Q: Greek Alphabet

If you ever find a list of the Greek letters, you will notice there are lower case and capital letters. But, theta has a third form. Is this what some languages call a “final form” of a letter?

Extra Credit: Also, can anyone equate the 24 greek letters to their English counterparts, like alpha = a; beta = b…how about eta vs. epislon? (Are both e?)
What sound is an omega (vs. omicron)?

Do some Greek letters have no English counterparts?

Thanks,

  • Jinx

What you are looking for here is called a transliteration.

Are you sure you’re not thinking of sigma? It has three forms (uppercase, lowercase, and final), but theta only has two.

Anciently they were short vs. long, but in modern pronunciation eta is like an “i” and epsilon is an “e”.

Anciently, long vs. short “o”; modern Greek, both are “o”.

Yes. Eta, omega, psi, chi, theta, and phi (unless you consider it equivalent to an “f”, which I don’t, as the “f” comes from digamma, and anciently phi was an aspirated “p”).

My list shows theta with three forms, and sigma with two forms. COuld one list be an ancient Greek alphabet vs. modern Greek alphabet?

  • Jinx :confused:

You sure you’re not confusing sigma and theta?

Sigma is [symbol]S s V[/symbol], and [symbol]V[/symbol] is the final form.

Theta is [symbol]Q q[/symbol], and I’ve never seen a third form for it. I also can’t think of any Greek words that end in [symbol]q[/symbol], but lots that end in [symbol]V[/symbol].

You can’t really spell out specific equivalencies like that. The English word for “Greek” is “Ελληνικά” in Greek. Similar-looking letters are used for different things in the Greek alphabet.

Adam

Oh, did you just want the transliterations of the letters? I thought you were looking for the English equivalents. Here goes:

Α - alpha
Β - beta
Γ - gamma
Δ - delta
Ε - epsilon
Ζ - zeta
Η - eta
Θ - theta
Ι - iota
Κ - kappa
Λ - lambda
Μ - mu
Ν - nu
Ξ - xi (pronounced “zie”, rhymes with “pie”)
Ο - omicron
Π - pi
Ρ - rho
Σ - sigma
Τ - tau
Υ - upsilon
Φ - phi
Χ - chi
Ψ - psi
Ω - omega

Adam

Might wanna look up that word.

Some lists of Greek letters show an extra form for theta and phi, but it’s not really a different form, it’s just a sloppy way of writing the lower-case forms. A lot of people who use Greek letters often (for instance, physicists) have a way of writing phi and theta in a single pen-movement, producing a letter that looks a little different than the standard typeset version (for instance, the quick-phi lacks an upper extension to its crossbar). For some reason, someone decided that these quick-and-dirty forms of the letters deserved a place in the typeset, too. This might be what the OP is thinking of.

Actully, it’s pronounced “ksee,” as in the last half of the word “taxi.”

A lot of the fraternity pronunciations of Greek letters are totally wrong. The letters that are typically pronounced to rhyme with “pie” are actually prounced with “ee” sounds. (iota = “EEota,” pi = “pee,” phi = “fee,” chi = “kee” and psi = “psee” (like the last syllable of the word “pepsi.”

I couldn’t think of a better word. Is there actually a word for the pronounciation of letters?

Looks like my teacher in middle school told me wrong. Dammit. :frowning:

Adam

The fraternities aren’t pronouncing the letters wrongly, they’re Anglicizing them. They’re not Ancient Greeks, they’re Americans.

I was taught otherwise, but that was classical Attic Greek, rather than modern Greek.

I took Attic Greek as well as Koine. I no nothing of modern Greek.

Ok, another related question-- did ancient Greek have both upper- and lower-case letters, or was one set developed only later on (like Latin characters and Carolingian minuscule)?

It was originally all upper case (or “majuscule” script). Lower case letters for Greek (called “miniscule”) arose around the 7th Century CE.

And two archaic letters, never used in Classical, Koiné, or Modern Greek, but present in the oldest inscriptions, and part of the letter-equals-number system used by the Greeks for writing numbers, were digamma, following epsilon in alphabetic sequence when used, and looking like F; and koppa or qoppa, cognate to Roman Q and resembling the “female” or Venus symbol without the crosspiece, or perhaps a lollipop with a very short stick, following pi.

Dunno if there is one word that means “letter names”; at least I’ve never heard one. I’d be interested if anyone does know of one. A transliteration is something else, as you probably know by now.

Agent Foxtrot: What you posted isn’t a transliteration. It’s a list of the names of the letters.

Q.E.D.: Phonetic values?