# Pronunciation of Greek letters **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 3, 2004, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-greek-letters/253416 "2004-07-03T22:05:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-greek-letters/253416/1 "2004-07-03T22:05:23Z")
In preparation for a class I’m going to be taking in the fall, I’m teaching myself the basics of ancient Greek this summer - little more than just the alphabet, basic grammar, and basic pronunciation. A stupid little question I’ve come up with: How do I pronounce the _names_ of the following letters: Epsilon mu nu xi omicron upsilon Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-greek-letters/253416/2 "2004-07-03T23:33:10Z")
Depends which side of the Atlantic you’re on. The pronunciations that Americans (or at least American physicists) use are: Epsilon: EP-sih-lawn Mu, nu: MYOO, NOO Xi: KSIGH Omicron: OH-mih-crawn Upsilon: UP-sih-lawn (although I’ve also heard OOP-sih-lawn.) I believe that the British pronunciation of xi is KSEE, but I’m not sure if any of the others change. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-greek-letters/253416/3 "2004-07-04T00:55:05Z")
Following the **MikeS** model: Epsilon: EP-sih-lawn Mu, nu: MYOO, NOO Xi: ZIGH (the way I always heard it) Omicron: AWM-mih-crawn Upsilon: OOP-sih-lawn or YOOP-sih-lawn ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-greek-letters/253416/4 "2004-07-04T01:02:32Z")
FWIW, I don’t pronounce the letters ending -on as -awn, but as -ahn. Little factoid I never realized until my Greek tutor pointed it out: Omicron = little O (micron) Omega = big O (mega) (The big and little here refer to pronunciation, not size or case.) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-greek-letters/253416/5 "2004-07-04T01:33:04Z")
Technically, mu, nu, and upsilon as given above are not correct, though what people have given is standard modern pronunciation of Classical Greek. But the U actually represented that oddball vowel found in French eu, German ue (or u umlauted), and Russian bI and carrying a sound roughly like saying “wee” with your tongue curved retroflexively, as though trying to fish out a particle of food caught under it. It’s important to note that Modern Greek has a nearly completely different system of pronunciation than did Classical Greek – their vowels have taken on nearly precisely the “English shift” so that eta does not represent the sound in “melee” but the sound in “meet.” Beta and delta in Classical Greek were the B and D sounds, but in Modern Greek have shifted to the Spanish B/V sound and the voiced TH of Spanish final D or English “then.” ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-greek-letters/253416/6 "2004-07-04T02:22:18Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > It’s important to note that Modern Greek has a nearly completely different system of pronunciation than did Classical Greek – their vowels have taken on nearly precisely the “English shift” so that eta does not represent the sound in “melee” but the sound in “meet.” Beta and delta in Classical Greek were the B and D sounds, but in Modern Greek have shifted to the Spanish B/V sound and the voiced TH of Spanish final D or English “then.” Makes a word like [symbol]bdelugma[/symbol] even harder to pronounce. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-greek-letters/253416/7 "2004-07-04T02:27:25Z")
Ah, many thanks. The thing with the pronunciation differences between Attic and modern Greek is a huge pain for me…it’s a huge problem for me to try to learn a language without actually hearing it, and it’s hard to just figure it out on my own. Alas, the public library seems a bit short on “Learn Ancient Greek in 3 weeks!” audiobooks. Can’t imagine why… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-greek-letters/253416/8 "2004-07-04T02:44:33Z")
Are you going to use the modern Greek pronounciation or the Erasmian? Take a look here for the Erasmian pronounciation: [http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html](http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html) In modern Greek, the pronounciation is the same as described in the site above, except: -Τhe letters **ι** , **η** , and **υ** and the diphthongs **οι** and **ει** are all pronounced as a short ee sound, like in the word ‘it’ -The letter **ε** and the diphthong **αι** are pronounced as a short e sound, like in the word ‘end’ -The diphthong **ευ** is pronounced either as **εφ** or **εβ** (depends on the word). -If the diphthong has the double dot symbol above the second letter (i.e. **οϊ** ), it means that you pronounce the letters separately (the Erasmian pronounciation)