh (beginning a word), rrh (doubled)
Σ σ σῖγμα Sigma [ˈsiːgma] [ˈsiɣma]   [s] [s] 200 ש Shin σ s, ss (between vowels)
  ς Sigma (final) 6 (modern) ς s
Τ τ ταῦ Tau [tau] [taf]   [t] [t] 300 ת Tav τ t
Υ υ ὒ ψιλόν Upsilon [ˈyː psiˈlon] [ˈipsilon] [u] [y] [yː] [i] 400 from ו Vav υ u, y (between consonants)
Φ φ φῖ Phi [pʰiː] [fi]   [pʰ] [f] 500 origin disputed (see text) φ ph
Χ χ χῖ Chi [kʰiː] [xi] [kʰ] [ks] [kʰ] [ç] 600 χ ch, kh
Ψ ψ ψῖ Psi [psiː] [psi]   [ps] [ps] 700 ψ ps
Ω ω ὦ μέγα Omega [ɔːˈmega] [oˈmeɣa]   [ɔː] [o] 800 ω o, ô
Ϡ ϡ (1)   Sampi     [ss] [ks] - - 900 Ϡ ϡ

(1): Letter removed from the alphabet in early times, before the period that is now called "classical". Only capitals were written; the lowercase forms are modern.

[edit]

Letter combinations and diphthongs

v
Letters Pronunciation Latin transliteration
old classical modern
αι   [aɪ] [ɛ] ae
ει [eɪ] [e:] [e:] [i] i
οι   [oɪ] [i] oe, i (final)
υι   [yɪ] [i] ui
ωι   [ɔɪ] [ɔ] o
αυ   [aʊ] [av] before voiced sound
[af] before voiceless sound		 au, av
ευ   [eʊ] [ev] before voiced sound
[ef] before voiceless sound		 eu, ev
ηυ   [ɛ:ʊ] [iv] before voiced sound
[if] before voiceless sound		 eu
ου [oʊ] [o:] [u:] [u] u, ou
γγ (2)   [ŋg] [ŋɡ]ng
γκ (2)   [ŋk] [ɡ] at the beginning of a word
[ŋk] otherwise		 nc, nk
γξ (2)   [ŋks] [ŋks] nx, nks
γχ (2)   [ŋx] [ŋç] nch, nkh
μπ - - [b] at the beginning of a word
[mb] otherwise		 mp
ντ - - [d] at the beginning of a word
[nd] otherwise		 nt

(2): Some scholars see agma as a phoneme in its own right.

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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)

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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).

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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
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Greek Extended (precomposed polytonic Greek)

  0123456789ABCDEF
1F00 ἀἁἂἃἄἅἆἇἈἉἊἋἌἍἎἏ
1F10 ἐἑἒἓἔἕ἖἗ἘἙἚἛἜἝ἞἟
1F20 ἠἡἢἣἤἥἦἧἨἩἪἫἬἭἮἯ
1F30 ἰἱἲἳἴἵἶἷἸἹἺἻἼἽἾἿ
1F40 ὀὁὂὃὄὅ὆὇ὈὉὊὋὌὍ὎