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Home > Greek alphabet

 Contents
1 Overview
2 Main table
3 Letter combinations and diphthongs
4 Greek in Unicode
4.1 Greek and Coptic
4.2 Greek Extended (precomposed polytonic Greek)
4.3 Combining diacritics
5 History
6 Additional information
7 See also

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Greek alphabet
Alpha Beta
Gamma Delta
Epsilon Digamma
Zeta Eta
Theta Iota
Kappa Lambda
Mu Nu
Xi Omicron
Pi San
Qoppa Rho
Sigma Tau
Upsilon Phi
Chi Psi
Omega Sampi
The Greek language is written in the Greek alphabet, developed in classical times (around the 9th century BC) and passed down to the present. In ancient Greece, its letters were also used to represent numbers, called Greek numerals, in analogy with Roman numerals. Its letters are nowadays used for a variety of other purposes: as mathematical symbols, as names of stars, as names of fraternities and sororities, and so forth.

1 Overview

It is believed that the Greek alphabet was brought to Greece via Phoenician traders. Greek is derived from a Semitic script, but there is controversy as to which one, with both Proto-Canaanite and Phoenician as possibilities.

Because Greek minuscules arose at a (much) later date, no historic minuscule actually exists for san. Minuscule forms for the other letters were only used numerically. For number 6 modern Greeks use an old digraph called stigma (Ϛ, ϛ) instead of digamma or use στ if it is not available. For 90 they use modern z-shaped qoppa forms (Ϟ, ϟ).

2 Main table

The Greek letters and their derivations are as follows (pronunciations transcribed according to SAMPA):

Letter Name Pronunciation Numeric value Corresponding Hebrew letter HTML entity Latin transliteration (but see diphthongs, etc.)
Greek Traditional transcription Pronunciation
classicalmodern old classical modern
Α α ἄλφα / ἄλφα Alpha ["alfa] ["alfa]   [a] [a:] [a] 1 א 'Aleph α a
Β β βῆτα / βῆτα Beta ["bE:ta] ["vita]   [b] [v] 2 ב Bet β b
Γ γ γάμμα / γάμμα Gamma ["gamma] ["Gama]   [g] [j] before [e] or [i]; [G] otherwise 3 ג Gimel γ g
Δ δ δέλτα / δέλτα DeltaDelta (upper case Δ, lower case δ) is the 4th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 4. A river delta is named after the letter delta because it has roughly the triangular shape of the upper-case delta. ["delta] ["Delta]   [d] [D] 4 ד Dalet δ d
Ε ε ἒ ψιλόν / ἒ ψιλόν Epsilon [e psi"lon] [e psi"lon]   [e] [e] 5 ה He ε e
F (1) (Ϝ ϝ)   Digamma     [w] - - 6 ו Vav ϝ
Ζ ζ ζῆτα / ζῆτα ZetaZeta (upper case Ζ, lower case ζ) is the 6th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 7. The lower-case letter ζ is used as symbol for: The Riemann zeta function and other zeta functions in mathematics ["zdE:ta] ["zita]   [zd], later [z:] [z] 7 ז Zayin ζ z, s (between vowels)
Η η ἦτα / ῆτα EtaFor other meanings of ETA, see ETA (disambig). Eta (upper case Η, lower case η) is the 7th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 8. The upper-case letter Η is used as a symbol for: In textual criticism ["E:ta] ["ita] [E:] [h] [E:] [i] 8 ח Het η e, ๊, i, a (final: H๊ra)
Θ θ θῆτα / θῆτα Theta ["TE:ta] ["Tita] [t_h] [T] [T] 9 ט Tet θ th
Ι ι ἰῶτα / ἰῶτα Iota ["iO:ta] ["jota]   [i] [i:] [i] [j] 10 י Yod ι i
Κ κ κάππα / κάππα KappaKappa (upper case Κ, lower case κ) is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 20. In mathematics, the kappa curve is named after this letter; the tangents of this curve were first calculated by ["kappa] ["kapa]   [k] [k] 20 ך כ Kaf κ k, c
Λ λ λάμβδα / λάμβδα Lambda ["lambda] ["lamda]   [l] [l] 30 ל Lamed λ l
Μ μ μῦ / μῦ Mu [my:] [mi]   [m] [m] 40 ם מ Mem μ m
Ν ν νῦ / νῦ Nu [ny:] [ni]   [n] [n] 50 ן נ Nun ν n
Ξ ξ ξῖ / ξῖ Xi [ksi:] [ksi]   [ks] [ks] 60 ס Samekh ξ x, ks
Ο ο Ὂ μικρόν / ὂ μικρόν Omicron [o mi"kron] [o mi"kron]   [o] [o] 70 ע `Ayin ο o
Π π πῖ / πῖ Pi [pi:] [pi]   [p] [p] 80 ף פ Pe π p
M (1) (Ϻ ϻ)   San     [z] - - - ץ צ Tzadik Ϻ ϻ s
Q (1) (Ϙ ϙ)   Qoppa     [k] - - 90 ק Kuf Ϙ ϙ q
Ρ ρ ῥῶ / ῥῶ Rho [rO:] [ro]   [r] [r] 100 ר Resh ρ r, rh (beginning a word), rrh (doubled)
Σ σ σῖγμα / σῖγμα Sigma ["si:gma] ["sigma]   [s] [s] 200 ש Shin σ s, ss (between vowels)
  ς Sigma (final) 6 (modern) ς s
Τ τ ταῦ / ταῦ Tau [tau] [taf]   [t] [t] 300 ת Tav τ t
Υ υ ὒ ψιλόν / ὖ ψιλόν Upsilon [y: psi"lon] [i psi"lon] [u] [y] [y:] [i] 400 from Vav υ u, y (between consonants)
Φ φ φῖ / φῖ Phi [fi:] [fi] [p_h] [f] [f] 500 origin disputed (see text) φ ph
Χ χ χῖ / χῖ Chi [Ci:] [Ci] [k_h] [ks] [C] [C] 600 χ ch, kh
Ψ ψ ψῖ / ψῖ Psi [psi:] [psi]   [ps] [ps] 700 ψ ps
Ω ω ὦ μέγα / ὦ μέγα Omega [O: "mega] [o "meGa]   [O:] [o] 800 ω o, ๔
Ϡ ϡ (1)   Sampi     [ss] [ks] - - 900 Ϡ ϡ

(1): Letter removed from the alphabet in early times, before the period that is now called "classical".



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Topics: Greek Alphabet, Overview, Main Table, Letter Combinations And...

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