Vowels

There are 7 vowel letters in the Greek alphabet

Letter
Greek Name ()
English Namealphaepsilonetaiotaomicronupsilonomega

but only 5 vowel sounds

Latin equivalentaeiou
Greek letters,,,,,,,
English examplesbutbetbeatboughtboot

Consonants

There are 17 consonant letters in the Greek alphabet

Letter
Greek Name
English Namebetagammadeltazetathetakappalambda

Letter
Greek Name
English Namemunuksipirhosigmatauphichipsi

but as many as 20 primary

Latin equivalentbh (v)ghdhzthklmnpr
Greek letters
English examplesveryfuego (Sp.)thatzestthintaskleadmannutsteppero (Sp.)

Latin equivalentstph (f)khbdgtsdz
Greek letters,
English examplesseabutfireloch (Sc.)betbadgositsred zone

and 6 secondary sounds

Latin equivalentgh' (y)k' (q)l'n'kh'g'
Greek letters,
English examplesyieldque (Fr.)cavallo (Sp.)lasagna (It.)hueguerre (Fr.)


Comments

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 it's being used for ).
  • phonetic relations : e.g., is a softer version of the English "g", so "gh" is the most appropriate choice. I couldn't, however, find a good representation for and .
    Latin text enclosed between stars (*) will denote pronunciation of Greek words according to the previous conventions
    See also the phonetics page.

    Categories


    The consonant sounds in Greek are arranged into 6 categories:

  • (pertaining to the lips)
    ShortLong
    Voicedbbh
    Unvoicedpph
  • (pertaining to the teeth)
    ShortLong
    Voicedddh
    Unvoicedtth
  • (pertaining to the throat)
    ShortLong
    Voicedggh
    Unvoicedkkh
  • (pertaining to the palate)
    ShortLong
    Voicedg'gh'
    Unvoicedk'kh'
  • (making a whistling sound)
    ShortLong
    Voiceddzz
    Unvoicedtss
  • (pertaining to the nose)
    Long
    Voicedm
    Unvoicedn
  • (pertaining to the tongue, lit. "wet")
    ShortLong
    Unvoicedlr
  • (other palatal)
    ShortLong
    Unvoicedl'n'

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    Last modified: Tue Apr 16 18:15:04 1996