![]() Letter combinations in GreekĪpart from the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet, we also have a few letter combinations. Here’s a short video with the Greek alphabet. However, most people will learn parts of it sooner or later.Īlpha, veeta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeeta, eeta, theeta, giota, kappa, lamda, mee, nee, xee, omikron, pee, roh, sigma, taf, ipsilon, fee, hee, psee, omega. Memorizing the way we read out the alphabet won’t necessarily serve any purpose if all you want is to be able to read a couple of road signs when you visit. This causes some confusion among visitors trying to learn a few words in modern Greek. ![]() So, for example, the Greek character B is pronounced like the letter V in English. This is not to say that letters that look the same in both alphabets are always pronounced the same. ![]() Take for example the letter sigma (Σ), pi (π), tau (τ), or delta (Δ). However, you may recognize some of them from your Sciences classes. Some Greek letters do not exist in any other language. You are already familiar with the letters A, B, E, Z, H, I, K, M, N, O, P, T, Y and X. Given that the Greek alphabet was an ancestor of all European alphabets, learning to read it isn’t as difficult as you might think.Īs you have seen above, most of our uppercase letters also exist in the English / French alphabet. ![]() Ω / ω > “o” as in “ orange” How to read Greek Χ / χ > “ch, h” almost as in “ hit” (a bit harsher) Σ / σ / ς > “s” as in “ seat” – notice that there’s a different form of the letter “σ” when it’s at the end of a word, which is similar to “s” in the Latin alphabet: “ς” Γ / γ > “y” as in “ yes” (it’s also close to the French “ r”) The Greek alphabet has 24 letters, of which 17 are consonants and 7 are vowels (marked in red below). Here’s a fun video for all the geeks out there – you can hear some cool ancient Greek words □ The Greek alphabet Ancient Greeks pronounced words very differently to modern Greeks. Crazy, eh!Īs for the Greek spoken language, iτ first appeared around the 14th century BCE, and it has the longest history of all Indo European languages. You might be surprised to know that all modern European alphabets are actually based on the Greek alphabet. This means that modern-day Greeks can actually read the letters on ancient Greek inscriptions! The alphabet that Greeks use today took its present form thousands of years ago, during the late 5th century BC, and never changed since. If you want to learn a little more about the Semitic languages, have a look here. The Greek alphabet was originally derived at around 1,000 BC from the Phoenician alphabet, which in turn descended from the North Semitic alphabet. Read on to find out more about the Greek alphabet origin, the Greek writing system, and some basic Greek phrases pronunciation! Short history of the Greek alphabet And if you remember your Math and Science classes, you may recognize some other Greek symbols, like pi p (π) or tau t (τ). Many of the letters are similar to the letters of the Latin alphabet, which you might be more familiar with. This is what most people say when they try to read the Greek alphabet for the first time. The Greek alphabet: It’s all Greek to me!
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