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LESSON 1
THE GREEK LETTERS 

by George Valsamis

Page 2

The Greek Alphabet

Ancient & Modern 

 

Alpha is the first letter, Beta the second and so starts the Greek alphabet, 24 letters in capital and small forms; (cf. detailed pronunciation below): 

Αα, Ββ, Γγ, Δδ, Εε, Ζζ, Ηη, Θθ, Ιι, Κκ, Λλ, Μμ, Νν, Ξξ, Οο, Ππ, Ρρ, Σσς*, Ττ, Υυ, Φφ, Χχ, Ψψ, Ωω.

*Note that σ is written as ς at the end of a word, e.g. σός (=yours) and is called final sigma. In Byzantine Greek you will also find Σ written as C.

*Note that the Greek P is the English R (this is how it sounds). What in English is P in Greek is Π.

*Note that H in Greek is a vowel, corresponding to the English E. Don't confuse it's small version η with the English n. The English n in Greek is ν.

*Don't confuse ν with the English v. The English v in Greek is β.

There are two more sounds in older Greek, that became useless. The one corresponded to the letter F and was called "Digamma", since it was like two Γ. It sounded like 'wo'. The other was a sound like y in the word year. There was no letter for this sound, but to refer to it today we use the latin j.

 

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