Little Biblical Greek School

LITTLE GREEK SCHOOL






SOME WORDS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT HAVE BEEN TAKEN FROM HEBREW
AND BEEN BLENDED IN WITH GREEK. WOULDN'T IT BE WONDERFUL TO BE
ABLE TO READ THE GOOD NEWS ALSO IN ANCIENT GREEK? AS A LITTLE GIRL
IT WAS ALWAYS MY DREAM TO LEARN HEBREW AND GREEK. I KNEW, ONE DAY
I WOULD LEARN THESE LANGUAGES, AS I SEEMED TO REMEMBER THEM
SOMEHOW. THERE WAS AN OLD YEARNING IN MY SOUL THAT I COULD NOT
EXPLAIN, WHEN I HEARD JUST THE WORDS.



Letter names

Each of the Phoenician letter names was a word that began with the sound represented by that letter; thus 'aleph, the word for �ox�, was adopted for the glottal stop /ʔ/, bet, or �house�, for the /b/ sound, and so on. When the letters were adopted by the Greeks, most of the Phoenician names were maintained or modified slightly to fit Greek phonology; thus, 'aleph, bet, gimel became alpha, beta, gamma. These borrowed names had no meaning in Greek except as labels for the letters. However, a few signs that were added or modified later by the Greeks do in fact have names with a meaning. For example, o mikron and o mega mean �small o� and �big o�. Similarly, e psilon and u psilon mean �plain e� and �plain u�, respectively.

Main letters

Below is a table listing the modern Greek letters, as well as their forms when romanized. The table also provides the equivalent Phoenician letter from which each Greek letter is derived. Pronunciations transcribed using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The classical pronunciation given below is the reconstructed pronunciation of Attic in the late 5th and early 4th century (BC). Some of the letters had different pronunciations in pre-classical times or in non-Attic dialects. For details, see History of the Greek alphabet and Ancient Greek phonology. For details on post-classical Ancient Greek pronunciation, see Koine Greek phonology.
Letter     Corresponding
Phoenician
letter     Name     Transliteration1     Pronunciation     Numeric
value
English     Ancient
Greek     Medieval
Greek
(polytonic)     Modern
Greek
(info)     Ancient
Greek     Modern
Greek     Classical
Ancient
Greek     Modern
Greek
Α α     Aleph Aleph     Alpha     ἄλφα     άλφα     a     [a] [aː]     [a]     1
Β β     Beth Beth     Beta     βῆτα     βήτα     b     v     [b]     [v]     2
Γ γ     Gimel Gimel     Gamma     γάμμα     γάμμα
γάμα     g     gh, g, y     [g]     [ɣ], [ʝ]     3
Δ δ     Daleth Daleth     Delta     δέλτα     δέλτα     d     d, dh     [d]     [�]     4
Ε ε     He He     Epsilon     εἶ     ἒ ψιλόν     έψιλον     e     [e]     5
Ζ ζ     Zayin Zayin     Zeta     ζῆτα     ζήτα     z     [zd]
(or [dz])
later [zː]     [z]     7
Η η     Heth Heth     Eta     ἦτα     ήτα     e, ē     i     [ɛː]     [i]     8
Θ θ     Teth Teth     Theta     θῆτα     θήτα     th     [tʰ]     [θ]     9
Ι ι     Yodh Yodh     Iota     ἰῶτα     ιώτα
γιώτα     i     [i] [iː]     [i], [ʝ]     10
Κ κ     Kaph Kaph     Kappa     κάππα     κάππα
κάπα     k     [k]     [k], [c]     20
Λ λ     Lamedh Lamedh     Lambda     λάβδα     λάμβδα     λάμδα
λάμβδα     l     [l]     30
Μ μ     Mem Mem     Mu     μῦ     μι
μυ     m     [m]     40
Ν ν     Nun Nun     Nu     νῦ     νι
νυ     n     [n]     50
Ξ ξ     Samekh Samekh     Xi     ξεῖ     ξῖ     ξι     x     x, ks     [ks]     60
Ο ο     Ayin 'Ayin     Omicron     οὖ     ὂ μικρόν     όμικρον     o     [o]     70
Π π     Pe Pe     Pi     πεῖ     πῖ     πι     p     [p]     80
Ρ ρ     Res Resh     Rho     ῥῶ     ρω     r (ῥ: rh)     r     [r], [r̥]     [r]     100
Σ σ ς     Sin Sin     Sigma     σῖγμα     σίγμα     s     [s]     200
Τ τ     Taw Taw     Tau     ταῦ     ταυ     t     [t]     300
Υ υ     Waw Waw     Upsilon     ὖ     ὖ ψιλόν     ύψιλον     u, y     y, v, f     [y] [yː]
(earlier [ʉ] [ʉː])     [i]     400
Φ φ     origin disputed
(see text)     Phi     φεῖ     φῖ     φι     ph     f     [pʰ]     [f]     500
Χ χ     Chi     χεῖ     χῖ     χι     ch     ch, kh     [kʰ]     [x], [�]     600
Ψ ψ     Psi     ψεῖ     ψῖ     ψι     ps     [ps]     700
Ω ω     Ayin 'Ayin     Omega     ὦ     ὦ μέγα     ωμέγα     o, ō     o     [ɔː]     [o]     800

   1. For details and different transliteration systems see Romanization of Greek.

 Variant forms

Some letters can occur in variant shapes, mostly inherited from medieval minuscule handwriting. While their use in normal typography of Greek is purely a matter of font styles, some such variants have been given separate encodings in Unicode.

    * The symbol ϐ ("curled beta") is a cursive variant form of beta (β).
    * The letter epsilon can occur in two equally frequent stylistic variants, either shaped \epsilon\,\! ('lunate epsilon', like a semicircle with a stroke) or \varepsilon\,\! (similar to a reversed number 3). The symbol ϵ (U+03F5) is designated specifically for the lunate form, used as a technical symbol.
    * The symbol ϑ ("script theta") is a cursive form of theta (θ), frequent in handwriting, and used with a specialized meaning as a technical symbol.
    * The symbol ϰ ("kappa symbol") is a cursive form of kappa (κ), used as a technical symbol.
    * The symbol ϖ ("omega-shaped pi") is an archaic script form of pi (π), also used as a technical symbol.
    * The letter rho (ρ) can occur in different stylistic variants, with the descending tail either going straight down or curled to the right. The symbol ϱ (U+03F1) is designated specifically for the curled form, used as a technical symbol.
    * The letter sigma, in standard orthography, has two variants: ς, used only at the ends of words, and σ, used elsewhere. The form ϲ ("lunate sigma", resembling a Latin c) is a medieval stylistic variant that can be used in both environments without the final/non-final distinction.
    * The capital letter upsilon (Υ) can occur in different stylistic variants, with the upper strokes either straight like a Latin Y, or slightly curled. The symbol ϒ (U+03D2) is designated specifically for the curled form, used as a technical symbol.
    * The letter phi can occur in two equally frequent stylistic variants, either shaped as \textstyle\phi\,\! (a circle with a vertical stroke through it) or as \textstyle\varphi\,\! (a curled shape open at the top). The symbol ϕ (U+03D5) is designated specifically for the closed form, used as a technical symbol.

 Obsolete letters

The following letters are not part of the standard Greek alphabet, but were in use in pre-classical times in certain dialects. The letters digamma, san, qoppa, and sampi were also used in Greek numerals.
Letter     Corresponding
Phoenician
letter     Name     Transliteration     Pronunciation     Numeric value
English     Early
Greek
    Later
Greek
(polytonic)
Ϝ ϝ
Ͷ ͷ (alternate)     Waw Waw     Digamma     ϝαῦ     δίγαμμα     w     [w]     6
Ϻ ϻ     Sade Tsade (position)
Sin Sin (name)     San     ϻάν     σάν     s     [s]   
Ϟ ϟ
Ϙ ϙ (alternate)     Qoph Qoph     Qoppa     ϙόππα     κόππα     q     [q]     90
Ͳ ͳ
Ϡ ϡ (alternate)     Origin disputed,
possibly Sade Tsade     Sampi     δίσιγμα     σαμπῖ     ss     probably affricate,
but exact value debated;
[sː], [ks], [ts] are proposed     900

    * Digamma disappeared from the alphabet because the sound it notated, the voiced labial-velar approximant [w], had disappeared from the Ionic dialect and most of the others. It remained in use as a numeric sign denoting the number six. In this function, it was later conflated in medieval Greek handwriting with the ligature sign stigma (ϛ), which had a similar shape in its lower case form.
    * Sampi (also called disigma) notated a geminated affricate that later evolved to -σσ- (probably [sː]) in most dialects, and -ττ- (probably [tː]) in Attic. Its exact value is heavily discussed, but [ts] is often proposed. Its modern name is derived from its shape: (ω)σαν πι = like (the letter) pi.[3]

The order of the letters up to Τ follows that in the Phoenician or Hebrew alphabet.


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