Modern Greek/Lesson 01.4

Η η

Even though the capital letter looks like an H and the small letter looks somewhat like a small N, this is actually a vowel. In Hellenistic, Medieval, and Modern Greek, it is pronounced like the Spanish "i" (IPA [i]), same as the letter Iota. In Ancient Greek, it used to be pronounced like a long "e", as in the word "pain". That's why words which got derived in the past from Greek and are spelled with an Eta are actually spelled with an E in English, which is also a different sound from the original eta. An example: δημοκρατία became "democracy" and not "dimocracy" in English. In Attic Greek it must have sounded different from both. Fortunately, this reference to those English words is a way to know whether a Modern Greek word is spelled with Eta or Iota. In standard transliteration this letter is rendered as ī (the dash is used in order to distinguish it from Iota), while in names and toponyms it is transcribed simply as i (with the disadvantage of being unable to distinguish it from Iota). Sometimes h is used just because of the similarity of the respective capital letters, providing though a weird and wrong spelling. Practice your reading now:

• ακαδημία
• Κρήτη
• Αμερική
• ηλεκτρονικά
• Ισραήλ
• Ινδονησία
• Μαδρίτη
• Τρίπολη
• Άρης
• Σπάρτη
• Ταϊλάνδη

There is yet another letter that sounds like i: upsilon.

Υ υ

The shape of this Greek letter seems to refer us to both Y and U, and that's correct: when English words derive from Greek ones, most of times this letter is rendered as Y in English and vice versa. Also, in very ancient Greek this letter was pronounced like the u in "rule" (IPA [u]) but later it transformed to the French U sound (German Ü, IPA [y], sound which doesn't exist in English). In medieval Greek the letter started sounding just like Iota and Eta. Example words:

• δυναμική
• ανάλυση
• Σύδνεϋ
• Τόκυο
• Συρία
• Υεμένη

Now you're probably wondering how to write the u sound as in "rule" in Modern Greek. Greeks need two letters for this: Omikron and Upsilon (ου). This probably sounds familiar to those who have studied French, because French also spells [u] as "ou". Here are a lot of sample words with this letter combination, for practice:

• Ουκρανία
• Ρουμανία
• Τουρκία
• μουσική
• Καμπούλ
• Καλκούτα
• Ιερουσαλήμ
• Σεούλ
• Περού
• Ρουάντα

Now you're going to learn another very important Greek letter: Omega.

Ω ω

This is the second variety of O in Greek. The O that you already learned is called Omikron, which translates to "small O". This one is called Omega, which translates to "big O". They are both pronounced the same, as o in obey. In standard transliteration, this letter is rendered as ō because in ancient Greek it had the sound of a long [o], which made it essentially a different vowel. Transcription in names and toponyms is usually just o. Sometimes unofficially it is rendered as w (inspired by the shape of the small letter), but this leads to weird and incorrect spelling, as in some pretty weird-looking transliterations, like "egw agapw". Knowing this letter (and the ones taught before), you can read some new words:

• Ιαπωνία
• Ρωσία
• ωροσκόπιο
• ερωτικός
• άρωμα
• Κώστας
• Κως
• Πορτ-ω-Πρενς
• Ρώμη
• Πολωνία

The last letter I'd like to introduce to you in this lesson is Beta.

Β β

As I mentioned earlier, this letter sounds like an English V (IPA [v]), not like a B. That's why it is often used for English words that contain V or W. In classical Greek it was pronounced like English B, explaining the common origin of the two letters, but the pronunciation changed to V in Hellenistic Greek. Compare the sound of Beta to the sound of the Spanish 'B', which has a V sound unless it's found in the beginning of a word. Beta is generally used very often and there are lots of example words that you can use for practice:

• ασβέστης
• αμβροσία
• Βιετνάμ
• Βολιβία
• Λίβανος
• Ιβάν
• Οττάβα
• Κούβα
• Κουβέιτ
• Αλβανία
• Λίβερπουλ
• Βρετανία
• Βανκούβερ
• Μελβούρνη
• Βιέννη
• Βατικανό
• Βουδαπέστη
• Ελ Σαλβαδόρ
• Βέρνη
• Βομβάη
• Ρέυκιαβικ
• Κολομβία
• Βαρσοβία
• Λισαβόνα
• Δουβλίνο
• Ταϊβάν

That's it for this lesson! If you didn't have trouble reading the example words, you're ready to continue with the next lesson!

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