clas22Syllabus

Lesson 1

The Greek Alphabet

Characters	Names	Sounds	English transliteration
Α, α	alpha	father	a
Β, β	beta	boy	b
Γ, γ	gamma	go	g (sometimes n)
Δ, δ	delta	do	d
Ε, ε	epsilon	men	e
Ζ, ζ	zeta	adze	z
Η, η	eta	hate	e, a (both as long vowels)
Θ, θ	theta	thick	th
Ι, ι	iota	ravine	i
Κ, κ	kappa	ski	c, k
Λ, λ	lambda	leave	l
Μ, μ	mu	move	m
Ν, ν	nu	no	n
Ξ, ξ	xi	wax	x
Ο, ο	omicron	horse	o
Π, π	pi	part	p
Ρ, ρ	rho	red	r
Σ, σ, ς (ϲ)	sigma	song	s
Τ, τ	tau	take	t
Υ. υ	upsilon	like French u *	y, sometimes u, and sometimes v
Φ, φ	phi	phone	ph, sometimes f
Χ, χ	chi	key	ch
Ψ, ψ	psi	caps	ps
Ω, ω	omega	vote	o
*To make a French u, round your lips while trying to say a long e.

Interesting note about the sounds of ancient Greek and modern Greek: the sounds listed above are the "Erasmian" pronunciation of Ancient Greek, which goes back to the humanist Erasmus, who lived about 2000 years after the 'Classical Age' of Ancient Greece. We do know, roughly, what the sounds of actual Ancient Greek were in various eras and dialects. But I don't think we need to worry about that too much (take Ancient Greek to learn more). Modern Greeks pronounce the Greek letters quite differently, as we will see here and there as the semester goes on.

Curiosity Corner: Letters that were already obsolete in ancient Greek
Ϙ, ϙ, called "koppa"

obsolete letter used for numbers in ancient Greek, not used for a Greek sound that I know of offhand
became q in Roman alphabet: sounded like /k/

ϡ, called "sampi"

obsolete letter used for numbers in ancient Greek, not used for a Greek sound that I know of offhand
sounded like /ss/

Ϝ, ϝ, called "digamma"

obsolete letter and sound in Ancient Greek: sounded like /w/
some Greek dialects use it in inscriptions, and we can figure out where it used to be
Greek ϝεργ- > erg, energy, which is a cognate of work: it's no accident that 'work' starts with a /w/ sound

DIPHTHONGS (δι- di- "two" + φθογγος phthongos "sound")

A "diphthong" is written with two vowels.
But it only creates one syllable in words.
When pronounced, it glides from one vowel into another.
They seem to end in a sort of /w/ or /y/ sound.
English has diphthongs too: consider 'ou' in 'about' which starts out with a sound like the o in cot and ends with the u in but, or something like that (phoneticians would be more precise about that, but you get the idea). Another English diphthong is the 'oi' in 'boil.'

The Greek diphthongs
Greek spelling	English transliteration	Usual English pronunciation
αι	ae, æ, e (long e), BUT modern transliteration uses ai	hi or he
ει	ei, i	hay/hey or high, bye
οι	oe, œ, e (long e), but modern transliteration uses oi	economy or boil
αυ	au	auto or about
ευ	eu	a glide between the e in bet and a /w/ or you
ου	ou, u	loop

Important Peculiarities:

When gamma (γ) comes before itself or -κ, -χ, or -ξ, it is transliterated n: -γγ- > -ng-, -γκ- > -nk-, -γχ- > -nch-, -γξ- > -nx-

ἄγγελος is transliterated angelos (> angel).
ἄγκυρα is transliterated ankyra (> anchor: what is unusual about this transliteration? it's a "hypercorrection")
παρέγχυμα is transliterated parenchyma
φάρυγξ is transliterated pharynx
-κ, -χ, or -ξ are called "palatal" or "velar," because the sounds they represent use the palate (the hard part of the roof of the mouth) or the velum (the soft part of the roof of the mouth)

Sigma has two to three versions:

Two-formed version (used in most Greek texts): in this version, sigma is σ at the start of or within a word (so-called 'initial' or 'medial' positions), but ς in final position (at the end of a word).

Fun fact: most Arabic letters have a different form in the initial, medial, and final position, and also when isolated. Learn Arabic!

"Lunate sigma" is ϲ in any position (used in papyri, scraps of texts found in the trash heaps of ancient Egypt, which are great fun).

Our letter aitch (H or h) is not a letter in the Greek alphabet: it is represented by a "rough breathing" (aka "spiritus asper") above an initial vowel or diphthong. The rough breathing mark looks like a backwards apostrophe.

ἁ, ἑ, ἡ, ἱ, ὁ, ὡ, ὑ
αὑ, αἱ, οὑ, εὑ, οἱ, etc. (which are diphthongs)
NOTE WELL: HISTORICALLY MANY STUDENTS HAVE LOST MANY POINTS BY IGNORING THIS

Rho always has a rough breathing in initial position (at the start of a word). When rho starts a syllable in the middle of a word, it is often but not always doubled, and the second rho has a rough breathing.

ῥυθμός (> rhythm): the rho is in initial position
κατάῤῥους (> catarrh): the rho's are in medial position and are doubled with a rough breathing on the second one
Now you know how to spell logorrhea, rhight?

Every Ancient Greek word that begins with a vowel has a breathing mark: to mark the presence of /h/, a "rough" breathing is used (aka "spiritus asper"), while to mark the absence of /h/, a "smoothe" breathing mark is used (aka "spiritus lenis"). It looks like an apostrophe.

ἀ-, ἐ-, ἠ-, ἰ-, ὀ-, ὠ-, ὐ-
αὐ-, αἰ-, οὐ-, οἰ-, εὐ-, etc. (diphthongs: note that the breathing mark goes on the second vowel of a diphthong)

Most Greek words also have accents, which are the diacritics above the vowels

The acute (΄) marks a rising tone (but most modern folks pronounce it as a stress mark).
The grave (`) marks a falling tone (but moderns can safely ignore it in pronunciation).
And the circumflex (῀) marks yet another tonal pattern (which English speakers make regularly but don't know how to make consciously).
We don't need to worry about these in our class, but they are important in Greek.

Upsilon very occasionally becomes v, as in the diphthong ευ (usually eu) in evangelist and evzone (etymologically "well-girdled"), and the soup avgolemono (etymologically "egg lemon", from Modern Greek αυγολέμονο).

EXERCISES: the exercises are where you will find the tasks and questions you need to know how to do for this class, the sort of things that will show up on exams. There is a lot of "extra" stuff in the notes above, because it's interesting.

1. Transliterate the Greek words in the following list into our 'Roman' letters: writing words in a different alphabet is called "transliteration." All of these Greek words have entered English and are now English words (you may have to change them slightly to get the English word). Look up their meaning in English too, if you don't know it already.

γνῶσις
ἀμοιβή
σῦριγξ
διατριβή
ψυχή
λάρυγξ
διαῤῥοῖα
δίφθογγος
παρέγχυμα

φοῖνιξ
ἄγκυρα
φύσις
νόμος
λόγος
θεσμοθέτης
φαρμακεία
ἀνακολούθον
πάθος

2. Write in Roman letters the following Greek names

Ἀλκιβιάδης
Ἡρακλῆς
Ὑάκινθος
ΔΗΜΟΣΘΕΝΗΣ
ΣΑΛΑΜΙΣ

ΘΕΡΜΟΠΥΛΑΙ
Ὠρίων
Ζεύς
Ἑλένη
Ἀριστοτέλης

3. Write the following names and English words in Greek letters. Look up the Greek originals after you try to transliterate them: the wikipedia entries for all of these things should have the original Greek words or names.

Oedipus
Medea
Alexander
syringe
phalanx
hoplite
politeia

Clytaemnestra
Agamemnon
Electra
tragedy
comedy
drama
stigmata

3. Look up words that begin with leuk- and leuc- in the Oxford English Dictionary which I call the 'OED.' It is available to you electronically via the Howe Library website. The OED gives the most prevalent spelling as the headword. Why do you think some are spelled with a k and others with a c?

4. Give the meaning and etymology of the following English words: some are obvious, but you'll have to look most of them up in a dictionary that has etymological information.

alpha
beta
gamma
delta
epsilon
iota
lambda
omega
chi-rho
pi
jot
zed

cedilla
sigmoid
deltoid
hypsiloid
zalambdodont
sigmodont
etapteris
deltiocephalus
agammaglobulinemia
gamut
chiastic/chiasmus

5. More Greek words that are simply transliterations of Greek words: fill in the middle column.

Greek Word	English Transliteration	Greek Meaning
ἀνεμώνη		windflower
ἄνθραξ		hot coal
μάρτυρ		witness
σφίγξ		sphinx
φαινόμενον		thing shown
χαρακτήρ		engraver
βάθος		depth
τέλος		goal