Английская Википедия:Greek alphabet

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Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Pp-semi-indef Шаблон:Pp-move Шаблон:Infobox writing system Шаблон:Greek Alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC.[1]Шаблон:Sfn It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet,[2] and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as well as consonants. In Archaic and early Classical times, the Greek alphabet existed in many local variants, but, by the end of the 4th century BC, the Euclidean alphabet, with 24 letters, ordered from alpha to omega, had become standard and it is this version that is still used for Greek writing today.

The uppercase and lowercase forms of the 24 letters are:

Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang/ς, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang.

The Greek alphabet is the ancestor of the Latin and Cyrillic scripts.Шаблон:Sfn Like Latin and Cyrillic, Greek originally had only a single form of each letter; it developed the letter case distinction between uppercase and lowercase in parallel with Latin during the modern era. Sound values and conventional transcriptions for some of the letters differ between Ancient and Modern Greek usage because the pronunciation of Greek has changed significantly between the 5th century BC and today. Modern and Ancient Greek also use different diacritics, with modern Greek keeping only the stress accent (acute) and the diaeresis.

Apart from its use in writing the Greek language, in both its ancient and its modern forms, the Greek alphabet today also serves as a source of international technical symbols and labels in many domains of mathematics, science, and other fields.

Letters

Sound values

Шаблон:MainШаблон:Further In both Ancient and Modern Greek, the letters of the Greek alphabet have fairly stable and consistent symbol-to-sound mappings, making pronunciation of words largely predictable. Ancient Greek spelling was generally near-phonemic. For a number of letters, sound values differ considerably between Ancient and Modern Greek, because their pronunciation has followed a set of systematic phonological shifts that affected the language in its post-classical stages.[3]

Letter Name Ancient pronunciation Modern pronunciation
Шаблон:Smaller Шаблон:Smaller Шаблон:Smaller Шаблон:Smaller[4]
Шаблон:Lang alpha, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Short: Шаблон:IPAblink
Long: Шаблон:IPAblink		 Short: first a as in English await[5]
Long: a as in English father[5]		 Шаблон:IPAblink a as in English father, but short
Шаблон:Lang beta, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink[6][5] b as in English better[7][6][5] Шаблон:IPAblink v as in English vote
Шаблон:Lang gamma, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink
Шаблон:IPAblink when used before Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, and possibly Шаблон:Lang		 g as in English get[6][5]
ng as in English sing when used before Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, and possibly Шаблон:Lang[6][5][ex 1]		 Шаблон:IPAblink before /a/, /o/, /u/;

Шаблон:IPAblink before /e/, /i/;

Шаблон:IPAblink[ex 2] ~ Шаблон:IPAblink[ex 3]

g as in Spanish lago;

y as in English yellow;

ng as in English long

Шаблон:Lang delta, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink d as in English delete[7][6][5] Шаблон:IPAblink th as in English then
Шаблон:Lang epsilon, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink ea as in Scottish English great[5][8]

similar to ay as in English overlay, but without pronouncing y. [9]

Шаблон:Lang zeta, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPA, or possibly Шаблон:IPAblink sd as in English wisdom,
or possibly dz as in English adze[10][11]Шаблон:Refn		 Шаблон:IPAblink z as in English zoo
Шаблон:Lang eta, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink e as in English net, but long [12]

ê as in French tête[13]

Шаблон:IPAblink i as in English machine, but short
Шаблон:Lang theta, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink t as in English top[13][5]Шаблон:Refn Шаблон:IPAblink th as in English thin
Шаблон:Lang iota, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Short: Шаблон:IPAblink
Long: Шаблон:IPAblink		 Short: i as in French vite,[13]
Long: i as in English machine[4]		 Шаблон:IPAblink, Шаблон:IPAblink,[ex 4] Шаблон:IPAblink,[ex 5] Шаблон:IPAblink[ex 6] i as in English machine, but short
Шаблон:Lang kappa, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink k as in English,[13][5] but completely unaspirated[13] Шаблон:IPAblink ~ Шаблон:IPAblink k as in English make
Шаблон:Lang lambda, lamda, labda, Шаблон:Wikt-langШаблон:Refn Шаблон:IPAblink l as in English lantern[7][14][5]
Шаблон:Lang mu, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink m as in English music[7][14][5]
Шаблон:Lang nu, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink n as in English net[14]
Шаблон:Lang xi, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPA x as in English fox[14]
Шаблон:Lang omicron, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink o as in German ohne
Шаблон:Lang pi, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink p as in English top[14][5]
Шаблон:Lang rho, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink trilled r as in Italian or Spanish[14][5][7]
Шаблон:LangШаблон:Refn sigma, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink
Шаблон:IPAblink before Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, or Шаблон:Lang		 s as in English soft[5]
s as in English muse when used before Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang, or Шаблон:Lang[14]
Шаблон:Lang tau, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink t as in English coat[14][5]
Шаблон:Lang upsilon, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Short: Шаблон:IPAblink
Long: Шаблон:IPAblink		 Short: u as in French lune
Long: u as in French ruse[14]		 Шаблон:IPAblink i as in English machine, but short
Шаблон:Lang phi, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink p as in English pot[15]Шаблон:Refn Шаблон:IPAblink f as in English five
Шаблон:Lang chi, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink c as in English cat[5]Шаблон:Refn Шаблон:IPAblink ~ Шаблон:IPAblink ch as in Scottish loch ~ h as in English hue
Шаблон:Lang psi, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPA ps as in English lapse[15][5]
Шаблон:Lang omega, Шаблон:Wikt-lang Шаблон:IPAblink aw as in English saw[5]Шаблон:Refn Шаблон:IPAblink o as in German ohne, similar to British English call
Examples

Шаблон:Reflist

Notes

Шаблон:Reflist

Among consonant letters, all letters that denoted voiced plosive consonants (Шаблон:IPA) and aspirated plosives (Шаблон:IPA) in Ancient Greek stand for corresponding fricative sounds in Modern Greek. The correspondences are as follows:

  Former voiced plosives Former aspirates
Letter Ancient Modern Letter Ancient Modern
Labial Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:IPAslink
Dental Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:IPAslink
Dorsal Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:IPAblink ~ Шаблон:IPAblink Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:IPAblink ~ Шаблон:IPAblink

Among the vowel symbols, Modern Greek sound values reflect the radical simplification of the vowel system of post-classical Greek, merging multiple formerly distinct vowel phonemes into a much smaller number. This leads to several groups of vowel letters denoting identical sounds today. Modern Greek orthography remains true to the historical spellings in most of these cases. As a consequence, the spellings of words in Modern Greek are often not predictable from the pronunciation alone, while the reverse mapping, from spelling to pronunciation, is usually regular and predictable.

The following vowel letters and digraphs are involved in the mergers:

Letter Ancient Modern
Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPA link > Шаблон:IPA link
Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPA link(Шаблон:IPA)
Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPA
Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPA link(Шаблон:IPA) > Шаблон:IPA link
Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPA > Шаблон:IPA link
Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPA > Шаблон:IPA link
Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPA link > Шаблон:IPA link
Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPA link
Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPA link > Шаблон:IPA link
Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:IPA

Modern Greek speakers typically use the same, modern symbol–sound mappings in reading Greek of all historical stages. In other countries, students of Ancient Greek may use a variety of conventional approximations of the historical sound system in pronouncing Ancient Greek.

Digraphs and letter combinations

Several letter combinations have special conventional sound values different from those of their single components. Among them are several digraphs of vowel letters that formerly represented diphthongs but are now monophthongized. In addition to the four mentioned above (Шаблон:Angbr, pronounced Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:Angbr, pronounced Шаблон:IPA), there is also Шаблон:Angbr, and Шаблон:Angbr, pronounced Шаблон:IPA. The Ancient Greek diphthongs Шаблон:Angbr, Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr are pronounced Шаблон:IPA, Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA in Modern Greek. In some environments, they are devoiced to Шаблон:IPA, Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA respectively.[16] The Modern Greek consonant combinations Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr stand for Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA (or Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA) respectively; Шаблон:Angbr stands for Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:Angbr stands for Шаблон:IPA. In addition, both in Ancient and Modern Greek, the letter Шаблон:Angbr, before another velar consonant, stands for the velar nasal Шаблон:IPA; thus Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr are pronounced like English Шаблон:Angbr like in the word finger (not like in the word thing). In analogy to Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr, Шаблон:Angbr is also used to stand for Шаблон:IPA. There are also the combinations Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr.

Combination Pronunciation Devoiced pronunciation
Шаблон:Angbr Шаблон:IPAblink –
Шаблон:Angbr Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA
Шаблон:Angbr Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA
Шаблон:Angbr Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA
Шаблон:Angbr Шаблон:IPA or Шаблон:IPA –
Шаблон:Angbr Шаблон:IPA or Шаблон:IPA –
Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr Шаблон:IPA or [ŋɡ] –
Шаблон:Angbr Шаблон:IPAblink –
Шаблон:Angbr Шаблон:IPAblink –
Шаблон:Angbr in Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr Шаблон:IPAblink –


Diacritics

Шаблон:Main Шаблон:Multiple image In the polytonic orthography traditionally used for ancient Greek and katharevousa, the stressed vowel of each word carries one of three accent marks: either the acute accent (Шаблон:Big), the grave accent (Шаблон:Big), or the circumflex accent (Шаблон:Big or Шаблон:Big). These signs were originally designed to mark different forms of the phonological pitch accent in Ancient Greek. By the time their use became conventional and obligatory in Greek writing, in late antiquity, pitch accent was evolving into a single stress accent, and thus the three signs have not corresponded to a phonological distinction in actual speech ever since. In addition to the accent marks, every word-initial vowel must carry either of two so-called "breathing marks": the rough breathing (Шаблон:Big), marking an Шаблон:IPA sound at the beginning of a word, or the smooth breathing (Шаблон:Big), marking its absence. The letter rho (ρ), although not a vowel, also carries rough breathing in a word-initial position. If a rho was geminated within a word, the first Шаблон:Lang always had the smooth breathing and the second the rough breathing (ῤῥ) leading to the transliteration rrh.

The vowel letters Шаблон:Angbr carry an additional diacritic in certain words, the so-called iota subscript, which has the shape of a small vertical stroke or a miniature Шаблон:Angbr below the letter. This iota represents the former offglide of what were originally long diphthongs, Шаблон:Angbr (i.e. Шаблон:IPA), which became monophthongized during antiquity.

Файл:Greek diacritic non-diphthong capitals.svg
Use of diaeresis in the word áulos indicating a vowel hiatus. The acute accent is absent in the upper case.

Another diacritic used in Greek is the diaeresis (Шаблон:Big), indicating a hiatus.

This system of diacritics was first developed by the scholar Aristophanes of Byzantium (Шаблон:Circa 257 – Шаблон:Circa 185/180 BC), who worked at the Musaeum in Alexandria during the third century BC.Шаблон:Sfn Aristophanes of Byzantium also was the first to divide poems into lines, rather than writing them like prose, and also introduced a series of signs for textual criticism.Шаблон:Sfn In 1982, a new, simplified orthography, known as "monotonic", was adopted for official use in Modern Greek by the Greek state. It uses only a single accent mark, the acute (also known in this context as tonos, i.e. simply "accent"), marking the stressed syllable of polysyllabic words, and occasionally the diaeresis to distinguish diphthongal from digraph readings in pairs of vowel letters, making this monotonic system very similar to the accent mark system used in Spanish. The polytonic system is still conventionally used for writing Ancient Greek, while in some book printing and generally in the usage of conservative writers it can still also be found in use for Modern Greek.

Although it is not a diacritic, the comma has a similar function as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing Шаблон:Wikt-lang (ó,ti, "whatever") from Шаблон:Wikt-lang (óti, "that").[17]

Romanization

Шаблон:Main There are many different methods of rendering Greek text or Greek names in the Latin script.Шаблон:Sfn The form in which classical Greek names are conventionally rendered in English goes back to the way Greek loanwords were incorporated into Latin in antiquity.Шаблон:Sfn In this system, Шаблон:Angbr is replaced with Шаблон:Angbr, the diphthongs Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr are rendered as Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr (or Шаблон:Angbr) respectively; and Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr are simplified to Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr respectively.Шаблон:Sfn Smooth breathing marks are usually ignored and rough breathing marks are usually rendered as the letter Шаблон:Angbr.Шаблон:Sfn In modern scholarly transliteration of Ancient Greek, Шаблон:Angbr will usually be rendered as Шаблон:Angbr, and the vowel combinations Шаблон:Angbr as Шаблон:Angbr respectively.Шаблон:Sfn The letters Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr are generally rendered as Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr; Шаблон:Angbr as either Шаблон:Angbr or Шаблон:Angbr; and word-initial Шаблон:Angbr as Шаблон:Angbr.Шаблон:Sfn

Transcription conventions for Modern GreekШаблон:Sfn differ widely, depending on their purpose, on how close they stay to the conventional letter correspondences of Ancient Greek-based transcription systems, and to what degree they attempt either an exact letter-by-letter transliteration or rather a phonetically based transcription.Шаблон:Sfn Standardized formal transcription systems have been defined by the International Organization for Standardization (as ISO 843),Шаблон:Sfn[18] by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names,[19] by the Library of Congress,[20] and others.

Letter Traditional Latin transliterationШаблон:Sfn
Шаблон:Lang A a
Шаблон:Lang B b
Шаблон:Lang G g
Шаблон:Lang D d
Шаблон:Lang E e
Шаблон:Lang Z z
Шаблон:Lang Ē ē
Шаблон:Lang Th th
Шаблон:Lang I i
Шаблон:Lang C c, K k
Шаблон:Lang L l
Шаблон:Lang M m
Шаблон:Lang N n
Шаблон:Lang X x
Шаблон:Lang O o
Шаблон:Lang P p
Шаблон:Lang R r, Rh rh
Шаблон:Lang/ς S s
Шаблон:Lang T t
Шаблон:Lang Y y, U u
Шаблон:Lang Ph ph
Шаблон:Lang Ch ch, Kh kh
Шаблон:Lang Ps ps
Шаблон:Lang Ō ō

History

Origins

Шаблон:Main

Файл:Dipylon Inscription.JPG
Dipylon inscription, one of the oldest known samples of the use of the Greek alphabet, Шаблон:Circa

During the Mycenaean period, from around the sixteenth century to the twelfth century BC, Linear B was used to write the earliest attested form of the Greek language, known as Mycenaean Greek. This writing system, unrelated to the Greek alphabet, last appeared in the thirteenth century BC. In the late ninth century BC or early eighth century BC, the Greek alphabet emerged.Шаблон:Sfn The period between the use of the two writing systems, during which no Greek texts are attested, is known as the Greek Dark Ages. The Greeks adopted the alphabet from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, one of the closely related scripts used for the West Semitic languages, calling it Φοινικήια γράμματα 'Phoenician letters'.[21] However, the Phoenician alphabet is limited to consonants. When it was adopted for writing Greek, certain consonants were adapted to express vowels. The use of both vowels and consonants makes Greek the first alphabet in the narrow sense,Шаблон:Sfn as distinguished from the abjads used in Semitic languages, which have letters only for consonants.Шаблон:Sfn

Файл:NAMA Alphabet grec.jpg
Early Greek alphabet on pottery in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Greek initially took over all of the 22 letters of Phoenician. Five were reassigned to denote vowel sounds: the glide consonants Шаблон:IPA (yodh) and Шаблон:IPA (waw) were used for [i] (Ι, iota) and [u] (Υ, upsilon) respectively; the glottal stop consonant Шаблон:IPA (aleph) was used for [a] (Α, alpha); the pharyngeal Шаблон:IPA (ʿayin) was turned into [o] (Ο, omicron); and the letter for Шаблон:IPA (he) was turned into [e] (Ε, epsilon). A doublet of waw was also borrowed as a consonant for [w] (Ϝ, digamma). In addition, the Phoenician letter for the emphatic glottal Шаблон:IPA (heth) was borrowed in two different functions by different dialects of Greek: as a letter for /h/ (Η, heta) by those dialects that had such a sound, and as an additional vowel letter for the long Шаблон:IPA (Η, eta) by those dialects that lacked the consonant. Eventually, a seventh vowel letter for the long Шаблон:IPA (Ω, omega) was introduced.

Greek also introduced three new consonant letters for its aspirated plosive sounds and consonant clusters: Φ (phi) for Шаблон:IPA, Χ (chi) for Шаблон:IPA and Ψ (psi) for Шаблон:IPA. In western Greek variants, Χ was instead used for Шаблон:IPA and Ψ for Шаблон:IPA. The origin of these letters is a matter of some debate.

Phoenician Greek
Файл:Phoenician aleph.svg aleph Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Α alpha Шаблон:IPAslink, Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician beth.svg beth Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Β beta Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician gimel.svg gimel Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Γ gamma Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician daleth.svg daleth Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Δ delta Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician he.svg he Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Ε epsilon Шаблон:IPAslink, Шаблон:IPAslink[note 1]
Файл:Phoenician waw.svg waw Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Ϝ (digamma) Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician zayin.svg zayin Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Ζ zeta [zd](?)
Файл:Phoenician heth.svg heth Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Η eta Шаблон:IPAslink, Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician teth.svg teth Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Θ theta Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician yodh.svg yodh Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Ι iota Шаблон:IPAslink, Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician kaph.svg kaph Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Κ kappa Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician lamedh.svg lamedh Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Λ lambda Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician mem.svg mem Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Μ mu Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician nun.svg nun Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Ν nu Шаблон:IPAslink
Phoenician Greek
Файл:Phoenician samekh.svg samekh Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Ξ xi Шаблон:IPA
Файл:Phoenician ayin.svg ʿayin Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Ο omicron Шаблон:IPAslink, Шаблон:IPAslink[note 1]
Файл:Phoenician pe.svg pe Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Π pi Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician sade.svg ṣade Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Ϻ (san) Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician qoph.svg qoph Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Ϙ (koppa) Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician res.svg reš Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Ρ rho Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician sin.svg šin Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Σ sigma Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician taw.svg taw Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Τ tau Шаблон:IPAslink
Файл:Phoenician waw.svg (waw) Шаблон:IPAslink Шаблон:GrGl Υ upsilon Шаблон:IPAslink, Шаблон:IPAslink
– Шаблон:GrGl Φ phi Шаблон:IPAslink
– Шаблон:GrGl Χ chi Шаблон:IPAslink
– Шаблон:GrGl Ψ psi Шаблон:IPA
– Шаблон:GrGl Ω omega Шаблон:IPAslink

Three of the original Phoenician letters dropped out of use before the alphabet took its classical shape: the letter Ϻ (san), which had been in competition with Σ (sigma) denoting the same phoneme /s/; the letter Ϙ (qoppa), which was redundant with Κ (kappa) for /k/, and Ϝ (digamma), whose sound value /w/ dropped out of the spoken language before or during the classical period.

Greek was originally written predominantly from right to left, just like Phoenician, but scribes could freely alternate between directions. For a time, a writing style with alternating right-to-left and left-to-right lines (called boustrophedon, literally "ox-turning", after the manner of an ox ploughing a field) was common, until in the classical period the left-to-right writing direction became the norm. Individual letter shapes were mirrored depending on the writing direction of the current line.

Archaic variants

Шаблон:Main

Файл:Ancient Greek epichoric alphabets.svg
Distribution of "green", "red" and "blue" alphabet types, after Kirchhoff.

There were initially numerous local (epichoric) variants of the Greek alphabet, which differed in the use and non-use of the additional vowel and consonant symbols and several other features. Epichoric alphabets are commonly divided into four major types according to their different treatments of additional consonant letters for the aspirated consonants (/pʰ, kʰ/) and consonant clusters (/ks, ps/) of Greek.Шаблон:Sfn These four types are often conventionally labelled as "green", "red", "light blue" and "dark blue" types, based on a colour-coded map in a seminal 19th-century work on the topic, Studien zur Geschichte des griechischen Alphabets by Adolf Kirchhoff (1867).Шаблон:Sfn

The "green" (or southern) type is the most archaic and closest to the Phoenician.Шаблон:Sfn The "red" (or western) type is the one that was later transmitted to the West and became the ancestor of the Latin alphabet, and bears some crucial features characteristic of that later development.Шаблон:Sfn The "blue" (or eastern) type is the one from which the later standard Greek alphabet emerged.Шаблон:Sfn Athens used a local form of the "light blue" alphabet type until the end of the fifth century BC, which lacked the letters Ξ and Ψ as well as the vowel symbols Η and Ω.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn In the Old Attic alphabet, Шаблон:Lang stood for Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:Lang for Шаблон:IPA. Шаблон:Lang was used for all three sounds Шаблон:IPA (correspondinɡ to classical Шаблон:Lang respectively), and Шаблон:Lang was used for all of Шаблон:IPA (corresponding to classical Шаблон:Lang respectively).Шаблон:Sfn The letter Шаблон:Lang (heta) was used for the consonant Шаблон:IPA.Шаблон:Sfn Some variant local letter forms were also characteristic of Athenian writing, some of which were shared with the neighboring (but otherwise "red") alphabet of Euboia: a form of Шаблон:Lang that resembled a Latin L (Шаблон:GrGl) and a form of Шаблон:Wikt-lang that resembled a Latin S (Шаблон:GrGl).Шаблон:Sfn

Phoenician model Файл:Phoenician aleph.svg Файл:Phoenician beth.svg Файл:Phoenician gimel.svg Файл:Phoenician daleth.svg Файл:Phoenician he.svg Файл:Phoenician waw.svg Файл:Phoenician zayin.svg Файл:Phoenician heth.svg Файл:Phoenician teth.svg Файл:Phoenician yodh.svg Файл:Phoenician kaph.svg Файл:Phoenician lamedh.svg Файл:Phoenician mem.svg Файл:Phoenician nun.svg Файл:Phoenician samekh.svg Файл:Phoenician ayin.svg Файл:Phoenician pe.svg Файл:Phoenician sade.svg Файл:Phoenician qoph.svg Файл:Phoenician res.svg Файл:Phoenician sin.svg Файл:Phoenician taw.svg
Southern "green" Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl — Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl — Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl* — — — — —
Western "red" Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl
Eastern "light blue" — Шаблон:GrGl
"dark blue" Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl
Classic Ionian — — Шаблон:GrGl — — Шаблон:GrGl
Modern alphabet Α Β Γ Δ Ε — Ζ — Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π — — Ρ Σ Τ Υ — Φ Χ Ψ Ω
Sound in Ancient Greek a b g d e w zd h ē tʰ i k l m n ks o p s k r s t u ks pʰ kʰ ps ō

*Upsilon is also derived from waw (Файл:Phoenician waw.svg).

The classical twenty-four-letter alphabet that is now used to represent the Greek language was originally the local alphabet of Ionia.Шаблон:Sfn By the late fifth century BC, it was commonly used by many Athenians.Шаблон:Sfn In Шаблон:Circa 403 BC, at the suggestion of the archon Eucleides, the Athenian Assembly formally abandoned the Old Attic alphabet and adopted the Ionian alphabet as part of the democratic reforms after the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Because of Eucleides's role in suggesting the idea to adopt the Ionian alphabet, the standard twenty-four-letter Greek alphabet is sometimes known as the "Eucleidean alphabet".Шаблон:Sfn Roughly thirty years later, the Eucleidean alphabet was adopted in Boeotia and it may have been adopted a few years previously in Macedonia.Шаблон:Sfn By the end of the fourth century BC, it had displaced local alphabets across the Greek-speaking world to become the standard form of the Greek alphabet.Шаблон:Sfn

Letter names

When the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, they took over not only the letter shapes and sound values but also the names by which the sequence of the alphabet could be recited and memorized. In Phoenician, each letter name was a word that began with the sound represented by that letter; thus ʾaleph, the word for "ox", was used as the name for the glottal stop Шаблон:IPA, bet, or "house", for the Шаблон:IPA sound, and so on. When the letters were adopted by the Greeks, most of the Phoenician names were maintained or modified slightly to fit Greek phonology; thus, ʾaleph, bet, gimel became alpha, beta, gamma.

The Greek names of the following letters are more or less straightforward continuations of their Phoenician antecedents. Between Ancient and Modern Greek, they have remained largely unchanged, except that their pronunciation has followed regular sound changes along with other words (for instance, in the name of beta, ancient /b/ regularly changed to modern /v/, and ancient /ɛː/ to modern /i/, resulting in the modern pronunciation vita). The name of lambda is attested in early sources as Шаблон:Lang besides Шаблон:Lang;[22][5] in Modern Greek the spelling is often Шаблон:Lang, reflecting pronunciation.[5] Similarly, iota is sometimes spelled Шаблон:Lang in Modern Greek (Шаблон:IPA is conventionally transcribed Шаблон:Angle brackets word-initially and intervocalically before back vowels and Шаблон:IPA). In the tables below, the Greek names of all letters are given in their traditional polytonic spelling; in modern practice, like with all other words, they are usually spelled in the simplified monotonic system. Шаблон:Listen

Letter Name Pronunciation
Greek Phoenician original English Greek (Ancient) Greek (Modern) English
Α Шаблон:Lang aleph alpha Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Β Шаблон:Lang beth beta Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en, Шаблон:IPAc-en
Γ Шаблон:Lang gimel gamma Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Δ Шаблон:Lang daleth delta Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Η Шаблон:Lang heth eta Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en, Шаблон:IPAc-en
Θ Шаблон:Lang teth theta Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en, Шаблон:IPAc-en
Ι Шаблон:Lang yodh iota Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Κ Шаблон:Lang kaph kappa Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Λ Шаблон:Lang lamedh lambda Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Μ Шаблон:Lang mem mu Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en; occasionally Шаблон:IPAc-en
Ν Шаблон:Lang nun nu Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Ρ Шаблон:Lang reš rho Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Τ Шаблон:Lang taw tau Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en

In the cases of the three historical sibilant letters below, the correspondence between Phoenician and Ancient Greek is less clear, with apparent mismatches both in letter names and sound values. The early history of these letters (and the fourth sibilant letter, obsolete san) has been a matter of some debate. Here too, the changes in the pronunciation of the letter names between Ancient and Modern Greek are regular.

Letter Name Pronunciation
Greek Phoenician original English Greek (Ancient) Greek (Modern) English
Ζ Шаблон:Lang zayin zeta Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en, Шаблон:IPAc-en
Ξ Шаблон:Lang samekh xi Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Σ Шаблон:Lang šin siɡma Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en

In the following group of consonant letters, the older forms of the names in Ancient Greek were spelled with Шаблон:Lang, indicating an original pronunciation with -ē. In Modern Greek these names are spelled with Шаблон:Lang.

Letter Name Pronunciation
Greek English Greek (Ancient) Greek (Modern) English
Ξ Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang xi Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Π Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang pi Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Φ Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang phi Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Χ Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang chi Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en
Ψ Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang psi Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en, Шаблон:IPAc-en

The following group of vowel letters were originally called simply by their sound values as long vowels: ē, ō, ū, and Шаблон:IPA. Their modern names contain adjectival qualifiers that were added during the Byzantine period, to distinguish between letters that had become confusable.[5] Thus, the letters Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr, pronounced identically by this time, were called o mikron ("small o") and o mega ("big o") respectively.[5] The letter Шаблон:Angbr was called e psilon ("plain e") to distinguish it from the identically pronounced digraph Шаблон:Angbr, while, similarly, Шаблон:Angbr, which at this time was pronounced Шаблон:IPAblink, was called y psilon ("plain y") to distinguish it from the identically pronounced digraph Шаблон:Angbr.[5]

Letter Name Pronunciation
Greek (Ancient) Greek (Medieval) Greek (Modern) English Greek (Ancient) Greek (Modern) English
Ε Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:Lang epsilon Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en, some Шаблон:IPAc-en
Ο Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:Lang omicron Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en, traditional Шаблон:IPAc-en
Υ Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:Lang upsilon Шаблон:IPA, Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en, also Шаблон:IPAc-en, Шаблон:IPAc-en
Ω Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:Lang Шаблон:Lang omega Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:IPAc-en, traditional Шаблон:IPAc-en

Some dialects of the Aegean and Cypriot have retained long consonants and pronounce Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA; also, Шаблон:Lang has come to be pronounced Шаблон:IPA in Cypriot.[23]

Letter shapes

Файл:Gospel Estienne 1550.jpg
A 16th-century edition of the New Testament (Gospel of John), printed in a renaissance typeface by Claude Garamond
Файл:Theocritus-Syracusanus-et-al-Lodewijk-Caspar-Valckenaer MG 0683 - detail - Greek text - Theocritus - Idyll 1.jpg
Theocritus Idyll 1, lines 12–14, in script with abbreviations and ligatures from a caption in an illustrated edition of Theocritus. Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer: Carmina bucolica, Leiden 1779.

Like Latin and other alphabetic scripts, Greek originally had only a single form of each letter, without a distinction between uppercase and lowercase. This distinction is an innovation of the modern era, drawing on different lines of development of the letter shapes in earlier handwriting.

The oldest forms of the letters in antiquity are majuscule forms. Besides the upright, straight inscriptional forms (capitals) found in stone carvings or incised pottery, more fluent writing styles adapted for handwriting on soft materials were also developed during antiquity. Such handwriting has been preserved especially from papyrus manuscripts in Egypt since the Hellenistic period. Ancient handwriting developed two distinct styles: uncial writing, with carefully drawn, rounded block letters of about equal size, used as a book hand for carefully produced literary and religious manuscripts, and cursive writing, used for everyday purposes.[24] The cursive forms approached the style of lowercase letter forms, with ascenders and descenders, as well as many connecting lines and ligatures between letters.

In the ninth and tenth century, uncial book hands were replaced with a new, more compact writing style, with letter forms partly adapted from the earlier cursive.[24] This minuscule style remained the dominant form of handwritten Greek into the modern era. During the Renaissance, western printers adopted the minuscule letter forms as lowercase printed typefaces, while modeling uppercase letters on the ancient inscriptional forms. The orthographic practice of using the letter case distinction for marking proper names, titles, etc. developed in parallel to the practice in Latin and other western languages.

Inscription Manuscript Modern print
Archaic Classical Uncial Minuscule Lowercase Uppercase
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Alpha.svg α Α
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Beta.svg β Β
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Gamma.svg γ Γ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Delta.svg δ Δ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Epsilon.svg ε Ε
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Zeta.svg ζ Ζ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Eta.svg η Η
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Theta.svg θ Θ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Iota.svg ι Ι
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Kappa.svg κ Κ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Lambda.svg λ Λ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Mu.svg μ Μ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Nu.svg ν Ν
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Xi.svg ξ Ξ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Omicron.svg ο Ο
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Pi.svg π Π
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Rho.svg ρ Ρ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Sigma.svg σς Σ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Tau.svg τ Τ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Upsilon.svg υ Υ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Phi.svg φ Φ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Chi.svg χ Χ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Psi.svg ψ Ψ
Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Шаблон:GrGl Файл:Greek minuscule Omega.svg ω Ω

Derived alphabets

Файл:Marsiliana tablet.svg
The earliest Etruscan abecedarium, from Marsiliana d'Albegna, still almost identical with contemporaneous archaic Greek alphabets
Файл:Wulfila bibel.jpg
A page from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century Bible manuscript in Gothic

The Greek alphabet was the model for various others:Шаблон:Sfn

The Armenian and Georgian alphabets are almost certainly modeled on the Greek alphabet, but their graphic forms are quite different.[26]

Other uses

Use for other languages

Apart from the daughter alphabets listed above, which were adapted from Greek but developed into separate writing systems, the Greek alphabet has also been adopted at various times and in various places to write other languages.Шаблон:Sfn For some of them, additional letters were introduced.

Antiquity

Middle Ages

Early modern

Файл:Karamanlidika title page 1784.JPG
18th-century title page of a book printed in Karamanli Turkish

In mathematics and science

Шаблон:Main Greek symbols are used as symbols in mathematics, physics and other sciences. Many symbols have traditional uses, such as lower case epsilon (ε) for an arbitrarily small positive number, lower case pi (π) for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, capital sigma (Σ) for summation, and lower case sigma (σ) for standard deviation. Formerly, the Greek letters were used for naming North Atlantic hurricanes if the normal list ran out. This happened only in the 2005 and 2020 hurricane seasons for a total of 15 storms, the last one being Hurricane Iota. However, this practice would be discontinued in 2021, citing the confusion many similar-sounding names caused. In May 2021 the World Health Organization announced that the variants of SARS-CoV-2 of the virus would be named using letters of the Greek alphabet to avoid stigma and simplify communications for non-scientific audiences.[36][37]

Astronomy

Шаблон:Main Greek letters are used to denote the brighter stars within each of the eighty-eight constellations. In most constellations, the brightest star is designated Alpha and the next brightest Beta etc. For example, the brightest star in the constellation of Centaurus is known as Alpha Centauri. For historical reasons, the Greek designations of some constellations begin with a lower ranked letter.

International Phonetic Alphabet

Several Greek letters are used as phonetic symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).[38] Several of them denote fricative consonants; the rest stand for variants of vowel sounds. The glyph shapes used for these letters in specialized phonetic fonts is sometimes slightly different from the conventional shapes in Greek typography proper, with glyphs typically being more upright and using serifs, to make them conform more with the typographical character of other, Latin-based letters in the phonetic alphabet. Nevertheless, in the Unicode encoding standard, the following three phonetic symbols are considered the same characters as the corresponding Greek letters proper:[39]

Шаблон:IPA beta U+03B2 voiced bilabial fricative
Шаблон:IPA theta U+03B8 voiceless dental fricative
Шаблон:IPA chi U+03C7 voiceless uvular fricative

On the other hand, the following phonetic letters have Unicode representations separate from their Greek alphabetic use, either because their conventional typographic shape is too different from the original, or because they also have secondary uses as regular alphabetic characters in some Latin-based alphabets, including separate Latin uppercase letters distinct from the Greek ones.

Greek letter Phonetic letter Uppercase
φ phi U+03C6 Шаблон:IPA U+0278 Voiceless bilabial fricative –
γ gamma U+03B3 Шаблон:IPA U+0263 Voiced velar fricative Ɣ U+0194
ε epsilon U+03B5 Шаблон:IPA U+025B Open-mid front unrounded vowel Ɛ U+0190
α alpha U+03B1 Шаблон:IPA U+0251 Open back unrounded vowel Ɑ U+2C6D
υ upsilon U+03C5 Шаблон:IPA U+028A near-close near-back rounded vowel Ʊ U+01B1
ι iota U+03B9 Шаблон:IPA U+0269 Obsolete for near-close near-front unrounded vowel now ɪ Ɩ U+0196

The symbol in Americanist phonetic notation for the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is the Greek letter lambda Шаблон:Angbr, but Шаблон:Angbr IPA in the IPA. The IPA symbol for the palatal lateral approximant is Шаблон:Angbr IPA, which looks similar to lambda, but is actually an inverted lowercase y.

Use as numerals

Шаблон:Main Greek letters were also used to write numbers. In the classical Ionian system, the first nine letters of the alphabet stood for the numbers from 1 to 9, the next nine letters stood for the multiples of 10, from 10 to 90, and the next nine letters stood for the multiples of 100, from 100 to 900. For this purpose, in addition to the 24 letters which by that time made up the standard alphabet, three otherwise obsolete letters were retained or revived: digamma Шаблон:Angbr for 6, koppa Шаблон:Angbr for 90, and a rare Ionian letter for [ss], today called sampi Шаблон:Angbr, for 900. This system has remained in use in Greek up to the present day, although today it is only employed for limited purposes such as enumerating chapters in a book, similar to the way Roman numerals are used in English. The three extra symbols are today written as Шаблон:Angbr, Шаблон:Angbr and Шаблон:Angbr respectively. To mark a letter as a numeral sign, a small stroke called keraia is added to the right of it.

Αʹ αʹ alpha 1
Βʹ βʹ beta 2
Γʹ γʹ gamma 3
Δʹ δʹ delta 4
Εʹ εʹ epsilon 5
ϛʹ digamma (stigma) 6
Ζʹ ζʹ zeta 7
Ηʹ ηʹ eta 8
Θʹ θʹ theta 9
Ιʹ ιʹ iota 10
Κʹ κʹ kappa 20
Λʹ λʹ lambda 30
Μʹ μʹ mu 40
Νʹ νʹ nu 50
Ξʹ ξʹ xi 60
Οʹ οʹ omicron 70
Πʹ πʹ pi 80
ϟʹ koppa 90
Ρʹ ρʹ rho 100
Σʹ σʹ sigma 200
Τʹ τʹ tau 300
Υʹ υʹ upsilon 400
Φʹ φʹ phi 500
Χʹ χʹ chi 600
Ψʹ ψʹ psi 700
Ωʹ ωʹ omega 800
ϡʹ sampi 900

Use by student fraternities and sororities

In North America, many college fraternities and sororities are named with combinations of Greek letters, and are hence also known as "Greek letter organizations".Шаблон:Sfn This naming tradition was initiated by the foundation of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at the College of William and Mary in 1776.Шаблон:Sfn The name of this fraternal organization is an acronym for the ancient Greek phrase Φιλοσοφία Βίου Κυβερνήτης (Philosophia Biou Kybernētēs), which means "Love of wisdom, the guide of life" and serves as the organization's motto.Шаблон:Sfn Sometimes early fraternal organizations were known by their Greek letter names because the mottos that these names stood for were secret and revealed only to members of the fraternity.Шаблон:Sfn

Different chapters within the same fraternity are almost always (with a handful of exceptions) designated using Greek letters as serial numbers. The founding chapter of each respective organization is its A chapter. As an organization expands, it establishes a B chapter, a Γ chapter, and so on and so forth. In an organization that expands to more than 24 chapters, the chapter after Ω chapter is AA chapter, followed by AB chapter, etc. Each of these is still a "chapter Letter", albeit a double-digit letter just as 10 through 99 are double-digit numbers. The Roman alphabet has a similar extended form with such double-digit letters when necessary, but it is used for columns in a table or chart rather than chapters of an organization.Шаблон:Citation needed

Glyph variants

Some letters can occur in variant shapes, mostly inherited from medieval minuscule handwriting. While their use in normal typography of Greek is purely a matter of font styles, some such variants have been given separate encodings in Unicode.

  • The symbol Шаблон:Not a typo ("curled beta") is a cursive variant form of beta (β). In the French tradition of Ancient Greek typography, β is used word-initially, and Шаблон:Not a typo is used word-internally.
  • The letter delta has a form resembling a cursive capital letter D; while not encoded as its own form, this form is included as part of the symbol for the drachma (a Δρ digraph) in the Currency Symbols block, at U+20AF (₯).
  • The letter epsilon can occur in two equally frequent stylistic variants, either shaped <math>\epsilon\,\!</math> ('lunate epsilon', like a semicircle with a stroke) or <math>\varepsilon\,\!</math> (similar to a reversed number 3). The symbol ϵ (U+03F5) is designated specifically for the lunate form, used as a technical symbol.
  • The symbol Шаблон:Not a typo ("script theta") is a cursive form of theta (θ), frequent in handwriting, and used with a specialized meaning as a technical symbol.
  • The symbol Шаблон:Not a typo ("kappa symbol") is a cursive form of kappa (κ), used as a technical symbol.
  • The symbol Шаблон:Not a typo ("variant pi") is an archaic script form of pi (π), also used as a technical symbol.
  • The letter rho (ρ) can occur in different stylistic variants, with the descending tail either going straight down or curled to the right. The symbol Шаблон:Not a typo (U+03F1) is designated specifically for the curled form, used as a technical symbol.
  • The letter sigma, in standard orthography, has two variants: ς, used only at the ends of words, and σ, used elsewhere. The form Шаблон:Not a typo ("lunate sigma", resembling a Latin c) is a medieval stylistic variant that can be used in both environments without the final/non-final distinction.
  • The capital letter upsilon (Υ) can occur in different stylistic variants, with the upper strokes either straight like a Latin Y, or slightly curled. The symbol ϒ (U+03D2) is designated specifically for the curled form (<math>\Upsilon</math>), used as a technical symbol, e.g. in physics.
  • The letter phi can occur in two equally frequent stylistic variants, either shaped as <math>\textstyle\phi\,\!</math> (a circle with a vertical stroke through it) or as <math>\textstyle\varphi\,\!</math> (a curled shape open at the top). The symbol Шаблон:Not a typo (U+03D5) is designated specifically for the closed form, used as a technical symbol.
  • The letter omega has at least three stylistic variants of its capital form. The standard is the "open omega" (Ω), resembling an open partial circle with the opening downward and the ends curled outward. The two other stylistic variants are seen more often in modern typography, resembling a raised and underscored circle (roughly o̲), where the underscore may or may not be touching the circle on a tangent (in the former case it resembles a superscript omicron similar to that found in the numero sign or masculine ordinal indicator; in the latter, it closely resembles some forms of the Latin letter Q). The open omega is always used in symbolic settings and is encoded in Letterlike Symbols (U+2126) as a separate code point for backward compatibility.

Computer encodings

For computer usage, a variety of encodings have been used for Greek online, many of them documented in Шаблон:IETF RFC.

The two principal ones still used today are ISO/IEC 8859-7 and Unicode. ISO 8859-7 supports only the monotonic orthography; Unicode supports both the monotonic and polytonic orthographies.

ISO/IEC 8859-7

For the range A0–FF (hex), it follows the Unicode range 370–3CF (see below) except that some symbols, like ©, ½, § etc. are used where Unicode has unused locations. Like all ISO-8859 encodings, it is equal to ASCII for 00–7F (hex).

Greek in Unicode

Шаблон:Main

Unicode supports polytonic orthography well enough for ordinary continuous text in modern and ancient Greek, and even many archaic forms for epigraphy. With the use of combining characters, Unicode also supports Greek philology and dialectology and various other specialized requirements. Most current text rendering engines do not render diacritics well, so, though alpha with macron and acute can be represented as U+03B1 U+0304 U+0301, this rarely renders well: Шаблон:Lang.Шаблон:Citation needed

There are two main blocks of Greek characters in Unicode. The first is "Greek and Coptic" (U+0370 to U+03FF). This block is based on ISO 8859-7 and is sufficient to write Modern Greek. There are also some archaic letters and Greek-based technical symbols.

This block also supports the Coptic alphabet. Formerly, most Coptic letters shared codepoints with similar-looking Greek letters; but in many scholarly works, both scripts occur, with quite different letter shapes, so as of Unicode 4.1, Coptic and Greek were disunified. Those Coptic letters with no Greek equivalents still remain in this block (U+03E2 to U+03EF).

To write polytonic Greek, one may use combining diacritical marks or the precomposed characters in the "Greek Extended" block (U+1F00 to U+1FFF).

Шаблон:Unicode chart Greek and Coptic Шаблон:Unicode chart Greek Extended

Combining and letter-free diacritics

Combining and spacing (letter-free) diacritical marks pertaining to Greek language:

Combining Spacing Sample Description
U+0300 U+0060 ( Шаблон:Lang) "varia / grave accent"
U+0301 U+00B4, U+0384 ( Шаблон:Lang) "oxia / tonos / acute accent"
U+0304 U+00AF ( ̄ ) "macron"
U+0306 U+02D8 ( ̆ ) "vrachy / breve"
U+0308 U+00A8 ( ̈ ) "dialytika / diaeresis"
U+0313 U+02BC ( ̓ ) "psili / comma above" (spiritus lenis)
U+0314 U+02BD ( ̔ ) "dasia / reversed comma above" (spiritus asper)
U+0342 ( ͂ ) "perispomeni" (circumflex)
U+0343 ( ̓ ) "koronis" (= U+0313)
U+0344 U+0385 ( ̈́ ) "dialytika tonos" (deprecated, = U+0308 U+0301)
U+0345 U+037A ( ͅ ) "ypogegrammeni / iota subscript".

Encodings with a subset of the Greek alphabet

IBM code pages 437, 860, 861, 862, 863, and 865 contain the letters ΓΘΣΦΩαδεπστφ (plus β as an alternative interpretation for ß).

See also

Notes

Шаблон:Reflist

References

Шаблон:Reflist

Bibliography

Шаблон:Refbegin

Шаблон:Refend

External links

Шаблон:Sister project links

Шаблон:Greek language Шаблон:List of writing systems Шаблон:Ancient Greece topics Шаблон:Authority control

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  1. ↑ The date of the earliest inscribed objects; A.W. Johnston, "The alphabet", in N. Stampolidis and V. Karageorghis, eds, Sea Routes from Sidon to Huelva: Interconnections in the Mediterranean 2003:263–76, summarizes the present scholarship on the dating.
  2. ↑ The Development of the Greek Alphabet within the Chronology of the ANE (2009), Quote: "Naveh gives four major reasons why it is universally agreed that the Greek alphabet was developed from an early Phoenician alphabet.
    1 According to Herodutous "the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus... brought into Hellas the alphabet, which had hitherto been unknown, as I think, to the Greeks."
    2 The Greek Letters, alpha, beta, gimmel have no meaning in Greek but the meaning of most of their Semitic equivalents is known. For example, 'aleph' means 'ox', 'bet' means 'house' and 'gimmel' means 'throw stick'.
    3 Early Greek letters are very similar and sometimes identical to the West Semitic letters.
    4 The letter sequence between the Semitic and Greek alphabets is identical. (Naveh 1982)"
  3. ↑ Шаблон:Harvnb
  4. ↑ 4,0 4,1 Шаблон:Harvnb
  5. ↑ 5,00 5,01 5,02 5,03 5,04 5,05 5,06 5,07 5,08 5,09 5,10 5,11 5,12 5,13 5,14 5,15 5,16 5,17 5,18 5,19 5,20 5,21 5,22 5,23 Шаблон:Harvnb
  6. ↑ 6,0 6,1 6,2 6,3 6,4 Шаблон:Harvnb
  7. ↑ 7,0 7,1 7,2 7,3 7,4 Шаблон:Harvnb
  8. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  9. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  10. ↑ Шаблон:Harvnb
  11. ↑ Шаблон:Harvnb
  12. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  13. ↑ 13,0 13,1 13,2 13,3 13,4 Ошибка цитирования Неверный тег <ref>; для сносок Mastronarde2013p11 не указан текст
  14. ↑ 14,0 14,1 14,2 14,3 14,4 14,5 14,6 14,7 14,8 Ошибка цитирования Неверный тег <ref>; для сносок Mastronarde2013p12 не указан текст
  15. ↑ 15,0 15,1 Шаблон:Harvnb
  16. ↑ Additionally, the more ancient combination Шаблон:Angbr or Шаблон:Angbr can occur in ancient especially in Ionic texts or in personal names.
  17. ↑ Nicolas, Nick. "Greek Unicode Issues: Punctuation Шаблон:Webarchive". 2005. Accessed 7 Oct 2014.
  18. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  19. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  20. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  21. ↑ A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language, article by Roger D. Woodward (ed. Egbert J. Bakker, 2010, Wiley-Blackwell).
  22. ↑ Шаблон:Harvnb
  23. ↑ Шаблон:Cite journal
  24. ↑ 24,0 24,1 Шаблон:Harvnb
  25. ↑ Шаблон:Harvnb
  26. ↑ George L. Campbell, Christopher Moseley, The Routledge Handbook of Scripts and Alphabets, pp. 51ff, 96ff
  27. ↑ Understanding Relations Between Scripts II by Philip J Boyes & Philippa M Steele. Published in the UK in 2020 by Oxbow Books: "The Carian alphabet resembles the Greek alphabet, though, as in the case of Phrygian, no single Greek variant can be identified as its ancestor", "It is generally assumed that the Lydian alphabet is derived from the Greek alphabet, but the exact relationship remains unclear (Melchert 2004)"
  28. ↑ Britannica – Lycian Alphabet "The Lycian alphabet is clearly related to the Greek, but the exact nature of the relationship is uncertain. Several letters appear to be related to symbols of the Cretan and Cyprian writing systems."
  29. ↑ Scriptsource.org – Carian"Visually, the letters bear a close resemblance to Greek letters. Decipherment was initially attempted on the assumption that those letters which looked like Greek represented the same sounds as their closest visual Greek equivalents. However it has since been established that the phonetic values of the two scripts are very different. For example the theta θ symbol represents 'th' in Greek but 'q' in Carian. Carian was generally written from left to right, although Egyptian writers wrote primarily from right to left. It was written without spaces between words."
  30. ↑ Omniglot.com – Carian "The Carian alphabet appears in about 100 pieces of graffiti inscriptions left by Carian mercenaries who served in Egypt. A number of clay tablets, coins and monumental inscriptions have also been found. It was possibly derived from the Phoenician alphabet."
  31. ↑ Ancient Anatolian languages and cultures in contact: some methodological observations by Paola Cotticelli-Kurras & Federico Giusfredi (University of Verona, Italy) "During the Iron ages, with a brand new political balance and cultural scenario, the cultures and languages of Anatolia maintained their position of a bridge between the Aegean and the Syro-Mesopotamian worlds, while the North-West Semitic cultures of the Phoenicians and of the Aramaeans also entered the scene. Assuming the 4th century and the hellenization of Anatolia as the terminus ante quem, the correct perspective of a contact-oriented study of the Ancient Anatolian world needs to take as an object a large net of cultures that evolved and changed over almost 16 centuries of documentary history."
  32. ↑ J. Blau, "Middle and Old Arabic material for the history of stress in Arabic", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 35:3:476-84 (October 1972) full text
  33. ↑ Ahmad Al-Jallad, The Damascus Psalm Fragment: Middle Arabic and the Legacy of Old Ḥigāzī, in series Late Antique and Medieval Islamic Near East (LAMINE) 2, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2020; full text; see also Bible translations into Arabic
  34. ↑ Katja Šmid, "Los problemas del estudio de la lengua sefardí", Verba Hispanica 10:1:113-124 (2002) full text: "Es interesante el hecho que en Bulgaria se imprimieron unas pocas publicaciones en alfabeto cirílico búlgaro y en Grecia en alfabeto griego."
  35. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  36. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  37. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  38. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  39. ↑ For chi and beta, separate codepoints for use in a Latin-script environment were added in Unicode versions 7.0 (2014) and 8.0 (2015) respectively: U+AB53 "Latin small letter chi" (ꭓ) and U+A7B5 "Latin small letter beta" (ꞵ). As of 2017, the International Phonetic Association still lists the original Greek codepoints as the standard representations of the IPA symbols in question [1].


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