Greek

The letters in the Greek alphabet presented below are used for printed Ancient Greek texts. The earliest Greek texts that have survived were written with a radically different script called Linear B.

For a detailed and wonderfully well argued discussion of the origins of the Greek alphabet, see Roger D. Woodard’s book, Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer.

You can find fonts for displaying or writing Greek text as well as utilities for converting older fonts to the new Unicode standarde on our fonts page.

Three sets of pronunciation suggestions are given in the table below: first the pronunciation of each letter in Modern Greek, then the reconstructed Hellenistic Koine pronunciation, and finally the reconstructed pronunciation for the Classical period (before about 350 BCE).

The Erasmian pronunciation used in many schools to teach Biblical Greek and sometimes even Classical Greek is not given on this page. It is omitted because it does not accurately reflect the actual pronunciation of the language at any point in its history. While it can be valuable for learning to spell many ancient Greek words, it has no real value in leaning how Ancient Greek was actually pronounced.

The reconstructed pronunciation for the Hellenistic period—the time of the New Testament and early Christianity—was added in April of 2013 with audio clips. The audio requires that your browser have a Quicktime plugin. If you do not have one, click on any sound icon and you should be prompted to download the most recent version.

To hear online examples of both Classical and Modern Greek pronunciation, see the discussion at the end of the alphabet below. If you are learning Ancient Greek in a classroom setting, imitate your instructor's pronunciation.

To hear examples of Classical Greek texts read with the reconstructed pronunciation system, visit the Classical Greek Pronunciation page of the Commission for Ancient Literature and Latin Tradition.

For a great demonstration of the pronunciation of Modern Greek, see Harry Foundalis' discussion of the Greek Alphabet. He confuses the Erasimian pronunciation with the reconstructed pronunciation of Classical Greek, but his audio demonstrations of Modern Greek pronunciation are extremely valuable.

John Simon, at greeklatinaudio.com has produced audio recordings of the entire New Testament using Modern Greek pronunciation.. Those audio files are now housed at a site belonging to Greg Helding and Wisconsin Internet, Inc.

Carl Conrad has provided a fine discussion of the history of Ancient Greek pronunciation by, tracing its development from Indo-european. (Clicking the link will download a PDF file.)

Roger D. Woodard's book, Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer, is a wonderful combination of Classical Studies and excellent understanding of Linguistics. He argues for an unbroken history leading from the Linear B syllabary to the Greek Alphabet. The argument is well documented and lucid.

In Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet, Barry Powell has written a provocative book asserting that the Greek alphabet was designed intentionally for recording the works of Homer. While Powell shows a thorough knowledge of the available evidence, his proposal still rests on assumptions that cannot be fully tested.

There are many other sites on the internet that show the Greek alphabet. Here are two that provide particularly useful information:

• AncientScripts.com has a very nice discussion of the variations in the script by dialect and some of the changes from ancient to modern times.
• The Omniglot site includes a helpful discussion of the Greek alphabet with pronunciation suggestions.