cars - Greek alphabet

The Greek language is written in the Greek alphabet, developed in classical times (ca 9th century BC) and passed down to the present. In ancient Greece its letters were also used to represent numbers, called Greek numerals, analogous to Roman numerals. Besides writing modern Greek, today its letters are used as mathematical symbols, as names of stars and fraternities and sororities, and for other purposes.

The Greek alphabet was a modification of the Phoenician alphabet (represented in the table below by the Hebrew alphabet, a modern adaptation). It in turn has given rise to other scripts such as the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. See alphabet: history and diffusion.

Contents

1 Main table

2 Letter combinations and diphthongs

3 Ligatures

4 Greek in Unicode

4.1 Greek and Coptic
4.2 Greek Extended (precomposed polytonic Greek)
4.3 Combining diacritics

5 History

6 Additional information

7 See also

8 Special characters

Main table

The Greek letters and their derivations are as follows (pronunciations transcribed using the International Phonetic Alphabet):

Letter	Name				Pronunciation			Numeric value	Corresponding Hebrew letter	HTML entity	Latin transliteration (but see diphthongs, etc.)
	Greek	Traditional transcription	Pronunciation		Pronunciation
	Greek	Traditional transcription	classical	modern	old	classical	modern
Α α		Alpha		[ˈalfa]		[a] [a:]	[a]	1	א 'Aleph	α	a
Β β	βῆτα	Beta	[ˈbɛːta]	[ˈvita]		[b]	[v]	2	ב Bet	β	b
Γ γ	γάμμα	Gamma	[ˈgamma]	[ˈɣama]		[g]	[j] before [e] or [i]; [ɣ] otherwise	3	ג Gimel	γ	g
Δ δ	δέλτα	Delta	[ˈdelta]	[ˈðelta]		[d]	[ð]	4	ד Dalet	δ	d
Ε ε	ἒ ψιλόν	Epsilon	[ˈe psiˈlon]	[ˈepsilon]		[e]	[e]	5	ה He	ε	e
Ϝ ϝ (1)	Ϝαυ ?	Digamma	[ˈwau] ?	[ˈðiɣama]	[w]	-	-	6	ו Vav	Ϝ	w
Ζ ζ	ζῆτα	Zeta	[ˈzdɛːta]	[ˈzita]		[zd], later [zː]	[z]	7	ז Zayin	ζ	z, s (between vowels)
Η η	ἦτα	Eta	[ˈɛːta]	[ˈita]	[ɛː] [h]	[ɛː]	[i]	8	ח Het	η	ē, e, ê
Θ θ	θῆτα	Theta	[ˈtʰθɛːta]	[ˈθita]		[tʰ]	[θ]	9	ט Tet	θ	th
Ι ι	ἰῶτα	Iota	[ˈiɔːta]	[ˈjota]		[i] [iː]	[i] [j]	10	י Yod	ι	i
Κ κ	κάππα	Kappa	[ˈkappa]	[ˈkapa]		[k]	[k]	20	ך כ Kaf	κ	k, c
Λ λ	λάμβδα	Lambda	[ˈlambda]	[ˈlamða]		[l]	[l]	30	ל Lamed	λ	l
Μ μ	μῦ	Mu	[myː]	[mi]		[m]	[m]	40	ם מ Mem	μ	m
Ν ν	νῦ	Nu	[nyː]	[ni]		[n]	[n]	50	ן נ Nun	ν	n
Ξ ξ	ξῖ	Xi	[ksiː]	[ksi]		[ks]	[ks]	60	ס Samekh	ξ	x, (ks)
Ο ο	ὄ μικρόν	Omicron	[ˈo miˈkron]	[ˈomikron]		[o]	[o]	70	ע `Ayin	ο	o
Π π	πῖ	Pi	[piː]	[pi]		[p]	[p]	80	ף פ Pe	π	p
M (1) (Ϻ ϻ)		San			[z]	-	-	-	ץ צ Tzadik	Ϻ ϻ	s
Q (1) (Ϙ ϙ)		Qoppa			[k]	-	-	90	ק Kuf	Ϙ ϙ	q
Ρ ρ	ῥῶ	Rho	[r̥ɔː]	[ro]		[r], [r̥]	[r]	100	ר Resh	ρ	r, rh (beginning a word), rrh (doubled)
Σ σ	σῖγμα	Sigma	[ˈsiːgma]	[ˈsiɣma]		[s]	[s]	200	ש Shin	σ	s, ss (between vowels)
ς	σῖγμα	Sigma (final)	[ˈsiːgma]	[ˈsiɣma]		[s]	[s]	6 (modern)	ש Shin	&sigmaf;	s
Τ τ	ταῦ	Tau	[tau]	[taf]		[t]	[t]	300	ת Tav	τ	t
Υ υ	ὒ ψιλόν	Upsilon	[ˈyː psiˈlon]	[ˈipsilon]	[u]	[y] [yː]	[i]	400	from ו Vav	υ	u, y (between consonants)
Φ φ	φῖ	Phi	[pʰiː]	[fi]		[pʰ]	[f]	500	origin disputed (see text)	φ	ph
Χ χ	χῖ	Chi	[kʰiː]	[xi]	[kʰ] [ks]	[kʰ]	[ç]	600		χ	ch, kh
Ψ ψ	ψῖ	Psi	[psiː]	[psi]		[ps]	[ps]	700		ψ	ps
Ω ω	ὦ μέγα	Omega	[ɔːˈmega]	[oˈmeɣa]		[ɔː]	[o]	800		ω	o, ô
Ϡ ϡ (1)		Sampi			[ss] [ks]	-	-	900		Ϡ ϡ

(1): Letter removed from the alphabet in early times, before the period that is now called "classical". Only capitals were written; the lowercase forms are modern.

Letter combinations and diphthongs

Letters	Pronunciation			Latin transliteration
Letters	old	classical	modern	Latin transliteration
αι		[aɪ]	[ɛ]	ae
ει	[eɪ] [e:]	[e:]	[i]	i
οι		[oɪ]	[i]	oe, i (final)
υι		[yɪ]	[i]	ui
ωι		[ɔɪ]	[ɔ]	o
αυ		[aʊ]	[av] before voiced sound [af] before voiceless sound	au, av
ευ		[eʊ]	[ev] before voiced sound [ef] before voiceless sound	eu, ev
ηυ		[ɛ:ʊ]	[iv] before voiced sound [if] before voiceless sound	eu
ου	[oʊ] [o:]	[u:]	[u]	u, ou
γγ (2)		[ŋg]	[ŋɡ]	ng
γκ (2)		[ŋk]	[ɡ] at the beginning of a word [ŋk] otherwise	nc, nk
γξ (2)		[ŋks]	[ŋks]	nx, nks
γχ (2)		[ŋx]	[ŋç]	nch, nkh
μπ	-	-	[b] at the beginning of a word [mb] otherwise	mp
ντ	-	-	[d] at the beginning of a word [nd] otherwise	nt

(2): Some scholars see agma as a phoneme in its own right.

Ligatures

Before the days of printing, scribes made use of a number of ligatures to save space, in Greek as in other languages. The ligature for ου — resembling a V above an O — is still sometimes seen. For a modern use of this in the Latin alphabet, see Ou (letter)

Greek in Unicode

There are 2 main blocks of Greek characters in Unicode. The first is "Greek and Coptic" (U+0370 — 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 Coptic language; formerly most Coptic letters shared codepoints with looking-alike Greek letters. Since Unicode 4.1, Coptic is disunified from Greek since in many scholarly works, both of them occur, with quite different letter shapes. Still the Coptic letters that have no Greek equivalents remain in this block.

To write polytonic Greek (Old Greek or Katharevousa), one may use combining diacritical marks. However, Unicode also includes a full set of precomposed characters in the "Greek Extended" block (U+1F00 – U+1FFF).

Greek and Coptic

370

380

390

3A0

3B0

3C0

3D0

3E0

3F0

Greek Extended (precomposed polytonic Greek)

1F00

ἀ

ἁ

ἂ

ἃ

ἄ

ἅ

ἆ

ἇ

Ἀ

Ἁ

Ἂ

Ἃ

Ἄ

Ἅ

Ἆ

Ἇ

1F10

ἐ

ἑ

ἒ

ἓ

ἔ

ἕ

἖

἗

Ἐ

Ἑ

Ἒ

Ἓ

Ἔ

Ἕ

἞

἟

1F20

ἠ

ἡ

ἢ

ἣ

ἤ

ἥ

ἦ

ἧ

Ἠ

Ἡ

Ἢ

Ἣ

Ἤ

Ἥ

Ἦ

Ἧ

1F30

ἰ

ἱ

ἲ

ἳ

ἴ

ἵ

ἶ

ἷ

Ἰ

Ἱ

Ἲ

Ἳ

Ἴ

Ἵ

Ἶ

Ἷ

1F40

ὀ

ὁ

ὂ

ὃ

ὄ

ὅ

὆

὇

Ὀ

Ὁ

Ὂ

Ὃ

Ὄ

Ὅ

὎

὏

1F50

ὐ

ὑ

ὒ

ὓ

ὔ

ὕ

ὖ

ὗ

὘

Ὑ

὚

Ὓ

὜

Ὕ

὞

Ὗ

1F60

ὠ

ὡ

ὢ

ὣ

ὤ

ὥ

ὦ

ὧ

Ὠ

Ὡ

Ὢ

Ὣ

Ὤ

Ὥ

Ὦ

Ὧ

1F70

ὰ

ά

ὲ

έ

ὴ

ή

ὶ

ί

ὸ

ό

ὺ

ύ

ὼ

ώ

὾

὿

1F80

ᾀ

ᾁ

ᾂ