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The Greek Alphabet: Its Letters and Sounds (Part 1)
The Greek Alphabet
Sight and Sounds of the Greek Letters (Module A)
The Letters and Pronunciation of the Greek Alphabet
Phonology (Part 1)
Lesson One Overview
§1.0 Introduction, 1
§1.1 The Greek Alphabet, 6
§1.2 The Greek Small Letters, 16
§1.3 The Greek Capital Letters, 18
§1.4 The Greek Alphabet Charted, 19
§1.5 Further Information, 20
Study Guide, 22
§1.0 Introduction
As might be expected, the Greek alphabet is introduced first. The Greek alphabet
has twenty-four letters. Each letter is represented by both a small and capital
letter. The difference between the small and capital letters is no different from the
small and capital letters in English. Seven alphabetical letters are vowels, and the
remaining letters consonants. It is vital to learn the
names of these letters, the form of both the small and
capital letters, and the proper pronunciation of each. This
will not be as difficult as expected, since many English
and Greek alphabetical characters are very similar.
The forming and pronunciation of the twenty-four Greek
letters are introduced in this lesson. Mastering the sight
and sounds of the alphabet will lay the cornerstone for
learning the sight and sounds of Greek words in all
subsequent lessons. The first and single most important step in learning Greek is
to memorize the sight and sounds of the alphabet. Those who do not thoroughly
learn the Greek alphabet are sowing the seed for future failure.
Before introducing the Greek letters, a few preliminary comments are necessary
about the different types of Greek letters, their phonemic pronunciation, the Greek
typeface used in this course, and its deployment on the Internet.
' Dr. William D. Ramey
¤
Phonology (Part 1)
InTheBeginning.org
1
LESSON 1: The Greek Alphabet Page 2
Sight and Sounds of the Greek Letters (Module A)
______________________________________________________________________
§1.01 The types of Greek letters in the alphabet
. As with the English alphabet,
two major types of speech sounds constitute the Greek alphabet. The open
sounds with free breath are called
vowel
letters. The closed sounds with
restricted breath are called
consonant
letters.
When one says ah for the doctor, an open
sound is made with free passage of breath.
The sound may be made as long as there is
breath. This sound is a vowel, as are all the
other open and freely breathed sounds in speech. The various vowel sounds are
enunciated by modification of the shape of the oral chamber, and by movements
of the tongue and lips. There are seven vowel letters in the Greek alphabet.
The Greek alphabet contains
seven distinct vowels and
seventeen consonants.
The open quality of vowels distinguishes them from another type of letter, the
consonant. Simply stated, a consonant is any single letter that is not a vowel.
The consonant letters are pronounced with the breath totally or partly blocked.
This hindering of sound is done by the tongue, teeth, or lips. There are seventeen
consonant letters in the Greek alphabet.
§1.02 The Greek alphabetical letters and sounds
. A sound sufficiently distinct
from other sounds as to differentiate meaning is a
phoneme
. Each phoneme is
represented in writing by a unique alphabetical letter. For example, the words
pat and bat have different meanings;
this indicates in English the two letters,
p and b are separate phonemes.
Although the forming of these two letters
by the lips is identical, the vocal cords are
used with b and not with p.
A words phonetic pronunciation is produced by the quick succession of its
individual letter phonemes. In bat, the combined phonemic sound of each
alphabetical letter (b + a + t) yields the words total phonetic sound. However,
only context determines the meaning of the word (bat as a stout wooden stick or
club; bat as a nocturnal flying mammal; or bat as to move the eyelids quickly).
This lesson introduces both the phoneme of each Greek alphabetical character, as
well as the pronunciation of each Greek alphabetical letter.
§1.03 The phonemic system used in this course
. The Greek letter sounds for
this course are designed to provide a practical and consistent system of
pronunciation. No authoritative source exists in determining how Greek was
pronounced during New Testament times. However, as an aid to vocabulary
' Dr. William D. Ramey
¤
Phonology (Part 1)
InTheBeginning.org
The term ÐphonemeÑ is pronounced
as f
/
nm. The twenty-four Greek
alphabetical characters represent
twenty-four different phonemes.
LESSON 1: The Greek Alphabet Page 3
Sight and Sounds of the Greek Letters (Module A)
______________________________________________________________________
memorization, the Erasmian standardized system of pronunciation has been
adopted that is widely used in universities, Bible colleges, seminaries, and in
numerous modern New Testament Greek grammars.
Three major approaches are available for learning the
pronunciation of New Testament Greek. It would seem
natural to learn the standardized pronunciation used today
in Greece. However, unless Greek is spoken on a daily
basis, a serious draw back exists. Several different
phonemes have identical sounds, and some phonemes
have multiple sounds, causing confusion between how a
word is spoken and actually written. This is no different in
English where the letter c may sound very different, such
as the c in cat, circle, or cube, or the difference in
meaning between the two words, cubical and cubicle, being pronounced
identically. The native speaker knows the difference because they are absorbed
in the languagevery different from a non-native learning to read the Greek New
Testament. Furthermore, as with all languages, the pronunciation used in Modern
Greek has evolved over the years. Therefore, Modern Greek is not necessarily a
proper reflection how Greek was spoken during the New Testament Era, as
English spoken today is to Elizabethan English.
A second approach to pronunciation is to learn reconstructed New Testament
Greek. Scholars, primarily in the last century, have reconstructed what is
believed to be the actual pronunciation of Greek during the New Testament Era
based upon linguistic guidelines. Even so, with the variety of Greek dialects
spoken during that era because of geographical isolation, there was divergence
primarily with certain vowels sounds. This is also true how English is spoken
differently today in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States.
The final pronunciation approach is the Erasmian system.
Desiderius Erasmus
was a Renaissance Latin and Greek scholar who developed a system for non-
native speakers to learn Greek easily. His system diverged from how Greek was
spoken during his day in that he assigned different phonemes to the vowels and
consonants, differentiating them when spoken. His method greatly enhanced a
copyist to duplicate accurately the Greek New Testament. In addition, his
approach allowed non-natives to learn to read rapidly the Greek New Testament.
Erasmus pronunciation gained a foothold in 1588 A.D. when two British
professors at Cambridge began to use his method in their Greek classes. The
classes were such a success that the approach spread rapidly to other schools,
including Bible colleges, universities, and seminaries, both in Great Britain and
' Dr. William D. Ramey
¤
Phonology (Part 1)
InTheBeginning.org
Desiderius
Erasmus
1466 A.D.?-1539 A.D.
LESSON 1: The Greek Alphabet Page 4
Sight and Sounds of the Greek Letters (Module A)
______________________________________________________________________
eventually the United States. Erasmus pronunciation method proliferated when
many New Testament Greek professors also used his pronunciation in their
grammars. It was not until the middle of 1800 A.D., however, that the terms,
Erasmic Greek or Erasmian Greek became commonplace and denoted the
pronunciation method set forth by Erasmus.
Erasmian Greek is not how Modern Greek is pronounced, nor how Greek was
pronounced during the New Testament Era; it is somewhere in between the two.
It is a practical method for non-native Greek speakers to learn quickly a consistent
system of pronunciation. Even if a non-native attempts to learn Modern Greek
pronunciation, they will never be able to reproduce the phonemic sounds as a
native without living in the country and speaking the language for many years.
The Erasmian approach is a viable alternative to Modern Greek pronunciation for
several reasons. First, the beginner quickly learns to differentiate between the
seven vowel and seventeen consonant sounds, as well as the binary diphthong
vowel sounds. This leads to rapid learning of Greek vocabulary, and eventual
reading of the Greek New Testament. Second, most institutions outside of Greece
teach New Testament Greek using the Erasmian pronunciation method. Unless
one plans to move to Greece and speak the language, Modern Greek
pronunciation in the end is disadvantageous for those who plan to read only the
Greek New Testament and communicate to those who learned Erasmian Greek
who are in the majority. Finally, after learning New Testament Greek vocabulary
using the Erasmian pronunciation, one can attempt to learn Modern Greek
pronunciation, thereby not being initially confused with identical Modern Greek
phonemic sounds.
If Erasmian Greek pronunciation is so good to learn Greek, why did not Greece
eventually adopt it? Whereas Erasmian Greek is a wonderful learning tool, it is
caustic to the ear when compared to Modern Greek lyrical sounds. If one
compares the seemingly musical sounds of Modern Greek, Erasmian Greek
sounds barbariceven intolerable to the native speaker! However, most non-
native students are not interested investing the time to achieve these lyrical
sounds; they are more interested in being able to read the Greek New Testament,
and as rapidly as possible.
With the foregoing rationale set forth for using the Erasmian Greek pronunciation,
let us move on to another matter: the Greek font used in this course.
' Dr. William D. Ramey
¤
Phonology (Part 1)
InTheBeginning.org
LESSON 1: The Greek Alphabet Page 5
Sight and Sounds of the Greek Letters (Module A)
______________________________________________________________________
§1.04 The Greek font used in this course
.
T
he Greek
SPIonic font
has been
chosen for this grammar for several reasons. First, the
SPIonic font is compatible for
both the Macintosh
'
and Windows
'
platforms, utilizing the same character and keyboard
maps. The font is also designed to follow the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae encoding
scheme.
Second, it is a public domain font, meaning that the font may be
downloaded and used without copyright restrictions. Finally, the SPIonic font is an
easy to read typeface similarly found in modern printed texts of the Greek New
Testament, a Greek typeface dating from the middle ages.
Unless the SPIonic font has been downloaded and installed in the font folder of
your computer, the Greek characters will not be displayed or print properly.
Instructions how to install the
SPIonic font
may be found
here
. If the font in the
right-hand column below appears similar as the graphic image in the left-hand
column, the SPIonic font is already installed in your font folder. No further action
is necessary to view and print the course materials.
Graphic SPIonic Font
SPIonic Font
0Dm `)qwg<{ g\m n8 kn/fni
§1.05 Course deployment on the Internet
.
All course lessons are offered in Adobe
Acrobat format.
The
Adobe Acrobat Reader
'
software is free and allows all major
computer platforms to view and print the lesson materials. If you wish to listen to
the lessons’ accompanying MP3 audio files (highly recommended), a MP3 player
is required. If you do not have a MP3 player, you may download without cost
RealPlayer
'
,
Winamp
'
, or the
Microsoft MediaPlayer
'
.
All materials for this New Testament Greek course are distributed on the World
Wide Web from
InTheBeginning.org
web site and are copyrighted by the author.
However, they may be freely distributed without prior permission from Dr. William
D. Ramey, if two conditions are met: (1) the material in the lessons is not altered in
any manner, including the copyright at the bottom of the page remains intact; and
(2) the transmission and distribution of all course materials are done without cost.
Finally,
NTGreek forum
i
s available for students with a special question or need
concerning the course work. Please post the question or comment under the
respective lesson. You will need to join the board in order to post, but not to read
what others have posted.
We are now ready to begin one of the most rewarding experiences of a lifetime:
the study of the New Testament in its original language.
' Dr. William D. Ramey
¤
Phonology (Part 1)
InTheBeginning.org
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