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There are 7 vowel letters in the Greek alphabet
Letter Greek Name ( )
English Name
common Eng.
pronunciationalpha
ahlfuhepsilon
epsilauneta
eituhiota
aioetuhomicron
ahmihcrahnupsilon
uhpsilahnomega
oemeguh*Greek
pronunciationuhlfuh epseelaun
eeps-see-loneeetuh eeautuh
yoh-tahaumeecraun eepseelaun aumeguh *The pronunciations shown indicate how these words would be pronounced with only 5 vowels.
Grapheme - Phoneme Correspondences for ancient Greek Latin equivalent a e i o u Greek letters ,
,
,
,
,
English examples but
clutchbet
etchbeat, beet
eachbought
awe, awlboot
oozePMF key words
pictographic monofonup
^el
elboweel
\auk
hawkooze
hoopUpper Case Gk. A E I H U
This analysis of ancient Greek may be a little controversial but it is not new. Notice that even in the beginning there was ambiguity as to the sound associated with upsilon (ipsilon). There is a similar ambiguity with respect to omicron (umicron) and omega (awmeguh). Perhaps the most controversial aspect of this analysis is the absense of /ah/ for *alpha. In most romance languages there is a stressed A /ah/ and an unstressed A /uh/ (shwa) as in the Portuguese pronunciation of alpha and cama [ /ahl-fuh/ and /cah-muh/ ] The uh sound is absent from Spanish: cama = cahmah.
Like English, Greek continues to be spelled as it was pronounced in ancient times. This adds to the loss of alphabetic regularity and compounds the ambiguity of the relationship between symbol and sound.
In English, the letter A is commonly associated with the /uh/ sound as in Greek. However, children are taught that it corresponds to /ae/ and /ei/ (the sounds in ax and ape). Words such as about and sofa are initially ignored or taught as sight words.
A = ah: I = ee, O = awe A key to understanding the sounds associated with the vowel letters in the Romance languages (and in IPA, the phonetic alphabet used in many dictionaries) is recognizing that the the sound of A in these notational systems for these languages is the sound English speakers usually associate with O (as in *ox) and the sound of I is the one English speakers usually associated with the sound of E (as in *he) or EE (as in *see).
With this new connection between shape and sound, it is possible to make sense of such blends as /ai/ as in *aisle *hai lai, *aikido, and * aioli; and /ei/ as in *eight, *weigh, and *they.
If A is /ah/ then /ai/ is /ah - ee/ and *ice can be spelled AIS and pronounced /ah-ees/.
If I is /ee/, then /ei/ is /eh - ee/ and *ace can be spelled EIS and pronounced /eh-ees/.In English, ei is more likely to be pronounced /ai/ as in *eider, *eidetic, or /ee/ as in *either.
Although, there are a few instances of consistent Latinate spelling as in *vein and *veil.Quiz on Greek Vowels
How do you pronounce the letter eta [ H
How do you pronounce the letter iota [ I ] in Greek, Spanish, and English?
How do you pronounce the letter upsilon [ Y
[if a letter is associated with two sounds, list both of them]ANSWERS
eetuh, eitah, eituh
eeawtuh, eeawtah, ai-oh-tuh
eepsilawn, eepseelawn or oopseelawn, oopsilahn or upsilahn
Greek Consonants
Letter Greek Name English Name beta gamma delta zeta theta kappa lambda
Letter Greek Name English Name mu nu ksi pi rho sigma tau phi chi psi but as many as 20 primary sounds
Latin equivalent bh (v) gh dh z th k l m n p r Greek letters English examples very
valefuego (Sp.) the
thyzest
zagthin
thightask
kicklead
legman
mt.nut
nonestep
piperoad
pero (Sp.)
Latin equivalent s t ph (f) kh b d g ts dz Greek letters ,
English examples sea
kisstip
butflag
fifeloch (Sc.)
eksiboot
tubdig
badgoad
tugsits red zone
and 6 secondary sounds
Latin equivalent gh' (y) k' (q) l' n' kh' g' Greek letters English examples yield que (Fr.) cavallo (Sp.) lasagna (It.) hue guerre (Fr.) Ancient GreekThe transition from Semitic (Phoenician/Canaanite) to Greek letter forms
Commentary
Latin equivalents
The correspondence between Greek sounds and letters (or combination of letters) from the Latin alphabet is not the standard one that is used in Modern Greek through English books. This represention was chosen based on two criteria:
- unique decodability : a string of Latin letters should have only one way of pronouncing it (e.g., I couldn't use "th" for
since this digraph is also used for
).
- phonetic relations : e.g.,
and
.
Latin text enclosed between stars (*) will denote pronunciation of Greek words according to the previous conventions
See also the phonetics page.
The consonant sounds in Greek are arranged into 6 categories:
(pertaining to the lips)
Short Long Voiced b bh Unvoiced p ph
Short Long Voiced d dh Unvoiced t th
Short Long Voiced g gh Unvoiced k kh
Short Long Voiced g' gh' Unvoiced k' kh'
Short Long Voiced dz z Unvoiced ts s
Long Voiced m Unvoiced n
Short Long Unvoiced l r
Short Long Unvoiced l' n' This analysis of Greek sounds dating from around 400 bc influenced Bishop Wilkins (1670)
Not being a Greek scholar, I can be easily mistaken about some of this. Those of you who are better schooled than I am need to point out any errors I may have made in this analysis. --SB
The suggestion that *alpha may have been pronounced /ulfa/ could be related to the fact that the *a grapheme still retains this possible interpretation today in many languages. In Portuguese, for instance, *cama is pronounced /cuh' muh/ and *vista is pronounced /vees' tuh/. When the accent falls on the *a, however, it is usually pronounced /ah/ as in *pot.
The short /ah/ is virtually indistinguishable from /uh/. --Ian A.
I was taught that there were 7 sounds; however, modern Greek does not differentiate between some of the vowel sounds. I have the tapes narrated by Spiros Zodhiates who is a Greek scholar and also a Greek by birth. This is what he says: No one knows precisely how ancient Greek was pronounced, but there is good evidence that it sounded much like Modern Greek." He goes on to say that "both courses in classical or Koine Greek are taught today with an academia pronunciation derived from Erasmus."
In his guide to modern Greek pronunciation he gives "ee" for ee-tah, yoh-tah and eeps-ee-lone.
I have a Greek New Testament with the Koine on one side and Modern Greek on the other side. It has not changed very much. They do not have middle voice but most of the words and sentences are the same. He thinks that Koine and Modern sounded much alike - however, I have a hard time believing that, but he may be right.
Clyde Wilton Email Homepage Internet Phone
Vowel Shift: Front vowels moved up. i: became ai, Back vowels moved down u became au
These pairs do not seem to be indicative of these changes. doom to deam would be in the reverse direction.
Fall and fell don't seem to related to the vowel shift.
gu:s gi:s heil helth tu:th ti:th heil helth man men du:m di:m maos mais fo:l fel o:ld eldr blud bli:d
Send your comments to Steve Bett
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nU @lfabets for EGliS |
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american litRasi kWnsL  |
simplifYd speliG E-list
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LinksECRC Home Page
Ancient Greek
Greek Language Resource
Vowel Space
Last modified: June, 1997, answers to quiz added February, 2000
This page is an expanded version of two Greek language pages that can be found on the Internet (links listed above). Although based on the information provided on these Web pages, the editor accepts all responsibility for any errors and misinterpretation.
If you come across any other great language resource sites, please mail me the links.
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