The Alphabet

There are 24 letters in the Greek alphabet:

Consonants

There are six classes of consonants:

• Liquids: λ, μ, ν, ρ
• Siblants: σ
• Labials: π, β, φ
• Palatals: κ, γ, χ
• Dentals: τ, δ, θ
• Doubles: ζ, ξ, ψ

Vowels

Seven letters are vowels, which can be divided into long and short vowels:

Diphthongs

A dipthong is a combination of two vowels into a single syllable. However, not every pair of vowels is a diphthong. For example, ιο is not a diphthong.

The last three diphthongs shown here (ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ) are improper diphthongs. Their second vowel is written as an iota subscript. By the first century CE, this iota was no longer pronounced.

Diphthongs are always long, except for the final αι and the final οι.

When a word begins with a diphthong, their diacritics go over second letter. For example: αὐτός.

Syllables

A syllable is a unit of sound which has one vowel sound. Therefore, the number of vowel sounds in a word = the number of syllables in that word.

Generally, syllable divisions immediately follows a vowel sound.

Accents

An accent marks the syllable in the word which stress should fall on.

There are three accents:

• The acute (´)
• The grave (`)
• The circumflex (῀)

Only the last three syllables of a word may be accented.

Breathing

Some words are pronounced with a rough breathing at the beginning, equivalent to the English “h” sound.

There are two breathing marks:

• The rough breathing mark (῾) indicates rough breathing.
• The smooth breathing mark (᾽) indicates no rough breathing.

Every word which begins with a vowel or vowel sound will have a breathing mark.

Every word beginning with the letter ρ will have a rough breathing mark.