The American Printer: A Manual of Typography / Containing practical directions for managing all departments of a printing office, as well as complete instructions for apprentices; with several useful tables, numerous schemes for imposing forms in every variety, hints to authors, etc.

by Thomas MacKellar

GREEK.

A small amount of Greek types is indispensable in every considerable book printing-office. The Greek alphabet contains twenty-four letters, which we give in the following table, with the name of each character expressed in Greek and English, and its sound and numerical value.

THE GREEK ALPHABET.

Forms.		Names in Greek and English.		Sounds.	Numerical Value.
Α	α	Άλφα	Alpha	a	1
Β	β ϐ	Βῆτα	Beta	b	2
Γ	γ	Γὰμμα	Gamma	g	3
Δ	δ	Δέλτα	Delta	d	4
Ε	ε	Ἒψῖλόν	Epsīlon	ĕ short	5
Ζ	ζ	Ζῆτα	Zeta	z	7
Η	η	Ἦτα	Eta	ē long	8
Θ	ϑ θ	Θῆτα	Theta	th	9
Ι	ι	Ἰῶτα	Iōta	i	10
Κ	κ	Κάππα	Kappa	k c	20
Λ	λ	Λάμβδα	Lambda	l	30
Μ	µ	Μῦ	Mu	m	40
Ν	ν	Νῦ	Nu	n	50
Ξ	ξ	Ξῖ	Xi	x	60
Ο	ο	Ὀμῖκρόν	Omĭcron	ŏ short	70
Π	π	Πῖ	Pi	p	80
Ρ	ρ	Ῥῶ	Rho	r	100
Σ	σ ς	Σίγμα	Sigma	s	200
Τ	τ	Ταῦ	Tau	t	300
Υ	υ	Ύψῖλόν	Upsīlon	u	400
Φ	φ	Φῖ	Phi	ph	500
Χ	χ	Χῖ	Chi	ch	600
Ψ	ψ	Ψῖ	Psi	ps	700
Ω	ω	Ὠμεγα	Omĕga	ō long	800

From a desire, probably, to imitate Greek manuscript, a multitude of ligatures, abbreviations, and contractions of letters, as well as duplicates, were cast by the early type-founders. These, however, with two or three exceptions, have been quite discarded; and a fount of modern Greek is readily accommodated in a single pair of cases. The only duplicated characters in the preceding table are β and ϐ, ϑ and Θ, and σ and ς. β looks best when used as an initial letter, and ϐ as a medial. ϑ and Θ are used indiscriminately; but ς is employed as a final letter only.

There are twelve diphthongs or compound vowels in Greek, viz.:—

Six proper,—αι, αυ, ει, ευ, οι, ου; and

Six improper,—ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ, ηυ, υι, ωυ. The point under the first three letters denotes the iota, and is therefore called the subscript iota.

ACCENTS AND ASPIRATES.

᾿	Lenis.
῾	Asper.
´	Acute.
`	Grave.
῀	Circumflex.
῎	Lenis acute.
῍	Lenis grave.
῞	Asper acute.
῝	Asper grave.
῏	Circumflex lenis.
῟	Circumflex asper.
¨	Diæresis.
΅	Diæresis acute.
῭	Diæresis grave.

Accents are nothing more than small marks which have been introduced into the language to denote the pronunciation of words, and aid its acquisition by learners. The ancient Greeks never used them, as is demonstrated from Aristotle, old inscriptions, and ancient medals. It is not easy to tell the date when the practice of writing with accents first obtained, though it is probable not till after the Romans began to learn the Greek tongue and to send their children to study at Athens,—that is, about or a little before the time of Cicero.

Accents—by the Greeks called τόνοι, tones—show the rising or falling of the voice in pronouncing; either separately in distinct syllables, or conjunctively in the same syllable.

Wherefore there are two sorts of accents: two simple, viz. the acute, ὀξύς, figured thus [´], which denotes the elevation of the voice; and the grave, βαρὺς, shaped thus [`], to signify the falling or depression of the voice: and the circumflex, περισπώμενος which was formed first of these two lines or points joined together thus [῍] and afterward was changed into a round sort of a figure like an inverted upsilon, thus [

], but at length came to be figured like an s drawn crosswise [῀].[14]

The acute accent raises the voice, and affects one or more of the last three syllables of a word, if it has so many.

The grave depresses the voice, and affects the last syllable only.

The circumflex lengthens the sound, and affects either the last syllable of a word or the last but one.

There are two spirits, or breathings: the asper [῾], which is equivalent to the modern letter h; and the lenis [᾿], which has no perceptible power, and indicates the bare opening of the mouth and simple emission of the voice.

All the words that begin with a vowel have one of these breathings over them; but the vowel upsilon admits of no other than the spiritus asper at the beginning of a word.

In diphthongs the spiritus is put over the second vowel: as αὐτὸς, not ἀυτὸς.

The letter ρ, at the beginning of a word, has an asper over it, as, ῥέω; and where two ρs meet in a word, the first has a lenis, and the other an asper.

The apostrophe [’] is used for cutting off the vowels α, ε, ι, ο, and the diphthongs αι and οι, when they stand at the end of a word and the next word begins with a vowel: as, παρ’ αὐτῷ for παρὰ αὐτῷ; πάντ’ ἔλεγον for πάντα ἔλεγον.

Sometimes the apostrophe contracts two words into one: as, κᾳ’γὼ for καὶ ἐγὼ; ἐγῶ’μαι for ἐγῶ οἴμαι; κᾳ’κεῖνος for καὶ ἐκεῖνος.

Sometimes an apostrophe supplies the place of the first vowel beginning a word: as ὦ ’γαθὲ for ὦ ἀγαθὲ; ποῦ ’ςι for ποῦ ἐςι. This is chiefly used in poetry.

But the prepositions περὶ and πρὸ suffer no apostrophe though the next word begin with a vowel; for we write περὶ υμῶν, πρὸ ἐμοῦ; περὶ αὐτον, πρὸ ἐτῶν, &c.

The diæresis [¨] is put over the last one of two vowels that come together, to show that they must be pronounced separately, and not as a diphthong: thus, ἀϋτὴ with a diæresis makes three syllables; but without a diæresis αυ is a diphthong, and makes αὐτὴ two syllables.

Diastole [,] is put between two particles that would bear a different sense without it: thus, ὄ,τε ὄ,τι signify whatever; whereas ὁτε stands for as, and ὁτι for that. Τό,τε with a diastole implies and this; but when without, it answers to the adverb then.

The sign of interrogation, in Greek, is made by a semicolon [;].

The colon is made by an inverted full-point [·].

All other points are the same as in English.

The compositor will find it advantageous to bear in mind the following rules:—

1. No accent can be placed over any other than one of the last three syllables of a word.

2. The grave accent never occurs but on the last syllable; and, this being the case, the asper grave ῝ and lenis grave ῍ can be wanted only for a few monosyllables.

3. No vowel can have a spirit, or breathing, except at the beginning of a word.

4. The letter ρ is the only consonant marked by a breathing.

5. Almost every word has an accent, but very seldom has more than one; and, when this happens, it is an acute thrown back upon the last syllable from one of those words called enclitics (leaning back), which in that case has none, unless it be followed by another enclitic. In no other case than this can a last syllable have an acute accent, except before a full-point, colon, or note of interrogation, when the grave accent of the last syllable is changed to an acute,—a circumstance which has often led printers, who were ignorant of the reasons for accenting the same word differently in different situations, to think that there was an error in their copy, and thus to make one in their proof. Most errors, however, proceed from those who do not think at all about the matter.