Greek alphabet

From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium
Jump to: navigation, search
Main Article
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]

The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since about the 9th century BCE. It was the first alphabet in the narrow sense, that is, a writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel and consonant alike.[1] It is the oldest alphabetic script in use today. The letters are also used to represent numbersGreek numerals.

In addition to being used for writing modern Greek, its letters are today used as symbols in mathematics and science, particle names in physics, as names of stars, in the names of fraternities and sororities, in the naming of supernumerary tropical cyclones, and for other purposes. The Greek alphabet originated as a modification of the Phoenician alphabet and in turn gave rise to the Gothic, Glagolitic, Cyrillic, and Coptic, as well as the Latin alphabet.[1] The Greek alphabet is also considered a possible ancestor of the Armenian alphabet. It is unrelated to Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, earlier writing systems for Greek.


For more information, see: History of the Greek alphabet.

According to legends recounted by Herodotus, the alphabet was first introduced to Greece by a Phoenician named Cadmus, who also figures in other Greek mythology.

Historically, the Greek alphabet emerged several centuries after the fall of Mycenaean civilization and consequent extinction of its Linear B script, an early Greek writing system. Linear B is descended from Linear A, which was developed by the Minoans, whose language was probably unrelated to Greek; consequently the Minoan syllabary did not provide an ideal medium for the transliteration of Greek language sounds. The Greek alphabet we recognize today arose after the illiterate Greek Dark Ages — the period between the downfall of Mycenae (c. 1200 B.C.) and the rise of Ancient Greece, which begins with the appearance of the epics of Homer, around 800 B.C., and the institution of the Ancient Olympic Games in 776 B.C.

The most notable change in the Greek alphabet, as an adaptation of the Phoenician alphabet, is the introduction of written vowels, without which Greek — unlike Phoenician — would be unintelligible.[1] In fact, most alphabets that contain vowels are derived ultimately from Greek, although there are exceptions (Hangul, Orkhon script, Ge'ez alphabet, Indic alphabets, and Old Hungarian script). The first vowels were alpha, e (later epsilon), iota, o (later omicron), and u (later upsilon), modifications of Semitic glottal, aspirate, or glide consonants that were mostly superfluous in Greek: /ʔ/ (aleph), /h/ (he), /j/ (yodh), /ʕ/ (ayin), and /w/ (waw), respectively. In eastern Greek, which lacked breaths entirely, the letter eta (from the Semitic aspirate consonant /ħ/, heth) was also used for a long e, and eventually the letter omega was introduced for a long o. Vowel signs were originally not used in Semitic alphabets, although even in the very old Ugaritic alphabet matres lectionis were used, i.e. consonant signs were used to denote vowels. Matres lectionis were, however, never used systematically. Whereas in the earlier West Semitic family of writings (Phoencian, Hebrew, Moabite etc.) a sign always stood for a consonant in association with an unspecified vowel or no vowel, the Greek alphabet divided the signs into two categories, consonants ("things that sound along") and vowels, where the consonant signs always had to be accompanied by vowel signs to create a pronouncable unit.

Greek also introduced three new consonant signs, Φ, Χ and Ψ, appended to the end of the alphabet as they were developed. These consonants made up for the lack of comparable aspirates in Phoenician. In west Greek, Χ was used for /ks/ and Ψ for // — hence the value of the Latin letter x, derived from the western Greek alphabet. The origin of those letters is disputed.

The letter san was used at variance with sigma, and by classical times the latter won out, san disappearing from the alphabet. The letters waw (later called digamma) and qoppa disappeared, too, the former only needed for the western dialects and the latter never really needed at all. These lived on in the Ionic numeral system, however, which consisted of writing a series letters with precise numerical values. Sampi (apparently in a rare local glyph form from Ionia) was introduced at the end — to stand for 900. Thousands were written using a mark at the upper left ('A for 1000, etc).

Because Greek minuscules arose at a (much) later date, no historic minuscule actually exists for san. Minuscule forms for the other letters were only used numerically. For number 6, modern Greeks use an old ligature called stigma (Ϛ, ϛ) instead of digamma or use στ if it is not available. For 90 they use modern z-shaped qoppa forms: Ϟ, ϟ (Note that some web browser/font combinations will show the other qoppa here).

Originally there were several variants of the Greek alphabet, most importantly western (Chalcidian) and eastern (Ionic) Greek; the former gave rise to the Old Italic alphabet and thence to the Latin alphabet. Athens took the Ionic script to be its standard in 403 BC, and shortly thereafter the other versions disappeared. By then Greek was always written left to right, but originally it had been written right to left (with asymmetrical characters flipped), and in-between written either way — or, most likely, boustrophedon, so that the lines alternate direction. In the Hellenistic period, Aristophanes of Byzantium introduced the process of accenting Greek letters for easier pronunciation.

During the Middle Ages, the Greek scripts underwent changes paralleling those of the Roman alphabet: while the old forms were retained as a monumental script, uncial and eventually minuscule hands came to dominate. The letter σ is even written ς at the ends of words, paralleling the use of the long and short s at the time.

Main alphabet

Below is a table listing the modern Greek letters, as well as their forms when romanized. The table also provides the equivalent phoenician letter from which each Greek letter is derived. Pronunciations transcribed using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Also note that the classical pronunciation given below is the reconstructed pronunciation of Attic in the late 5th and early 4th century (BC). Some of the letters had different pronunciations in pre-classical times or in non-Attic dialects. For details, see History of the Greek alphabet and Ancient Greek phonology. For details on post-classical Ancient Greek pronunciation, see Koine Greek phonology.

Letter Name Pronunciation Corresponding
Transliteration1 Numeric value
English Classical
Α α ἄλφα άλφα alpha [a] [aː] [a] Aleph Aleph a 1
Β β βῆτα βήτα beta [b] [v] Beth Beth b v 2
Γ γ γάμμα γάμμα
gamma [g] [ɣ~ʝ] Gimel Gimel g gh, g, y 3
Δ δ δέλτα δέλτα delta [d] [ð] Daleth Daleth d d, dh 4
Ε ε εἶ ἒ ψιλόν έψιλον epsilon [e] He He e 5
Ζ ζ ζῆτα ζήτα zeta [zd]
(or [dz]?)
later [zː]
[z] Zayin Zayin z 7
Η η ἦτα ήτα eta [ɛː] [i] Heth Heth e, ē i 8
Θ θ θῆτα θήτα theta [tʰ] [θ] Teth Teth th 9
Ι ι ἰῶτα ιώτα
iota [i] [iː] [i], [j] Yodh Yodh i 10
Κ κ κάππα κάππα
kappa [k] [k~c] Kaph Kaph k 20
Λ λ λάβδα λάμβδα λάμδα
lambda [l] Lamedh Lamedh l 30
Μ μ μῦ μι
mu [m] Mem Mem m 40
Ν ν νῦ νι
nu [n] Nun Nun n 50
Ξ ξ ξεῖ ξῖ ξι xi [ks] Samekh Samekh x x, ks 60
Ο ο οὖ ὂ μικρόν όμικρον omicron [o] Ayin 'Ayin o 70
Π π πεῖ πῖ πι pi [p] Pe Pe p 80
Ρ ρ ῥῶ ρω rho [r], [r̥] [r] Res Resh r (: rh) r 100
Σ σ
σῖγμα σίγμα sigma [s] Sin Shin s 200
Τ τ ταῦ ταυ tau [t] Taw Taw t 300
Υ υ ὓ ψιλόν ύψιλον upsilon [y] [yː]
(earlier [u] [uː])
[i] Waw Waw u, y y, v, f 400
Φ φ φεῖ φῖ φι phi [pʰ] [f] origin disputed
(see text)
ph f 500
Χ χ χεῖ χῖ χι chi [kʰ] [x~ç] ch ch, kh 600
Ψ ψ ψεῖ ψῖ ψι psi [ps] ps 700
Ω ω ὦ μέγα ωμέγα omega [ɔː] [o] Ayin 'Ayin o, ō o 800
  1. For details and different transliteration systems see Transliteration of Greek into English.

Obsolete letters

The following letters are not part of the standard Greek alphabet, but were in use in pre-classical times or in certain dialects. The letters digamma, koppa, and sampi were also used in Greek numerals.

Letter Name Pronunciation Corresponding
Transliteration Numeric value
Ϝ ϝ ϝαῦ ? δίγαμμα Digamma probably [w] Waw Waw w 6
Ϻ ϻ ϻάν ? σάν San [s] Sade Tsade (position)
Sin Shin (name)
Ϙ ϙ
(Ϟ ϟ)
ϙόππα ? κόππα Koppa [q] Qoph Qoph q 90
Ϡ ϡ Unknown σαμπῖ Sampi, disigma obviously fricative,
but exact value discussed
[sː], [ks], [ts] are proposed
Origin disputed,
possibly Sade Tsade
ss or – 900

San should be regarded as an early variant of sigma.

Koppa notated an allophone of Kappa before a back vowel.

Sampi notated a geminate fricative that later evolved to -σσ- (probably [sː]) in most dialects, and -ττ- (probably [tː]) in Attic. Its exact value is heavily discussed, but [ts] is often proposed.

Digamma disappeared from alphabets because the sound it notated had disappeared from Ionic and most other dialects.

The order of the letters up to the letter Τ follows that in the Phoenician or Hebrew alphabet. The complete sequence including the obsolete letters is as follows:

  • Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ϝ/Ϛ Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ϻ Ϙ/Ϟ Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω Ϡ

Letter combinations and diphthongs

Letters Pronunciation Transliteration
ᾰι, αι [ai] [e̞] æ, ē e
ᾱι, [aːi] [a] ā a
ει [] [i] ī i
ηι, [ɛːi] [i] ē i
οι [oi] [i] œ, ē y
ῠι, υι []* [i] yi y
ῡι, υι []* [i] ȳi y
ωι, [ɔːi] [o̞] ō o
ᾰυ, αυ [au] [av] before vowel or voiced consonant;
[af] before voiceless sound
au, av av, af
ᾱυ, αυ [aːu] [av] before vowel or voiced consonant;
[af] before voiceless sound
āu, āv av, af
ευ [eu] [e̞v] before vowel or voiced consonant;
[e̞f] before voiceless sound
eu, ev ev, ef
ηυ [ɛːu] [iv] before vowel or voiced consonant;
[if] before voiceless sound
ēu, ēv iv, if
ου []
earlier []
[u] ū u
ωυ [ɔː.u]** [o.i] ōy oy
γγ [ŋɡ] [ŋɡ] in formal speech (palatalised to [ɲɟ] before [e̞] or [i]),
but often reduced to [ɡ] (palatalised to [ɟ] before [e̞] or [i]);
also pronounced [ŋɣ] in some contexts (palatalised to [ɲʝ] before [e̞])
ng ng, ny, g, y, ngh
γκ [ŋk] [ɡ] at the beginning of a word (palatalised to [ɟ] before [e̞] or [i]);
[ŋɡ] otherwise (palatalised to [ɲɟ] before [e̞] or [i]),
but often reduced to [g] (palatalised to [ɟ] before [e̞] or [i])
nc g, y, ng, ny
γξ [ŋks] [ŋks] nx nx
γχ [ŋkʰ] [ɲç] before [e̞] or [i];
[ŋx] otherwise
nch nch, nkh
γμ discussed
or [ŋm]
[ɣm] gm gm
μπ [mp] [b] at the beginning of a word;
[mb] otherwise, but often reduced to [b]
mp b, mb
ντ [nt] [d] at the beginning of a word;
[nd] otherwise, but often reduced to [d]
nt d, nd

* Diphthong υι [yi] was monophtongized as [] in Classical Attic Greek, but survives in some other contemporary dialects and in early Koine.

** The diphthong ωυ ([ɔːu]) was found in Ionic and in certain Hebrew transcriptions in the Greek Bible, but it did not occur in Attic, and was gradually lost in Koine. Where ωυ was atticized, it was often split into two separate vowel syllables ([ɔː.y]), hence the Latin transcription ōy. Perhaps the clearest example of this is the Biblical Greek name Μωυσῆς [mɔːu.sɛ̑ːs], Moses, which was atticized as Μωϋσῆς [mɔː.y.sɛ̑ːs], then adapted to early Christian Latin as Mōysēs, from where it became Spanish Moisés, French Moïse, etc. The modern Greek form is Μωυσής [mo̞iˈsis], whereas the modern Latin Vulgate form is Mōsēs.

It is discussed among scholars whether [ŋ] (agmaἄγμα) should be regarded as an allophone of [n] or a phoneme in its own right in Greek.


For more information, see: Greek 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 is ȣ, it resembles a V above an O; it is still sometimes seen (for a modern use of this in the Latin alphabet, see Ou (letter)).

In printed 17th-century English works, there sometimes occurs a ligature of Οσ (a small sigma inside a capital omicron) for a terminal "os".

See also ϗ, Ϛ.


For more information, see: Diacritics (Greek alphabet).

Vowels can carry diacritics, namely accents and breathings. The accents are the acute accent (´), the grave accent (`), and the circumflex (). In Ancient Greek, these accents mark different forms of the pitch accent on a vowel. By the end of the Roman period, pitch accent had evolved into a stress accent, and in later Greek all of these accents mark the stressed syllable. The breathings are the spiritus asper (), marking an [h] sound at the beginning of a word, and the spiritus lenis (), marking the absence of an [h] sound at the beginning of a word. The letter rho, although not a vowel, when at the beginning of a word, always carries a spiritus asper. A double rho, although always in the middle of a word, is written with a spiritus lenis on the first rho and a spiritus asper on the second one. A related mark is the diaeresis (¨) marking the separate pronunciation of vowel sounds.

In 1982, the old system, known as "polytonic", was simplified to become the "monotonic" system, which is now official in Greece. The accents were replaced by a single acute accent, the tonos (´), and the breathings were abolished. The diaeresis (¨) was kept.

Use of the Greek alphabet for other languages

The primary use of the Greek alphabet has always been to write the Greek language. However, at various times and in various places, it has also been used to write other languages.[2]

Early examples:

In more modern times:

Greek encodings

A variety of encodings have been used for Greek online, many of them documented in RFC 1947 "Greek Character Encoding for Electronic Mail Messages".

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

Greek in Unicode

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. However, most current text rendering engines do not support combining characters well, so, though alpha with macron and acute can be represented as U+03B1 U+0304 U+0301, this rarely renders well: ᾱ́.

For extended discussion of problematic Greek letter forms in Unicode see Greek Unicode Issues.


This block also supports the Coptic language. 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.


Greek and Coptic

0370         ʹ ͵         ͺ ͻ ͼ ͽ ;  
0380         ΄ ΅ Ά · Έ Ή Ί   Ό   Ύ Ώ
0390 ΐ Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο
03A0 Π Ρ   Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω Ϊ Ϋ ά έ ή ί
03B0 ΰ α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο
03C0 π ρ ς σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω ϊ ϋ ό ύ ώ  
03D0 ϐ ϑ ϒ ϓ ϔ ϕ ϖ ϗ Ϙ ϙ Ϛ ϛ Ϝ ϝ Ϟ ϟ
03E0 Ϡ ϡ (Coptic letters here)
03F0 ϰ ϱ ϲ ϳ ϴ ϵ ϶ Ϸ ϸ Ϲ Ϻ ϻ ϼ Ͻ Ͼ Ͽ

Greek Extended (precomposed polytonic Greek)

1F30 Ἷ
1FB0   ᾿

Combining and letter-free diacritics

For more information, see: Diacritics (Greek alphabet).

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

combining spacing sample description
U+0304 U+00AF (  ̄ ) "macron"
U+0313 (  ̓ ) "psili / comma above" (spiritus lenis)
U+0314 (  ̔ ) "dasia / reversed comma above" (spiritus asper)
U+0342 (  ͂ ) "perispomeni" (circumflex)


  • Humez, Alexander and Nicholas, Alpha to omega: the life & times of the Greek alphabet, Godine, 1981, ISBN 0-87923-377-X. A popular history, more about Greek roots in English than about the alphabet itself.
  • Michael S. Macrakis, ed., Greek letters: from tablets to pixels, proceedings of a conference sponsored by the Greek Font Society, Oak Knoll Press, 1996, ISBN 1-884718-27-2. Includes papers on history, typography, and character coding by Hermann Zapf, Matthew Carter, Nicolas Barker, John A. Lane, Kyle McCarter, Jerôme Peignot, Pierre MacKay, Silvio Levy, et al.
  • Macrakis, Stavros M., "Character codes for Greek: Problems and modern solutions" in Macrakis, 1996. Includes discussion of the Greek alphabet used for languages other than Greek. [2]
  • Robert Elsie, "Albanian Literature in Greek Script: the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth-Century Orthodox Tradition in Albanian Writing", Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 15:20 (1991) Template:PDFlink.


  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Coulmas, Florian (1996). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.. ISBN 0-631-21481-X. 
  2. see S. Macrakis, 1996 for bibliography