Greek Alphabet & Language Exercises Dr. J.A.Turner

Purpose: To transliterate (literally letter-for- letter) English to Greek and Greek to English to aid in study for this course; also useful for medicine, law, science, etc.

Transliteration Hints:

1. Rough breathing marks: There was no letter ‘h’; this sound was indicated at the beginning of a word by a ‘rough breathing mark’, similar to English apostrophe written backwards and above the vowel.

e.g., Hellas (Greece) = `Ellaj i.e. The epsilon is aspirated.

2. Smooth breathing marks: The opposite sign, a ‘smooth breathing’ mark was placed above the initial vowel, if a word began with a vowel, but there was no “h” sound—i.e., the word was unaspirated.

e.g., alpha = ¢lfa, not “halpha”

3. Accent marks. On a page of printed Greek, accents similar to those used in French will be seen. These were invented, as an aid to pronunciation for foreigners, by a scholar ca. 200 B.C., and not used before then. For our transliteration exercises, ignore (do not use) accent marks. It is unnecessary here, complicates issues, and may add to confusion.

A a alpha

B b beta

G g gamma

D d delta

E e epsilon (short “e”)

Z z zeta

H h eta (long “ē”)

Q q theta ( Eng. “th” combination)

I i iota

K k kappa

L l lambda

M m mu

N n nu

X x xi (Eng. ‘ks’ or ‘x’ sound)

O o omicron (short “o”)

P π pi

R r rho (if Eng. ‘r’ is 1^st letter, next ‘h’ [rh], then = in Greek · {aspirated ‘rho’} )

S s V sigma note: lower case ‘final sigma’ used only if it is last letter of a word

T t tau

U u upsilon (Eng ‘u’ and ‘y’)

F f phi ( Eng. ‘ph’ combination only)

C c chi (Eng. ‘ch’ combination only)

Y y psi (Eng. ‘ps’ combination only)

W w omega (Eng. long “ō”)