Greek alphabet with transcription in Russian. Greek letters

The Greek alphabet is a writing system developed in Greece that first appears in archaeological sites in the 8th century BC. This was not the first writing system used to write Greek: Several centuries before the Greek alphabet was invented, the Linear B script was the writing system used to write Greek during the Mycenaean era. The Linear B script was lost around 10,000 BC and with it all knowledge of writing disappeared from Greece until the Greek alphabet was developed.

The Greek alphabet was born when the Greeks adapted the Phoenician writing system to represent their own language, developing an entirely phonetic writing system consisting of individual characters arranged in a linear fashion that could represent both consonants and vowels. The earliest inscriptions from the Greek alphabet are graffiti carved on pots and pots. The graffiti found in Lefkandi and Eretria, the Dipilon oinohoe found in Athens, and the inscriptions in Nestor's Pithekkusai goblet date back to the second half of the 8th century BC and are the oldest known Greek letters ever recorded.

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREEK ALPHABET
At the beginning of the first millennium BC, the Phoenicians who originated in Lebanon developed into successful maritime traders, and they gradually spread their influence westward, establishing outposts throughout the Mediterranean basin. The Phoenician language belonged to the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asian language family and she was closely associated with the Canaanites and Hebrews. With them the Phoenicians carried a commodity for trade, as well as another valuable commodity: their writing system.

The Phoenicians had a writing system similar to that used by other peoples of the Semitic-speaking Levant. They didn't use ideograms; it was a phonetic writing system made up of a set of letters that represented sounds. Like modern Arabic and Hebrew writing systems, the Phoenician alphabet only had letters for consonants, not vowels. The Greeks took the Phoenician alphabet and made several key changes: they dropped those signs for which there was no consonant equivalent in Greek, and used them instead for individual vowel sounds. As a result, the Greek vowel letters A (alpha), E (epsilon), I (iota), O (omicron), Y (upsilon), and H (eta) arose as adaptations of Phoenician letters for consonants that were absent in Greek. By using separate symbols to represent vowels and consonants, the Greeks created a writing system that, for the first time, could represent speech in an unambiguous way.

There are some significant benefits due to these changes. Although syllabic, logographic and pictographic systems can sometimes be ambiguous to represent colloquial, the Greek alphabet can accurately convey speech. In the Middle East, as well as in the Aegean Bronze Age, writing was an art monopolized by specialists, scribes. All of this would have changed in Greece after the Greek alphabet: the Greek alphabet had fewer characters, which made the writing system more accessible to those wishing to learn.

What were the reasons that prompted the Greeks to apply such changes to the Phoenician alphabet? This is not entirely understood, but it seems likely that certain differences between Phoenician and Greek phonology played a role in this process. Although the Phoenician word begins with a vowel (only with a consonant), many Greek words have a vowel at the beginning. This means that if the Phoenician alphabet had not been changed, it would have been impossible to accurately write the Greek language. How these changes were implemented is also unknown. However, there are several conclusions that can be drawn from the available archaeological evidence. It is believed that the innovations were carried out by the Greeks in one move. This is supported by the fact that classical Greek vowels are present in the earliest examples of Greek alphabetic writing, with the exception of only Ω (omega). In other words, there is no evidence of a stage in the development of the Greek alphabet, as far as we can judge from the earliest recorded examples: if, instead of one move, the Greeks gradually implemented these innovations, we would expect to see examples of defective, inconsistent or incomplete vowel representations, but so far none of these has not been identified. This is one of the reasons why some believe that the Greek alphabet had one "inventor" or at least a certain point of "invention".

In the earliest versions of the alphabet, the Greeks followed the Phoenician practice of writing from right to left, and the letters were left oriented. This was followed by a period of bidirectional writing, which means that the writing direction was in one direction on one line, but in opposite direction next is the practice known as boustrophedon. In Boostrofed inscriptions, asymmetrical letters changed orientation in accordance with the direction of the line in which they were part. However, in the 5th century BC. E. The manual of Greek writing was standardized from left to right, and all letters adopted a fixed directional orientation.

LEGENDARY ACCOUNTS IN ORIGIN GREEK ALPHABET
The ancient Greeks were more or less aware of the fact that their alphabet was an adaptation of the Phoenician alphabet, and there have been several reports of the creation of an alphabet in Ancient Greece... One famous example- Herodotus:

So, these Phoenicians, including the Gethirs, came with Kadmos and settled this land [Boeotia], and they passed on a lot of knowledge to the Hellenes and, in particular, taught them the alphabet, which, as it seems to me, the Hellenes did not have before, but which was originally used by all Phoenicians. Over time, both the sound and the shape of the letters have changed (Herodotus, 5.58).

Cadmos, mentioned by Herodotus, is the Greek spelling for Cadmus, the legendary Phoenician of Greek folklore who was considered the founder and first king of Thebes in Boeotia. Interestingly, his name seems to be related to the Phoenician word qadm "east". Due to the alleged participation of Cadmus and the Phoenicians in the transmission of the alphabet, in the VI century BC. The Crete official with the duties of scribes was still called the poinikastas "Phoenicianizer", and the earlier writing was sometimes called the "Cadmean letters". The Greeks called them the alphabets phoinikeia grammata, which can be translated as "Phoenician letters." Some Greeks, however, were reluctant to acknowledge the eastern influence of their alphabet, so they justified the origin of the name phoinikeia grammata with various apocryphal accounts: some said that the alphabet was invented by Phoenix, the mentor of Akhilleus, while others said that the name was associated with the leaves of the phoinix "palm tree".

SCRIPTS OBTAINED FROM THE GREEK ALPHABET
There were several versions of the early Greek alphabet, broadly classified into two different groups: the Eastern and Western alphabets. In 403 BC. E. Athens took the initiative to combine many versions of the alphabet, and one of the eastern versions of the Greek alphabet was accepted as the official one. This official version gradually displaced all other versions in Greece, and it became dominant. As Greek influence grew in the Mediterranean world, several communities came into contact with the Greek idea of ​​writing, and some of them developed their own writing systems based on the Greek model. The Western version of the Greek alphabet, used by the Greek colonists in Sicily, moved to the Italian peninsula. The Etruscans and Messapians created their own alphabet based on the Greek alphabet, inspiring the creation of the old Italic scripts, the source of the Latin alphabet. In the Middle East, the Carians, Lycians, Lydians, Pamphiles, and Phrygians also created their own versions of the alphabet based on Greek. When the Greeks gained control of Egypt during the Hellenistic period, the Egyptian writing system was replaced by the Coptic alphabet, which was also based on the Greek alphabet.

The Gothic alphabet, the Glagolic alphabet, and the modern Cyrillic and Latin alphabets are ultimately derived from the Greek alphabet. Although the Greek alphabet is used only for the Greek language today, it is the root script of most scripts used in the Western world today.

There are 24 letters in Greek. If you look at the table below, you will find 3 letters "and" and 2 more letters "O"... They read the same. Earlier in ancient Greek, each "and", for example, was read differently. In modern modern Greek language, only a different spelling of these letters has survived, and they are all read the same.

Also in the Russian language there are almost all the sounds of the Greek language, except for the sounds δ , ζ (if you are familiar with English, you will find similarities between these sounds in English) and γ (read as Ukrainian "G", so for Russian speakers it will not be difficult to pronounce it).

I would also like to draw attention to the stress. It always is put in words (sometimes there are words in which the stress is not put, for example: λαη , θαη , γθοι , ληοσς , but there are very few of them). These are mostly monosyllabic words. It is even considered a mistake not to stress.

Very important point in Greek: letter "O" you need to pronounce it without replacing it as in Russian with "a"... For example, in Russian the word "milk" it says like "MALAKO"... In the Greek language "O" always reads like "O"(imagine that you are from the Vologda region).

Reading letter combinations

In the Greek language, there are quite a lot of letter combinations (that is, sounds obtained from a combination of 2, 3 and even 4 letters). There are several reasons for this. The first is, again, a story drawn from the ancient Greek language, when the sounds were read differently than in the modern Greek language. Their spelling has been preserved. The second reason is simply the lack of letters in the alphabet. 24 letters seemed to the Greeks insufficient to express philosophical thoughts. Therefore, they came up with additional sounds, combining existing letters with each other.

Note! The stress on combinations of 2 vowels is placed on the second letter. If the stress falls on the first letter of the combination, then each letter is read separately

Features of the pronunciation of some consonants in words

Letters γ , κ , λ , χ , ν soften if followed by sounds "And", "e" (ι , η , υ , ει , οι , ε , αι ).

For instance:

γ η (ground), γ ελώ (laugh), κ ενό (general, emptiness), κ ήπος (garden), γ υναίκα (woman, wife), χ ίλια (thousand), ό χ ι (no), κ ιλό (kilogram).

σ reads like ζ if σ is followed by the following consonants: β , γ , δ , μ , ρ , μπ , ντ , γκ .

For instance:

Ι σ ραήλ (Israel), κό σ μος (space, people), κουρα σ μένος (tired), σ βήνω (turn off), ι σ λάμ (Islam), ο άντρα ς μου (my husband).

All doubled consonants are read as one.

For instance:

Σά ββ ατο (Saturday), ε κκ λησία (church), παρά λλ ηλος (parallel), γρα μμ άριο (gram), Ά νν α (Anna), ι ππ όδρομος (hippodrome), Κα σσ άνδρα (Kassandra), Α ττ ική (Attica).

This rule does not apply to the combination γγ (see reading rule above).

The set of letters in the Greek system. lang. arranged in the accepted order (see table below). Letters G. and. used in Russian editions. lang. as symbols mat. and physical designations. In the original, the letters G. and. it is customary to enclose in a circle of red ... ... Publishing dictionary-reference

Greek alphabet- The Greeks first used consonant writing. In 403 BC. e. under Archon Euclid, the classical Greek alphabet was introduced in Athens. It consisted of 24 letters: 17 consonants and 7 vowels. For the first time, letters were introduced to denote vowels; α, ε, η ... Dictionary linguistic terms T.V. Foal

This article is about the Greek letter. For the Cyrillic numerical sign, see Kopp's article (Cyrillic) Greek alphabet Α α alpha Β β beta ... Wikipedia

Self-name: Ελληνικά Countries: Greece ... Wikipedia

Language Self-name: Ελληνικά Countries: Greece, Cyprus; communities in the USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Albania, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Italy ... Wikipedia

It is the latest in the history of writing. This name denotes a series of written signs located in a known constant order and conveying approximately completely and accurately all the individual sound elements of which given language … Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

This term has other meanings, see Alphabet (meanings). The Wiktionary contains an article "alphabet" Alphabets ... Wikipedia

Alphabet- [Greek. ἀλφάβητος, from the name of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta (New Greek vita)] is a system of written signs that convey the sound appearance of the words of the language by means of symbols depicting individual sound elements. Invention… … Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary

It is the latest phenomenon in the history of writing (see Letter). This name denotes a series of written signs arranged in a certain constant order and conveying approximately completely and accurately all individual sound elements, of which ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

ALPHABET- a set of letters or similar characters used in writing, where each letter denotes one or more phonemes. Alphabets were not the most ancient basis of writing, having developed from hieroglyphs or written images used ... ... Symbols, signs, emblems. Encyclopedia

Books

• An introduction to the ancient Greek language. Textbook for academic bachelor's degree, Titov O.A .. V study guide reviewed Short story the development of the Greek language from ancient times to the present day, the Greek alphabet, reading rules, types and features of stressing are given. ...
• Introduction to Ancient Greek 2nd ed., Rev. and add. Textbook for Academic Bachelor's Degree, Oleg Anatolyevich Titov. The textbook examines a brief history of the development of the Greek language from ancient times to the present day, gives the Greek alphabet, reading rules, types and features of stressing. ...

letter, name, pronunciation, Latin transliteration
Α α alpha [a] long or short, a
Β β beta [b] b
Γ γ gamma [г] g
Δ δ delta [d] d
Ε ε epsilon [e] short, e
Ζ ζ zeta [dz] dz
Η η this [uh] long ē
Θ θ theta [tx] th
Ι ι iota [and] long and short, i
Κ κ kappa [k] k
Λ λ lambda [l] l
Μ μ mu [m] m
Ν ν nu [n] n
Ξ ξ ksi [ks] x
Ο o omicron [o] short, o
Π π pi [n] p
Ρ ρ ro [p] r
Σ σ sigma [s] s
Τ τ tau [t] t
Υ υ upsilon [ü] as a vowel in a word tulle, short and long, y
Φ φ phi [ph] ph
Χ χ chi [x] ch
Ψ ψ psi [ps] ps
Ω ω omega [o] long ō

Sigma at the end of a word is written as ς: σεισμός earthquake

Ancient Greek vowels were long and short. Alpha, iota and upsilon could mean both short and long sound... Omega and eta are long [o] and [e], respectively, omikrom and epsilon are short [o] and [e]. In the modern tradition, when reading the ancient Greek text, the length of the vowels is not conveyed. However, you need to know it for correct setting stress.

Gamma in combinations γγ γκ γχ γξ reads as [n] ἄγγελος [angelos] messenger, ἄγκυρα [ankura] anchor, λόγχη [longhe] a spear, Σφίγξ [sphinx] sphinx.

The consonants Φ Θ Χ were originally voiceless aspirated [nx] [mx] [kx]. They lost their aspiration quite early, turning into [f], [t], [x]. Traditionally, aspiration is transmitted only when reading theta. In modern Greek, theta came to mean interdental sound.

Diphthongs. αυ [ay] ευ [ey] - read in one syllable. ου - reads like [y].
Αι [ah] Ει [hey] οι [oh] υι [üy]
In diphthongs with the so-called "signature iota" it is not readable ᾳ [a] ῃ [e] ῳ [o]
If you need to show the separate pronunciation of vowels, two dots πραΰς [pra-mustache] are placed above the second of them gentle

Aspiration. An aspiration sign must be placed above the initial vowels.
᾿ - subtle aspiration. does not affect pronunciation
῾ - thick aspiration, pronounced as Ukrainian g (back-lingual, voiced, fricative). it will not be a great sin to pronounce a thick aspiration even as Russian [x]. ἡμέρα [hamera] day, ἓξ [hex] six

The initial υ and ρ always have a thick aspiration. A thick aspiration over ρ is not reflected in the pronunciation, in Latin it is rendered as rh. On two neighboring ρ in the middle of the word, signs of aspiration are put: thin over the first, thick - over the second. When pronounced, they are also not reflected.

Accent marks are also placed above the vowels, which will be discussed next time.

This reading option is ancient Greek letters called Erasmus pronunciation after Erasmus of Rotterdam, who proposed such a reading after comparing Greek words, Greek loanwords in Latin and the features of Greek graphics. There is another option - the Reichlin pronunciation. It is named after Erasmus' opponent Johann Reuchlin. Reuchlin was guided by the pronunciation that existed in the Middle Ages.
Features of the Reichlin system.
1) thick aspiration is not pronounced
2) β reads as [in]
3) π after μ and ν is voiced in [b]
4) τ after ν is voiced in [d]
5) κ after γ and ν is voiced in [г]
6) θ reads as [f]
7) Αι reads as [e]
8) the sounds η and υ, as well as diphthongs Ει οι υι began to be read like [and]
9) αυ and ευ are read before voiced consonants as [av] and [ev], and before voiceless ones - as [af] and [eff].
The Erasmus system is often called etacism, and Reuchlin is often called itacism.

Hello friends! I open a new topic on the site - Greek alphabet and Greek language... Many people are interested in this topic, because not only all European culture comes from Greece, but also many languages.

Rather, many alphabets were created on the basis of Greek. The Greek alphabet gave life to the Latin alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet, the Armenian alphabet and others, now gone into oblivion. It would be great if the Chinese alphabet was originally from the Greek! 🙂

Wikipedia writes in great detail about the history of the Greek alphabet:. Most notably, we all know the Greek letters and the Greek script. The letters of the Greek alphabet are used in mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology ... All our school, and then student years, Greek letters accompany us in textbooks and notebooks.

Greek alphabet letters

And here it is - the Greek alphabet in all its glory. And only 24 letters, and what a wealth of language!

Under the asterisk:

• γ pronounced softly, aspirated, reminiscent of the Ukrainian "g"
• δ does not have an exact correspondence in Russian, resembles an English voiced th - pronounced with aspiration
• θ does not have an exact match in Russian, resembles English voiceless th - aspirated
• ς is written only at the end of a word.

It is interesting that these very voiced and voiceless ths were not given to me in any way when I was learning English. Here, in Greece, I learned to pronounce them correctly - δ and θ.

The modern Greek alphabet of 24 letters was created in 403 BC. by order of Euclid, the then Athenian ruler, and had the goal of creating a single alphabet for the entire Greek-speaking world. The more ancient alphabet consisted of 28 letters and each letter had a certain numerical value. The Phoenician was the prototype of the Greek alphabet. Thus, the earlier writing of Greece, which existed in the Mycenaean era - the Cretan Linear B, which existed in the 15-12 centuries BC, has nothing to do with the modern alphabet. By the way, I saw a sample of this letter in the museum of ancient Mycenae.

Many of you are planning to vacation in Greece, Halkidiki now or in the future. There is still time to learn basic communication phrases in Greek. And I will try to help you with this!

Tell me, did you find the Greek alphabet difficult? The Greek language is not the easiest one, but mastering it is a better understanding of the soul of Greece. Are you interested in Greek? Please write in the comments!

Now listen to a live speech - a satirical program by Lakis Lazopoulos, an anecdote about a cuckoo clock (almost like ours):