ACCENT AND QUANTITY
THE GREEK LETTERS
The Greek letters, borrowed as they were from the East and adopted by the Romans, are substantially the same as the Roman letters of our common English usage, and in fact differ from them both in figure and power scarcely more than our present English type differs from the old English black letter or the common German type. A few remarks will suffice to show where or how far the pronunciation varies from our English use of the same letters.
| Greek Figures. | Names | English Figures. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Α, α | ἄλφα | alpha | a |
| Β, β, ϐ | βῆτα | bêta | b |
| Γ, γ, ⲅ | γάμμα | gamma | g |
| Δ, δ | δέλτα | delta | d |
| Ε, ε | ψῑλόν | epsilon | e |
| Ζ, ζ, | ζῆτα | zêta | z |
| Η, η | ἦτα | êta | ee |
| Θ, θ, ϑ | θῆτα | thêta | th |
| Ι, ι | ἰῶτα | iôta | i |
| Κ, κ | κάππα | kappa | k |
| Λ, λ | λάμβδα | lambda | l |
| Μ, μ | μῦ | mu | m |
| Ν, ν | νῦ | nu | n |
| Ξ, ξ | ξῖ | xi | x |
| Ο, ο | μῑκρόν | omikron | ŏ |
| Π, π | πῖ | pi | p |
| Ρ, ρ | ῥῶ | rho | r |
| Σ, σ, ς | σῖγμα | sigma | s |
| Τ, τ, ך | ταῦ | tau | t |
| Υ, υ | υῑλόν | ’upsilon | u |
| Φ, φ | φῖ | phi | f or ph |
| Χ, χ | χῖ | chi | ch |
| Ψ, ψ | ψῖ | psi | ps |
| Ω, ω | ὦ μέγα | omega | ō |
NOTES
Α is always the broad a (=ah) of all European languages, and never softened down to the English ā, as heard in pātent, nátion.
Β in the spoken Greek of the present day is softened down to the cognate v, exactly as in Gaelic b with the h appended becomes v, as ban, fair, with h, bhan = van.
Γ, when followed by the broad vowels a and o, is pronounced hard as in English and Gaelic; but when followed by soft vowels the Greeks now give it the sound of the English y in yes, yellow—γέλως, γέρων,—just as in German the g in the third syllable of Göttingen is so softened down as almost to disappear.[3] This euphonic action of a weak vowel upon a strong consonant preceding is natural and found in most languages; exactly as the Italians in their soft dialect of Latin have changed Κικέρων into Chichero, ch being pronounced as in the English church.
Before κ, γ, χ and ξ, the letter γ has the sound of n, as in ἄγγελος, in Latin angelus, English angel.
Δ, or D, is in like manner softened into th as in the English mother; thus δέν not, from οὐδέν, pronounced οὐθέν.