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Sunday, October 15, 2023

The Standards As The Last Supper Has Been Had And Now The Kitchen Is In The Niche: Dormez-Vous

 


Cantore Arithmetic is able to state salt First Quartz equated watch:  The evolutionary powder would have to sulfur at extinction to grain as the prowess to nature to fill the base at the disposal of water to the mountain at the vain.  Such establishment drains the iron to the rust to balance a bridge to support the stanchion of such a thought.  

Bottom line does not caliber as the atmosphere must environment to cover the weight leaving gravity to one left foot by design for the measurement of what is the line(Divine).  To negate the ability for the rain to water is as the faucet is the drain and the water is manure comma this is The Prowess, and may be the alpha of the Theta!

1}. Water is a derivative of the duration.

Theta

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Greek letter. For other uses, see Theta (disambiguation).
"θ" redirects here. For the letter used in IPA, see Voiceless dental fricative.
Not to be confused with Fita, Latin theta, or Oe (Cyrillic).
For similar symbols, see Ø (disambiguation).
Greek alphabet
ΑαAlphaΝνNu
ΒβBetaΞξXi
ΓγGammaΟοOmicron
ΔδDeltaΠπPi
ΕεEpsilonΡρRho
ΖζZetaΣσςSigma
ΗηEtaΤτTau
ΘθThetaΥυUpsilon
ΙιIotaΦφPhi
ΚκKappaΧχChi
ΛλLambdaΨψPsi
ΜμMuΩωOmega
History
Use in other languages
Related topics

Theta (UK: /ˈθiːtə/, US: /ˈθeɪtə/; uppercase: Θ or ϴ; lowercase: θ[note 1] or ϑ; Ancient Greek: θῆτα thē̂ta [tʰɛ̂ːta]; Modern: θήταthī́ta [ˈθita]) is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth . In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 9.

Greek[edit]

The alphabet on a black figurevessel, with a point-and-circle theta

In Ancient Greek, θ represented the aspirated voiceless dental plosive IPA: [t̪ʰ], but in Modern Greek it represents the voiceless dental fricative IPA: [θ].

Forms[edit]

In its archaic form, θ was written as a cross within a circle (as in the Etruscan A symbol of a cross within a circle or Another symbol of a cross within a circle), and later, as a line or point in circle (The symbol of a line within a circle or The symbol of a point within a circle).

The cursive form ϑ was retained by Unicode as U+03D1 ϑ GREEK THETA SYMBOL, separate from U+03B8 θ GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA. (There is also U+03F4 ϴ GREEK CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL). For the purpose of writing Greek text, the two can be font variants of a single character, but θ and ϑ are also used as distinct symbols in technical and mathematical contexts. Extensive lists of examples follow below at Mathematics and Science. U+03D1 ϑ GREEK THETA SYMBOL (script theta) is also common in biblical and theological usage e.g. πρόϑεσις instead of πρόθεσις (means placing in public or laying out a corpse).

Latin[edit]

Further information: Latin theta
The name ARAÐÐOVNA on a Gaulish tombstone

In Latin script used for the Gaulish language, theta inspired the tau gallicum (). The phonetic value of the tau gallicum is thought to have been [t͡s].[1] Theta itself is used alongside Latin letters in Halkomelem, an indigenous North American language.

Cyrillic[edit]

The early Cyrillic letter fita (Ѳ, ѳ) developed from θ. This letter existed in the Russian alphabet until the 1918 Russian orthography reform.

International Phonetic Alphabet[edit]

In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), [θ] represents the voiceless dental fricative, as in thick or thin. It does not represent the consonant in the, which is the voiced dental fricative. A similar-looking symbol, [ɵ], which is described as a lowercase barred o, indicates in the IPA a close-mid central rounded vowel.

Mathematics and Science[edit]

Lower case[edit]

The lowercase letter θ is used as a symbol for:

Upper case[edit]

The uppercase letter Θ is used as a symbol for:

Symbolism[edit]

θ (θάνατος, death) in a mosaic

In ancient times, Tau was used as a symbol for life or resurrection, whereas the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet (ninth in the archaic form anciently used for numeration), theta, was considered the symbol of death.[3] A quotation attributed to the ancient Roman author Ennius (though possibly spuriously) said of it: "oh, theta, a letter much unluckier than the others".[4]

According to Porphyry of Tyros, the Egyptians used an X within a circle as a symbol of the soul; having a value of nine, it was used as a symbol for Ennead. Johannes Lydus says that the Egyptiansused a symbol for Kosmos in the form of theta, with a fiery circle representing the world, and a snake spanning the middle representing Agathos Daimon (literally: good spirit).[5]

Abbreviation[edit]

Main article: Theta nigrum

In classical Athens, it was used as an abbreviation for the Greek θάνατος (Thanatos, "death") and as it vaguely resembles a human skull,[5] theta was used as a warning symbol of death, in the same way that skull and crossbones are used in modern times.[5] It survives on potsherds used by Athenians when voting for the death penalty.[5] Petrus de Dacia in a document from 1291 relates the idea that theta was used to brand criminals as empty ciphers, and the branding rod was affixed to the crossbar spanning the circle.[6] For this reason, the use of the number 9 was sometimes avoided where the connotation was felt to be unlucky—the mint marks of some Late Imperial Roman coins famously have the sum ΔΕ or ΕΔ (delta and epsilon, that is 4 and 5) substituted as a euphemism where a Θ (9) would otherwise be expected.

Greek Life

The names of many American fraternities and sororities are named with Greek letters, including Theta.

Character encodings[edit]

  • Greek Theta


Character information
PreviewΘθϑϴᶿ
Unicode nameGREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETAGREEK SMALL LETTER THETAGREEK THETA SYMBOLGREEK CAPITAL THETA SYMBOLMODIFIER LETTER SMALL THETA
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode920U+0398952U+03B8977U+03D11012U+03F47615U+1DBF
UTF-8206 152CE 98206 184CE B8207 145CF 91207 180CF B4225 182 191E1 B6 BF
Numeric character referenceΘΘθθϑϑϴϴᶿᶿ
Named character referenceΘθϑ, ϑ, ϑ
DOS Greek135871599F
DOS Greek-2172AC226E2
Windows 1253200C8232E8
TeX\Theta\theta\vartheta
  • Coptic Thethe
Character information
PreviewⲐⲑ
Unicode nameCOPTIC CAPITAL LETTER THETHECOPTIC SMALL LETTER THETHE
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode11408U+2C9011409U+2C91
UTF-8226 178 144E2 B2 90226 178 145E2 B2 91
Numeric character referenceⲐⲐⲑⲑ


Character information
PreviewѲѳ
Unicode nameCYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER FITACYRILLIC SMALL LETTER FITA
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode1138U+04721139U+0473
UTF-8209 178D1 B2209 179D1 B3
Numeric character referenceѲѲѳѳ
  • Mathematical Theta


Character information
Preview𝚯𝛉𝚹𝛝
Unicode nameMATHEMATICAL BOLD
CAPITAL THETA		MATHEMATICAL BOLD
SMALL THETA		MATHEMATICAL BOLD
CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL		MATHEMATICAL BOLD
THETA SYMBOL
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode120495U+1D6AF120521U+1D6C9120505U+1D6B9120541U+1D6DD
UTF-8240 157 154 175F0 9D 9A AF240 157 155 137F0 9D 9B 89240 157 154 185F0 9D 9A B9240 157 155 157F0 9D 9B 9D
UTF-1655349 57007D835 DEAF55349 57033D835 DEC955349 57017D835 DEB955349 57053D835 DEDD
Numeric character reference𝚯𝚯𝛉𝛉𝚹𝚹𝛝𝛝


Character information
Preview𝛩𝜃𝛳𝜗
Unicode nameMATHEMATICAL ITALIC
CAPITAL THETA		MATHEMATICAL ITALIC
SMALL THETA		MATHEMATICAL ITALIC
CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL		MATHEMATICAL ITALIC
THETA SYMBOL
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode120553U+1D6E9120579U+1D703120563U+1D6F3120599U+1D717
UTF-8240 157 155 169F0 9D 9B A9240 157 156 131F0 9D 9C 83240 157 155 179F0 9D 9B B3240 157 156 151F0 9D 9C 97
UTF-1655349 57065D835 DEE955349 57091D835 DF0355349 57075D835 DEF355349 57111D835 DF17
Numeric character reference𝛩𝛩𝜃𝜃𝛳𝛳𝜗𝜗


Character information
Preview𝜣𝜽𝜭𝝑
Unicode nameMATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC
CAPITAL THETA		MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC
SMALL THETA		MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC
CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL		MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC
CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode120611U+1D723120637U+1D73D120621U+1D72D120657U+1D751
UTF-8240 157 156 163F0 9D 9C A3240 157 156 189F0 9D 9C BD240 157 156 173F0 9D 9C AD240 157 157 145F0 9D 9D 91
UTF-1655349 57123D835 DF2355349 57149D835 DF3D55349 57133D835 DF2D55349 57169D835 DF51
Numeric character reference𝜣𝜣𝜽𝜽𝜭𝜭𝝑𝝑


Character information
Preview𝝝𝝷𝚹𝞋
Unicode nameMATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD CAPITAL THETA		MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD SMALL THETA		MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL		MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD THETA SYMBOL
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode120669U+1D75D120695U+1D777120505U+1D6B9120715U+1D78B
UTF-8240 157 157 157F0 9D 9D 9D240 157 157 183F0 9D 9D B7240 157 154 185F0 9D 9A B9240 157 158 139F0 9D 9E 8B
UTF-1655349 57181D835 DF5D55349 57207D835 DF7755349 57017D835 DEB955349 57227D835 DF8B
Numeric character reference𝝝𝝝𝝷𝝷𝚹𝚹𝞋𝞋


Character information
Preview𝞗𝞱𝜭𝟅
Unicode nameMATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL THETA		MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD ITALIC SMALL THETA		MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL		MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD ITALIC THETA SYMBOL
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode120727U+1D797120753U+1D7B1120621U+1D72D120773U+1D7C5
UTF-8240 157 158 151F0 9D 9E 97240 157 158 177F0 9D 9E B1240 157 156 173F0 9D 9C AD240 157 159 133F0 9D 9F 85
UTF-1655349 57239D835 DF9755349 57265D835 DFB155349 57133D835 DF2D55349 57285D835 DFC5
Numeric character reference𝞗𝞗𝞱𝞱𝜭𝜭𝟅𝟅

These characters are used only as mathematical symbols. Stylized Greek text should be encoded using normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style.


Greek alphabet

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Greek alphabet
Ellinikó alfávito
"Greek alphabet" in the modern Greek language
Script type
Time period
c. 800 BC – present[1][2]
Directionleft-to-right 
Official script Greece

 Cyprus

 European Union
LanguagesGreek
Related scripts
Parent systems
Child systems
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Grek (200), ​Greek
Unicode
Unicode alias
Greek
Greek alphabet
ΑαAlphaΝνNu
ΒβBetaΞξXi
ΓγGammaΟοOmicron
ΔδDeltaΠπPi
ΕεEpsilonΡρRho
ΖζZetaΣσςSigma
ΗηEtaΤτTau
ΘθThetaΥυUpsilon
ΙιIotaΦφPhi
ΚκKappaΧχChi
ΛλLambdaΨψPsi
ΜμMuΩωOmega
History
Use in other languages
Related topics

The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC.[3][4] It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet,[5] and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as well as consonants. In Archaic and early Classical times, the Greek alphabet existed in many local variants, but, by the end of the 4th century BC, the Euclidean alphabet, with 24 letters, ordered from alpha to omega, had become standard and it is this version that is still used for Greek writing today.

The uppercase and lowercase forms of the 24 letters are: 

Α α, Β β, Γ γ, Δ δ, Ε ε, Ζ ζ, Η η, Θ θ, Ι ι, Κ κ, Λ λ, Μ μ, Ν ν, Ξ ξ, Ο ο, Π π, Ρ ρ, Σ σ/ς, Τ τ, Υ υ, Φ φ, Χχ, Ψ ψ, Ω ω.

The Greek alphabet is the ancestor of the Latin and Cyrillic scripts.[6] Like Latin and Cyrillic, Greek originally had only a single form of each letter; it developed the letter case distinction between uppercase and lowercase in parallel with Latin during the modern era. Sound values and conventional transcriptions for some of the letters differ between Ancient and Modern Greek usage because the pronunciation of Greek has changed significantly between the 5th century BC and today. Modern and Ancient Greek also use different diacritics, with modern Greek keeping only the stress accent (acute) and the diaeresis.

Apart from its use in writing the Greek language, in both its ancient and its modern forms, the Greek alphabet today also serves as a source of technical symbols and labels in many domains of mathematics, science, and other fields.

Letters

Sound values

Main articles: Greek orthography and Pronunciation of Ancient Greek in teaching
Further information: Manners of articulation

In both Ancient and Modern Greek, the letters of the Greek alphabet have fairly stable and consistent symbol-to-sound mappings, making pronunciation of words largely predictable. Ancient Greek spelling was generally near-phonemic. For a number of letters, sound values differ considerably between Ancient and Modern Greek, because their pronunciation has followed a set of systematic phonological shifts that affected the language in its post-classical stages.[7]

LetterNameAncient pronunciationModern pronunciation
IPA[8]Approximate western European equivalentIPA[9]Approximate western European equivalent[10]
Α αalpha, άλφαShort: [a]
Long: [aː]		Short: first a as in English await[11]
Long: a as in English father[11]		[a]a as in English father, but short
Β βbeta, βήτα[b][12][11]b as in English better[13][12][11][v]v as in English vote
Γ γgamma, γάμμα[ɡ]
[ŋ] when used before γ, κ, ξ, χ, and possibly μ		g as in English get[12][11]
ng as in English sing when used before γ, κ, ξ, χ, and possibly μ[12][11][ex 1]		[ɣ] before /a/, /o/, /u/;

[ʝ] before /e/, /i/;

[ŋ][ex 2] ~ [ɲ][ex 3]

g as in Spanish lago;

y as in English yellow;

ng as in English long

Δ δdelta, δέλτα[d]d as in English delete[13][12][11][ð]th as in English then
Ε εepsilon, έψιλον[e]e as in English pet[11]
Ζ ζzeta, ζήτα[zd], or possibly [dz]sd as in English wisdom,
or possibly dz as in English adze[14][15][note 1]		[z]z as in English zoo
Η ηeta, ήτα[ɛː]ê as in French tête[16][i]i as in English machine, but short
Θ θtheta, θήτα[tʰ]t as in English top[16][11][note 2][θ]th as in English thin
Ι ιiota, ιώταShort: [i]
Long: [iː]		Short: i as in French vite,[16]
Long: i as in English machine[10]		[i], [ç],[ex 4][ʝ],[ex 5][ɲ][ex 6]i as in English machine, but short
Κ κkappa, κάππα[k]k as in English,[16][11] but completely unaspirated[16][k] ~ [c]k as in English make
Λ λla(m)bda, λά(μ)βδα[note 3][l]l as in English lantern[13][18][11]
Μ μmu, μυ[m]m as in English music[13][18][11]
Ν νnu, νυ[n]n as in English net[18]
Ξ ξxi, ξι[ks]x as in English fox[18]
Ο οomicron, όμικρον[o]o as in German ohne
Π πpi, πι[p]p as in English top[18][11]
Ρ ρrho, ρώ[r]trilled r as in Italian or Spanish[18][11][13]
Σ σ/ς, Ϲ ϲ[note 4]sigma, σίγμα[s]
[z] before β, γ, or μ		s as in English soft[11]
s as in English muse when used before β, γ, or μ[18]
Τ τtau, ταυ[t]t as in English coat[18][11]
Υ υupsilon, ύψιλονShort: [y]
Long: [yː]		Short: u as in French lune
Long: u as in French ruse[18]		[i]i as in English machine, but short
Φ φphi, φι[pʰ]p as in English pot[22][note 2][f]f as in English five
Χ χchi, χι[kʰ]c as in English cat[11][note 2][x] ~ [ç]ch as in Scottish loch ~ h as in English hue
Ψ ψpsi, ψι[ps]ps as in English lapse[22][11]
Ω ωomega, ωμέγα[ɔː]aw as in English saw[11][note 5][o]o as in German ohne, similar to British English call
Examples
  1. ^ For example, ἀγκών.
  2. ^ For example, εγγραφή.
  3. ^ For example, εγγεγραμμένος.
  4. ^ For example, πάπια.
  5. ^ For example, βια.
  6. ^ For example, μια.
Notes
  1. ^ By around 350 BC, zeta in the Attic dialect had shifted to become a single fricative, [z], as in modern Greek.[16]
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c The letters theta ⟨θ⟩, phi ⟨φ⟩, and chi ⟨χ⟩ are normally taught to English speakers with their modern Greek pronunciations of [θ], [f], and [x] ~ [ç]respectively, because these sounds are easier for English speakers to distinguish from the sounds made by the letters tau ([t]), pi ([p]), and kappa ([k]) respectively.[17][15] These are not the sounds they made in classical Attic Greek.[17][15] In classical Attic Greek, these three letters were always aspirated consonants, pronounced exactly like tau, pi, and kappa respectively, only with a blast of air following the actual consonant sound.[17][15]
  3. ^ Although the letter Λ is almost universally known today as lambda (λάμβδα), the most common name for it during the Greek Classical Period (510–323 BC) appears to have been labda (λάβδα), without the μ.[11]
  4. ^ The letter sigma ⟨Σ⟩ has two different lowercase forms in its standard variant, ⟨σ⟩ and ⟨ς⟩, with ⟨ς⟩ being used in word-final position and ⟨σ⟩elsewhere.[15][18][19] In some 19th-century typesetting, ⟨ς⟩ was also used word-medially at the end of a compound morpheme, e.g. "δυςκατανοήτων", marking the morpheme boundary between "δυς-κατανοήτων" ("difficult to understand"); modern standard practice is to spell "δυσκατανοήτων" with a non-final sigma.[19] The letter sigma also has an alternative variant, the lunate sigma (uppercase Ϲ, lowercase ϲ), which is used in all positions.[15][18][20] This form of the letter developed during the Hellenistic period (323–31 BC) as a simplification of the older Σ σ/ς variant.[20] Thus, the word stasis can either be written στάσις or ϲτάϲιϲ.[21] In modern, edited Greek texts, the lunate sigma typically appears primarily in older typesetting.[18]
  5. ^ The letter omega ⟨ω⟩ is normally taught to English speakers as [oʊ], the long o as in English go, in order to more clearly distinguish it from omicron ⟨ο⟩.[22][15]This is not the sound it actually made in classical Attic Greek.[22][15]

Among consonant letters, all letters that denoted voiced plosive consonants (/b, d, g/) and aspirated plosives (/pʰ, tʰ, kʰ/) in Ancient Greek stand for corresponding fricative sounds in Modern Greek. The correspondences are as follows:

 Former voiced plosivesFormer aspirates
LetterAncientModernLetterAncientModern
LabialΒ β/b//v/Φ φ/pʰ//f/
DentalΔ δ/d//ð/Θ θ/tʰ//θ/
DorsalΓ γ/ɡ/[ɣ] ~ [ʝ]Χ χ/kʰ/[x] ~ [ç]

Among the vowel symbols, Modern Greek sound values reflect the radical simplification of the vowel system of post-classical Greek, merging multiple formerly distinct vowel phonemes into a much smaller number. This leads to several groups of vowel letters denoting identical sounds today. Modern Greek orthography remains true to the historical spellings in most of these cases. As a consequence, the spellings of words in Modern Greek are often not predictable from the pronunciation alone, while the reverse mapping, from spelling to pronunciation, is usually regular and predictable.

The following vowel letters and digraphs are involved in the mergers:

LetterAncientModern
Η ηɛː> i
Ι ιi(ː)
ΕΙ ειeː
Υ υu(ː) > y
ΟΙ οιoi > y
ΥΙ υιyː > y
Ω ωɔː> o
Ο οo
Ε εe> e
ΑΙ αιai

Modern Greek speakers typically use the same, modern symbol–sound mappings in reading Greek of all historical stages. In other countries, students of Ancient Greek may use a variety of conventional approximations of the historical sound system in pronouncing Ancient Greek.

Digraphs and letter combinations

Several letter combinations have special conventional sound values different from those of their single components. Among them are several digraphs of vowel letters that formerly represented diphthongs but are now monophthongized. In addition to the four mentioned above (⟨ει, οι, υι⟩, pronounced /i/ and ⟨αι⟩, pronounced /e/), there is also ⟨ηι, ωι⟩, and ⟨ου⟩, pronounced /u/. The Ancient Greek diphthongs ⟨αυ⟩, ⟨ευ⟩ and ⟨ηυ⟩ are pronounced [av], [ev] and [iv]in Modern Greek. In some environments, they are devoiced to [af], [ef] and [if] respectively.[23] The Modern Greek consonant combinations ⟨μπ⟩ and ⟨ντ⟩stand for [b] and [d] (or [mb] and [nd]) respectively; ⟨τζ⟩ stands for [d͡z] and ⟨τσ⟩ stands for [t͡s]. In addition, both in Ancient and Modern Greek, the letter ⟨γ⟩, before another velar consonant, stands for the velar nasal [ŋ]; thus ⟨γγ⟩ and ⟨γκ⟩ are pronounced like English ⟨ng⟩. In analogy to ⟨μπ⟩ and ⟨ντ⟩, ⟨γκ⟩ is also used to stand for [g]. There are also the combinations ⟨γχ⟩ and ⟨γξ⟩.

CombinationPronunciationDevoiced pronunciation
⟨αυ⟩[av][af]
⟨ευ⟩[ev][ef]
⟨ηυ⟩[iv][if]
⟨μπ⟩[b]–
⟨ντ⟩[d]–
⟨γκ⟩[ɡ]–
⟨τζ⟩[d͡z]–
⟨τσ⟩[t͡s]–

Diacritics

Main article: Greek diacritics
The acute accent in aulós [avˈlos] ('flute') distinguishes the word from its homographáulos [ˈailos] ('immaterial'). The smooth breathing marks the absence of an initial /h/.

In the polytonic orthography traditionally used for ancient Greek and katharevousa, the stressed vowel of each word carries one of three accent marks: either the acute accent (ά), the grave accent (ὰ), or the circumflex accent (α̃ or α̑). These signs were originally designed to mark different forms of the phonological pitch accent in Ancient Greek. By the time their use became conventional and obligatory in Greek writing, in late antiquity, pitch accent was evolving into a single stress accent, and thus the three signs have not corresponded to a phonological distinction in actual speech ever since. In addition to the accent marks, every word-initial vowel must carry either of two so-called "breathing marks": the rough breathing (ἁ), marking an /h/ sound at the beginning of a word, or the smooth breathing (ἀ), marking its absence. The letter rho (ρ), although not a vowel, also carries rough breathing in a word-initial position. If a rho was geminated within a word, the first ρ always had the smooth breathing and the second the rough breathing (ῤῥ) leading to the transliteration rrh.

The vowel letters ⟨α, η, ω⟩ carry an additional diacritic in certain words, the so-called iota subscript, which has the shape of a small vertical stroke or a miniature ⟨ι⟩ below the letter. This iota represents the former offglide of what were originally long diphthongs, ⟨ᾱι, ηι, ωι⟩ (i.e. /aːi, ɛːi, ɔːi/), which became monophthongized during antiquity.

Use of diaeresis in the word áulos indicating a vowel hiatus. The acute accent is absent in the upper case.

Another diacritic used in Greek is the diaeresis (¨), indicating a hiatus.

This system of diacritics was first developed by the scholar Aristophanes of Byzantium (c. 257 – c. 185/180 BC), who worked at the Musaeum in Alexandria during the third century BC.[24] Aristophanes of Byzantium also was the first to divide poems into lines, rather than writing them like prose, and also introduced a series of signs for textual criticism.[25] In 1982, a new, simplified orthography, known as "monotonic", was adopted for official use in Modern Greek by the Greek state. It uses only a single accent mark, the acute (also known in this context as tonos, i.e. simply "accent"), marking the stressed syllable of polysyllabic words, and occasionally the diaeresis to distinguish diphthongal from digraph readings in pairs of vowel letters, making this monotonic system very similar to the accent mark system used in Spanish. The polytonic system is still conventionally used for writing Ancient Greek, while in some book printing and generally in the usage of conservative writers it can still also be found in use for Modern Greek.

Although it is not a diacritic, the comma has a similar function as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι (ó,ti, "whatever") from ότι (óti, "that").[26]

Romanization

Main article: Romanization of Greek

There are many different methods of rendering Greek text or Greek names in the Latin script.[27] The form in which classical Greek names are conventionally rendered in English goes back to the way Greek loanwords were incorporated into Latin in antiquity.[28] In this system, ⟨κ⟩ is replaced with ⟨c⟩, the diphthongs ⟨αι⟩ and ⟨οι⟩ are rendered as ⟨ae⟩ and ⟨oe⟩ (or ⟨æ,œ⟩) respectively; and ⟨ει⟩ and ⟨ου⟩ are simplified to ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ respectively.[29]Smooth breathing marks are usually ignored and rough breathing marks are usually rendered as the letter ⟨h⟩.[30] In modern scholarly transliteration of Ancient Greek, ⟨κ⟩ will usually be rendered as ⟨k⟩, and the vowel combinations ⟨αι, οι, ει, ου⟩ as ⟨ai, oi, ei, ou⟩ respectively.[27] The letters ⟨θ⟩ and ⟨φ⟩ are generally rendered as ⟨th⟩ and ⟨ph⟩; ⟨χ⟩ as either ⟨ch⟩ or ⟨kh⟩; and word-initial ⟨ρ⟩ as ⟨rh⟩.[31]

Transcription conventions for Modern Greek[32] differ widely, depending on their purpose, on how close they stay to the conventional letter correspondences of Ancient Greek-based transcription systems, and to what degree they attempt either an exact letter-by-letter transliteration or rather a phonetically based transcription.[32] Standardized formal transcription systems have been defined by the International Organization for Standardization (as ISO 843),[32][33] by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names,[34] by the Library of Congress,[35] and others.

LetterTraditional Latin transliteration[31]
Α αA a
Β βB b
Γ γG g
Δ δD d
Ε εE e
Ζ ζZ z
Η ηĒ ē
Θ θTh th
Ι ιI i
Κ κC c, K k
Λ λL l
Μ μM m
Ν νN n
Ξ ξX x
Ο οO o
Π πP p
Ρ ρR r, Rh rh
Σ σ/ςS s
Τ τT t
Υ υY y, U u
Φ φPh ph
Χ χCh ch, Kh kh
Ψ ψPs ps
Ω ωŌ ō

History

Origins

Main article: History of the Greek alphabet
Dipylon inscription, one of the oldest known samples of the use of the Greek alphabet, c. 740 BC

During the Mycenaean period, from around the sixteenth century to the twelfth century BC, Linear B was used to write the earliest attested form of the Greek language, known as Mycenaean Greek. This writing system, unrelated to the Greek alphabet, last appeared in the thirteenth century BC. In the late ninth century BC or early eighth century BC, the Greek alphabet emerged.[2] The period between the use of the two writing systems, during which no Greek texts are attested, is known as the Greek Dark Ages. The Greeks adopted the alphabet from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, one of the closely related scripts used for the West Semitic languages, calling it Φοινικήια γράμματα 'Phoenician letters'.[36] However, the Phoenician alphabet is limited to consonants. When it was adopted for writing Greek, certain consonants were adapted to express vowels. The use of both vowels and consonants makes Greek the first alphabet in the narrow sense,[6] as distinguished from the abjads used in Semitic languages, which have letters only for consonants.[37]

Early Greek alphabet on pottery in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Greek initially took over all of the 22 letters of Phoenician. Five were reassigned to denote vowel sounds: the glide consonants /j/ (yodh) and /w/ (waw) were used for [i] (Ι, iota) and [u] (Υ, upsilon) respectively; the glottal stopconsonant /ʔ/ (aleph) was used for [a] (Α, alpha); the pharyngeal /ʕ/ (ʿayin) was turned into [o] (Ο, omicron); and the letter for /h/ (he) was turned into [e] (Ε, epsilon). A doublet of waw was also borrowed as a consonant for [w] (Ϝ, digamma). In addition, the Phoenician letter for the emphatic glottal /ħ/ (heth) was borrowed in two different functions by different dialects of Greek: as a letter for /h/ (Η, heta) by those dialects that had such a sound, and as an additional vowel letter for the long /ɛː/ (Η, eta) by those dialects that lacked the consonant. Eventually, a seventh vowel letter for the long /ɔː/ (Ω, omega) was introduced.

Greek also introduced three new consonant letters for its aspirated plosive sounds and consonant clusters: Φ (phi) for /pʰ/, Χ (chi) for /kʰ/ and Ψ (psi) for /ps/. In western Greek variants, Χ was instead used for /ks/ and Ψ for /kʰ/. The origin of these letters is a matter of some debate.

PhoenicianGreek
aleph/ʔ/Αalpha/a/, /aː/
beth/b/Βbeta/b/
gimel/ɡ/Γgamma/ɡ/
daleth/d/Δdelta/d/
he/h/Εepsilon/e/, /eː/[note 1]
waw/w/Ϝ(digamma)/w/
zayin/z/Ζzeta[zd](?)
heth/ħ/Ηeta/h/, /ɛː/
teth/tˤ/Θtheta/tʰ/
yodh/j/Ιiota/i/, /iː/
kaph/k/Κkappa/k/
lamedh/l/Λlambda/l/
mem/m/Μmu/m/
nun/n/Νnu/n/
PhoenicianGreek
samekh/s/Ξxi/ks/
ʿayin/ʕ/Οomicron/o/, /oː/[note 1]
pe/p/Πpi/p/
ṣade/sˤ/Ϻ(san)/s/
qoph/q/Ϙ(koppa)/k/
reš/r/Ρrho/r/
šin/ʃ/Σsigma/s/
taw/t/Τtau/t/
(waw)/w/Υupsilon/u/, /uː/
–Φphi/pʰ/
–Χchi/kʰ/
–Ψpsi/ps/
–Ωomega/ɔː/

Three of the original Phoenician letters dropped out of use before the alphabet took its classical shape: the letter Ϻ (san), which had been in competition with Σ (sigma) denoting the same phoneme /s/; the letter Ϙ (qoppa), which was redundant with Κ (kappa) for /k/, and Ϝ (digamma), whose sound value /w/ dropped out of the spoken language before or during the classical period.

Greek was originally written predominantly from right to left, just like Phoenician, but scribes could freely alternate between directions. For a time, a writing style with alternating right-to-left and left-to-right lines (called boustrophedon, literally "ox-turning", after the manner of an ox ploughing a field) was common, until in the classical period the left-to-right writing direction became the norm. Individual letter shapes were mirrored depending on the writing direction of the current line.

Archaic variants

Main article: Archaic Greek alphabets
Distribution of "green", "red" and "blue" alphabet types, after Kirchhoff.

There were initially numerous local (epichoric) variants of the Greek alphabet, which differed in the use and non-use of the additional vowel and consonant symbols and several other features. Epichoric alphabets are commonly divided into four major types according to their different treatments of additional consonant letters for the aspirated consonants (/pʰ, kʰ/) and consonant clusters (/ks, ps/) of Greek.[38] These four types are often conventionally labelled as "green", "red", "light blue" and "dark blue" types, based on a colour-coded map in a seminal 19th-century work on the topic, Studien zur Geschichte des griechischen Alphabets by Adolf Kirchhoff(1867).[38]

The "green" (or southern) type is the most archaic and closest to the Phoenician.[39]The "red" (or western) type is the one that was later transmitted to the West and became the ancestor of the Latin alphabet, and bears some crucial features characteristic of that later development.[39] The "blue" (or eastern) type is the one from which the later standard Greek alphabet emerged.[39] Athens used a local form of the "light blue" alphabet type until the end of the fifth century BC, which lacked the letters Ξ and Ψ as well as the vowel symbols Η and Ω.[39][40] In the Old Attic alphabet, ΧΣ stood for /ks/ and ΦΣ for /ps/. Ε was used for all three sounds /e, eː, ɛː/(correspondinɡ to classical Ε, ΕΙ, Η respectively), and Ο was used for all of /o, oː, ɔː/(corresponding to classical Ο, ΟΥ, Ω respectively).[40] The letter Η (heta) was used for the consonant /h/.[40] Some variant local letter forms were also characteristic of Athenian writing, some of which were shared with the neighboring (but otherwise "red") alphabet of Euboia: a form of Λ that resembled a Latin L () and a form of Σ that resembled a Latin S ().[40]

Phoenician model
Southern"green"——*—————
Western"red"
Eastern"light blue"—
"dark blue"
Classic Ionian————
Modern alphabetΑΒΓΔΕ—Ζ—ΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠ——ΡΣΤΥ—ΦΧΨΩ
Sound in Ancient Greekabgdewzdhētʰiklmnksopskrstukspʰkʰpsō

*Upsilon is also derived from waw ().

The classical twenty-four-letter alphabet that is now used to represent the Greek language was originally the local alphabet of Ionia.[41] By the late fifth century BC, it was commonly used by many Athenians.[41] In c. 403 BC, at the suggestion of the archon Eucleides, the Athenian Assembly formally abandoned the Old Attic alphabet and adopted the Ionian alphabet as part of the democratic reforms after the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants.[41][42]Because of Eucleides's role in suggesting the idea to adopt the Ionian alphabet, the standard twenty-four-letter Greek alphabet is sometimes known as the "Eucleidean alphabet".[41] Roughly thirty years later, the Eucleidean alphabet was adopted in Boeotia and it may have been adopted a few years previously in Macedonia.[43] By the end of the fourth century BC, it had displaced local alphabets across the Greek-speaking world to become the standard form of the Greek alphabet.[43]

Letter names

When the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, they took over not only the letter shapes and sound values but also the names by which the sequence of the alphabet could be recited and memorized. In Phoenician, each letter name was a word that began with the sound represented by that letter; thus ʾaleph, the word for "ox", was used as the name for the glottal stop /ʔ/, bet, or "house", for the /b/ sound, and so on. When the letters were adopted by the Greeks, most of the Phoenician names were maintained or modified slightly to fit Greek phonology; thus, ʾaleph, bet, gimel became alpha, beta, gamma.

The Greek names of the following letters are more or less straightforward continuations of their Phoenician antecedents. Between Ancient and Modern Greek, they have remained largely unchanged, except that their pronunciation has followed regular sound changes along with other words (for instance, in the name of beta, ancient /b/ regularly changed to modern /v/, and ancient /ɛː/ to modern /i/, resulting in the modern pronunciation vita). The name of lambda is attested in early sources as λάβδα besides λάμβδα;[44][11] in Modern Greek the spelling is often λάμδα, reflecting pronunciation.[11] Similarly, iota is sometimes spelled γιώτα in Modern Greek ([ʝ] is conventionally transcribed ⟨γ{ι,η,υ,ει,οι}⟩ word-initially and intervocalically before back vowels and /a/). In the tables below, the Greek names of all letters are given in their traditional polytonic spelling; in modern practice, like with all other words, they are usually spelled in the simplified monotonic system.

Greek alphabet
0:22
The names of the letters in spoken Standard Modern Greek
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LetterNamePronunciation
GreekPhoenician originalEnglishGreek (Ancient)Greek (Modern)English
Αἄλφαalephalpha[alpʰa][ˈalfa]/ˈælfə/ ⓘ
Ββῆταbethbeta[bɛːta][ˈvita]/ˈbiːtə/, US: /ˈbeɪtə/
Γγάμμαgimelgamma[ɡamma][ˈɣama]/ˈɡæmə/
Δδέλταdalethdelta[delta][ˈðelta]/ˈdɛltə/
Ηἦταhetheta[hɛːta],[ɛːta][ˈita]/ˈiːtə/, US: /ˈeɪtə/
Θθῆταteththeta[tʰɛːta][ˈθita]/ˈθiːtə/, US: /ˈθeɪtə/ ⓘ
Ιἰῶταyodhiota[iɔːta][ˈʝota]/aɪˈoʊtə/ ⓘ
Κκάππαkaphkappa[kappa][ˈkapa]/ˈkæpə/ ⓘ
Λλάμβδαlamedhlambda[lambda][ˈlamða]/ˈlæmdə/ ⓘ
Μμῦmemmu[myː][mi]/mjuː/ ⓘ; occasionally US: /muː/
Ννῦnunnu[nyː][ni]/njuː/
Ρῥῶrešrho[rɔː][ro]/roʊ/ ⓘ
Τταῦtawtau[tau][taf]/taʊ, tɔː/

In the cases of the three historical sibilant letters below, the correspondence between Phoenician and Ancient Greek is less clear, with apparent mismatches both in letter names and sound values. The early history of these letters (and the fourth sibilant letter, obsolete san) has been a matter of some debate. Here too, the changes in the pronunciation of the letter names between Ancient and Modern Greek are regular.

LetterNamePronunciation
GreekPhoenician originalEnglishGreek (Ancient)Greek (Modern)English
Ζζῆταzayinzeta[zdɛːta][ˈzita]/ˈziːtə/, US: /ˈzeɪtə/
Ξξεῖ, ξῖsamekhxi[kseː][ksi]/zaɪ, ksaɪ/
Σσίγμαšinsiɡma[siɡma][ˈsiɣma]/ˈsɪɡmə/

In the following group of consonant letters, the older forms of the names in Ancient Greek were spelled with -εῖ, indicating an original pronunciation with -ē. In Modern Greek these names are spelled with -ι.

LetterNamePronunciation
GreekEnglishGreek (Ancient)Greek (Modern)English
Ξξεῖ, ξῖxi[kseː][ksi]/zaɪ, ksaɪ/
Ππεῖ, πῖpi[peː][pi]/paɪ/
Φφεῖ, φῖphi[pʰeː][fi]/faɪ/
Χχεῖ, χῖchi[kʰeː][çi]/kaɪ/ ⓘ
Ψψεῖ, ψῖpsi[pseː][psi]/saɪ/, /psaɪ/ ⓘ

The following group of vowel letters were originally called simply by their sound values as long vowels: ē, ō, ū, and ɔ. Their modern names contain adjectival qualifiers that were added during the Byzantine period, to distinguish between letters that had become confusable.[11] Thus, the letters ⟨ο⟩ and ⟨ω⟩, pronounced identically by this time, were called o mikron ("small o") and o mega ("big o") respectively.[11] The letter ⟨ε⟩ was called e psilon ("plain e") to distinguish it from the identically pronounced digraph ⟨αι⟩, while, similarly, ⟨υ⟩, which at this time was pronounced [y], was called y psilon ("plain y") to distinguish it from the identically pronounced digraph ⟨οι⟩.[11]

LetterNamePronunciation
Greek (Ancient)Greek (Medieval)Greek (Modern)EnglishGreek (Ancient)Greek (Modern)English
Εεἶἐ ψιλόνἔψιλονepsilon[eː][ˈepsilon]/ˈɛpsɪlɒn/, some UK: /ɛpˈsaɪlən/
Οοὖὀ μικρόνὄμικρονomicron[oː][ˈomikron]/ˈɒmɪkrɒn/, traditional UK: /oʊˈmaɪkrɒn/
Υὖὐ ψιλόνὔψιλονupsilon[uː], [yː][ˈipsilon]/juːpˈsaɪlən, ˈʊpsɪlɒn/, also UK: /ʌpˈsaɪlən/, US: /ˈʌpsɪlɒn/
Ωὦὠ μέγαὠμέγαomega[ɔː][oˈmeɣa]US: /oʊˈmeɪɡə/, traditional UK: /ˈoʊmɪɡə/

Some dialects of the Aegean and Cypriot have retained long consonants and pronounce [ˈɣamːa] and [ˈkapʰa]; also, ήτα has come to be pronounced [ˈitʰa]in Cypriot.[45]

Letter shapes

A 16th-century edition of the New Testament (Gospel of John), printed in a renaissance typeface by Claude Garamond
Theocritus Idyll 1, lines 12–14, in script with abbreviations and ligatures from a caption in an illustrated edition of Theocritus. Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer: Carmina bucolica, Leiden 1779.

Like Latin and other alphabetic scripts, Greek originally had only a single form of each letter, without a distinction between uppercase and lowercase. This distinction is an innovation of the modern era, drawing on different lines of development of the letter shapes in earlier handwriting.

The oldest forms of the letters in antiquity are majuscule forms. Besides the upright, straight inscriptional forms (capitals) found in stone carvings or incised pottery, more fluent writing styles adapted for handwriting on soft materials were also developed during antiquity. Such handwriting has been preserved especially from papyrus manuscripts in Egypt since the Hellenistic period. Ancient handwriting developed two distinct styles: uncial writing, with carefully drawn, rounded block letters of about equal size, used as a book hand for carefully produced literary and religious manuscripts, and cursive writing, used for everyday purposes.[46] The cursive forms approached the style of lowercase letter forms, with ascenders and descenders, as well as many connecting lines and ligatures between letters.

In the ninth and tenth century, uncial book hands were replaced with a new, more compact writing style, with letter forms partly adapted from the earlier cursive.[46] This minuscule style remained the dominant form of handwritten Greek into the modern era. During the Renaissance, western printers adopted the minuscule letter forms as lowercase printed typefaces, while modeling uppercase letters on the ancient inscriptional forms. The orthographic practice of using the letter case distinction for marking proper names, titles, etc. developed in parallel to the practice in Latin and other western languages.

InscriptionManuscriptModern print
ArchaicClassicalUncialMinusculeLowercaseUppercase
αΑ
βΒ
γΓ
δΔ
εΕ
ζΖ
ηΗ
θΘ
ιΙ
κΚ
λΛ
μΜ
νΝ
ξΞ
οΟ
πΠ
ρΡ
σςΣ
τΤ
υΥ
φΦ
χΧ
ψΨ
ωΩ

Derived alphabets

The earliest Etruscan abecedarium, from Marsiliana d'Albegna, still almost identical with contemporaneous archaic Greek alphabets
A page from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century Bible manuscript in Gothic

The Greek alphabet was the model for various others:[6]

The Armenian and Georgian alphabets are almost certainly modeled on the Greek alphabet, but their graphic forms are quite different.[48]

Other uses

Use for other languages

Apart from the daughter alphabets listed above, which were adapted from Greek but developed into separate writing systems, the Greek alphabet has also been adopted at various times and in various places to write other languages.[49] For some of them, additional letters were introduced.

Antiquity

Middle Ages

Early modern

18th-century title page of a book printed in Karamanli Turkish

In mathematics and science

Main article: Greek letters used in mathematics, science, and engineering

Greek symbols are used as symbols in mathematics, physics and other sciences. Many symbols have traditional uses, such as lower case epsilon (ε) for an arbitrarily small positive number, lower case pi (π) for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, capital sigma (Σ) for summation, and lower case sigma (σ) for standard deviation. Formerly, the Greek letters were used for naming North Atlantic hurricanes if the normal list ran out. This happened only in the 2005 and 2020 hurricane seasons for a total of 15 storms, the last one being Hurricane Iota. In May 2021 the World Health Organization announced that the variants of SARS-CoV-2 of the virus would be named using letters of the Greek alphabet to avoid stigma and simplify communications for non-scientific audiences.[65][66]

Astronomy

Main article: Bayer designation

Greek letters are used to denote the brighter stars within each of the eighty-eight constellations. In most constellations, the brightest star is designated Alpha and the next brightest Beta etc. For example, the brightest star in the constellation of Centaurus is known as Alpha Centauri. For historical reasons, the Greek designations of some constellations begin with a lower ranked letter.

International Phonetic Alphabet

Several Greek letters are used as phonetic symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).[67] Several of them denote fricative consonants; the rest stand for variants of vowel sounds. The glyph shapes used for these letters in specialized phonetic fonts is sometimes slightly different from the conventional shapes in Greek typography proper, with glyphs typically being more upright and using serifs, to make them conform more with the typographical character of other, Latin-based letters in the phonetic alphabet. Nevertheless, in the Unicode encoding standard, the following three phonetic symbols are considered the same characters as the corresponding Greek letters proper:[68]

βbetaU+03B2voiced bilabial fricative
θthetaU+03B8voiceless dental fricative
χchiU+03C7voiceless uvular fricative

On the other hand, the following phonetic letters have Unicode representations separate from their Greek alphabetic use, either because their conventional typographic shape is too different from the original, or because they also have secondary uses as regular alphabetic characters in some Latin-based alphabets, including separate Latin uppercase letters distinct from the Greek ones.

Greek letterPhonetic letterUppercase
φphiU+03C6ɸU+0278Voiceless bilabial fricative–
γgammaU+03B3ɣU+0263Voiced velar fricativeƔ U+0194
εepsilonU+03B5ɛU+025BOpen-mid front unrounded vowelƐ U+0190
αalphaU+03B1ɑU+0251Open back unrounded vowelⱭ U+2C6D
υupsilonU+03C5ʊU+028Anear-close near-back rounded vowelƱ U+01B1
ιiotaU+03B9ɩU+0269Obsolete for near-close near-front unrounded vowel now ɪƖ U+0196

The symbol in Americanist phonetic notation for the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is the Greek letter lambda ⟨λ⟩, but ⟨ɬ⟩ in the IPA. The IPA symbol for the palatal lateral approximant is ⟨ʎ⟩, which looks similar to lambda, but is actually an inverted lowercase y.

Use as numerals

Main article: Greek numerals

Greek letters were also used to write numbers. In the classical Ionian system, the first nine letters of the alphabet stood for the numbers from 1 to 9, the next nine letters stood for the multiples of 10, from 10 to 90, and the next nine letters stood for the multiples of 100, from 100 to 900. For this purpose, in addition to the 24 letters which by that time made up the standard alphabet, three otherwise obsolete letters were retained or revived: digamma ⟨Ϝ⟩ for 6, koppa ⟨Ϙ⟩ for 90, and a rare Ionian letter for [ss], today called sampi ⟨Ͳ⟩, for 900. This system has remained in use in Greek up to the present day, although today it is only employed for limited purposes such as enumerating chapters in a book, similar to the way Roman numerals are used in English. The three extra symbols are today written as ⟨ϛ⟩, ⟨ϟ⟩ and ⟨ϡ⟩ respectively. To mark a letter as a numeral sign, a small stroke called keraia is added to the right of it.

Αʹ αʹalpha1
Βʹ βʹbeta2
Γʹ γʹgamma3
Δʹ δʹdelta4
Εʹ εʹepsilon5
ϛʹdigamma (stigma)6
Ζʹ ζʹzeta7
Ηʹ ηʹeta8
Θʹ θʹtheta9
Ιʹ ιʹiota10
Κʹ κʹkappa20
Λʹ λʹlambda30
Μʹ μʹmu40
Νʹ νʹnu50
Ξʹ ξʹxi60
Οʹ οʹomicron70
Πʹ πʹpi80
ϟʹkoppa90
Ρʹ ρʹrho100
Σʹ σʹsigma200
Τʹ τʹtau300
Υʹ υʹupsilon400
Φʹ φʹphi500
Χʹ χʹchi600
Ψʹ ψʹpsi700
Ωʹ ωʹomega800
ϡʹsampi900

Use by student fraternities and sororities

In North America, many college fraternities and sororities are named with combinations of Greek letters, and are hence also known as "Greek letter organizations".[69] This naming tradition was initiated by the foundation of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at the College of William and Mary in 1776.[69] The name of this fraternal organization is an acronym for the ancient Greek phrase Φιλοσοφία Βίου Κυβερνήτης (Philosophia Biou Kybernētēs), which means "Love of wisdom, the guide of life" and serves as the organization's motto.[69] Sometimes early fraternal organizations were known by their Greek letter names because the mottos that these names stood for were secret and revealed only to members of the fraternity.[69]

Different chapters within the same fraternity are almost always (with a handful of exceptions) designated using Greek letters as serial numbers. The founding chapter of each respective organization is its A chapter. As an organization expands, it establishes a B chapter, a Γ chapter, and so on and so forth. In an organization that expands to more than 24 chapters, the chapter after Ω chapter is AA chapter, followed by AB chapter, etc. Each of these is still a "chapter Letter", albeit a double-digit letter just as 10 through 99 are double-digit numbers. The Roman alphabet has a similar extended form with such double-digit letters when necessary, but it is used for columns in a table or chart rather than chapters of an organization.[citation needed]

Glyph variants

Some letters can occur in variant shapes, mostly inherited from medieval minuscule handwriting. While their use in normal typography of Greek is purely a matter of font styles, some such variants have been given separate encodings in Unicode.

  • The symbol ϐ ("curled beta") is a cursive variant form of beta (β). In the French tradition of Ancient Greek typography, β is used word-initially, and ϐ is used word-internally.
  • The letter delta has a form resembling a cursive capital letter D; while not encoded as its own form, this form is included as part of the symbol for the drachma (a Δρ digraph) in the Currency Symbols block, at U+20AF (₯).
  • The letter epsilon can occur in two equally frequent stylistic variants, either shaped  ('lunate epsilon', like a semicircle with a stroke) or  (similar to a reversed number 3). The symbol ϵ (U+03F5) is designated specifically for the lunate form, used as a technical symbol.
  • The symbol ϑ ("script theta") is a cursive form of theta (θ), frequent in handwriting, and used with a specialized meaning as a technical symbol.
  • The symbol ϰ ("kappa symbol") is a cursive form of kappa (κ), used as a technical symbol.
  • The symbol ϖ ("variant pi") is an archaic script form of pi (π), also used as a technical symbol.
  • The letter rho (ρ) can occur in different stylistic variants, with the descending tail either going straight down or curled to the right. The symbol ϱ (U+03F1) is designated specifically for the curled form, used as a technical symbol.
  • The letter sigma, in standard orthography, has two variants: ς, used only at the ends of words, and σ, used elsewhere. The form ϲ ("lunate sigma", resembling a Latin c) is a medieval stylistic variant that can be used in both environments without the final/non-final distinction.
  • The capital letter upsilon (Υ) can occur in different stylistic variants, with the upper strokes either straight like a Latin Y, or slightly curled. The symbol ϒ (U+03D2) is designated specifically for the curled form (), used as a technical symbol, e.g. in physics.
  • The letter phi can occur in two equally frequent stylistic variants, either shaped as  (a circle with a vertical stroke through it) or as  (a curled shape open at the top). The symbol ϕ (U+03D5) is designated specifically for the closed form, used as a technical symbol.
  • The letter omega has at least three stylistic variants of its capital form. The standard is the "open omega" (Ω), resembling an open partial circle with the opening downward and the ends curled outward. The two other stylistic variants are seen more often in modern typography, resembling a raised and underscored circle (roughly o̲), where the underscore may or may not be touching the circle on a tangent (in the former case it resembles a superscript omicron similar to that found in the numero sign or masculine ordinal indicator; in the latter, it closely resembles some forms of the Latin letter Q). The open omega is always used in symbolic settings and is encoded in Letterlike Symbols (U+2126) as a separate code point for backward compatibility.

Computer encodings

For computer usage, a variety of encodings have been used for Greek online, many of them documented in RFC 1947.

The two principal ones still used today are ISO/IEC 8859-7 and Unicode. ISO 8859-7 supports only the monotonic orthography; Unicode supports both the monotonic and polytonic orthographies.

ISO/IEC 8859-7

For the range A0–FF (hex), it follows the Unicode range 370–3CF (see below) except that some symbols, like ©, ½, § etc. are used where Unicode has unused locations. Like all ISO-8859 encodings, it is equal to ASCII for 00–7F (hex).

Greek in Unicode

Main articles: Greek script in Unicode, Greek and Coptic, and Greek Extended

Unicode supports polytonic orthography well enough for ordinary continuous text in modern and ancient Greek, and even many archaic forms for epigraphy. With the use of combining characters, Unicode also supports Greek philology and dialectology and various other specialized requirements. Most current text rendering engines do not render diacritics well, so, though alpha with macron and acute can be represented as U+03B1 U+0304 U+0301, this rarely renders well: ᾱ́.[citation needed]

There are two main blocks of Greek characters in Unicode. The first is "Greek and Coptic" (U+0370 to U+03FF). This block is based on ISO 8859-7 and is sufficient to write Modern Greek. There are also some archaic letters and Greek-based technical symbols.

This block also supports the Coptic alphabet. Formerly, most Coptic letters shared codepoints with similar-looking Greek letters; but in many scholarly works, both scripts occur, with quite different letter shapes, so as of Unicode 4.1, Coptic and Greek were disunified. Those Coptic letters with no Greek equivalents still remain in this block (U+03E2 to U+03EF).

To write polytonic Greek, one may use combining diacritical marks or the precomposed characters in the "Greek Extended" block (U+1F00 to U+1FFF).

Greek and Coptic[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+037xͰͱͲͳʹ͵Ͷͷͺͻͼͽ;Ϳ
U+038x΄΅Ά·ΈΉΊΌΎΏ
U+039xΐΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟ
U+03AxΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩΪΫάέήί
U+03Bxΰαβγδεζηθικλμνξο
U+03CxπρςστυφχψωϊϋόύώϏ
U+03DxϐϑϒϓϔϕϖϗϘϙϚϛϜϝϞϟ
U+03ExϠϡϢϣϤϥϦϧϨϩϪϫϬϭϮϯ
U+03Fxϰϱϲϳϴϵ϶ϷϸϹϺϻϼϽϾϿ
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 15.1
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points
Greek Extended[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+1F0xἀἁἂἃἄἅἆἇἈἉἊἋἌἍἎἏ
U+1F1xἐἑἒἓἔἕἘἙἚἛἜἝ
U+1F2xἠἡἢἣἤἥἦἧἨἩἪἫἬἭἮἯ
U+1F3xἰἱἲἳἴἵἶἷἸἹἺἻἼἽἾἿ
U+1F4xὀὁὂὃὄὅὈὉὊὋὌὍ
U+1F5xὐὑὒὓὔὕὖὗὙὛὝὟ
U+1F6xὠὡὢὣὤὥὦὧὨὩὪὫὬὭὮὯ
U+1F7xὰάὲέὴήὶίὸόὺύὼώ
U+1F8xᾀᾁᾂᾃᾄᾅᾆᾇᾈᾉᾊᾋᾌᾍᾎᾏ
U+1F9xᾐᾑᾒᾓᾔᾕᾖᾗᾘᾙᾚᾛᾜᾝᾞᾟ
U+1FAxᾠᾡᾢᾣᾤᾥᾦᾧᾨᾩᾪᾫᾬᾭᾮᾯ
U+1FBxᾰᾱᾲᾳᾴᾶᾷᾸᾹᾺΆᾼ᾽ι᾿
U+1FCx῀῁ῂῃῄῆῇῈΈῊΉῌ῍῎῏
U+1FDxῐῑῒΐῖῗῘῙῚΊ῝῞῟
U+1FExῠῡῢΰῤῥῦῧῨῩῪΎῬ῭΅`
U+1FFxῲῳῴῶῷῸΌῺΏῼ´῾
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 15.1
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Combining and letter-free diacritics

Combining and spacing (letter-free) diacritical marks pertaining to Greek language:

CombiningSpacingSampleDescription
U+0300U+0060(  ̀ )"varia / grave accent"
U+0301U+00B4, U+0384(  ́ )"oxia / tonos / acute accent"
U+0304U+00AF( ̄ )"macron"
U+0306U+02D8( ̆ )"vrachy / breve"
U+0308U+00A8( ̈ )"dialytika / diaeresis"
U+0313U+02BC( ̓ )"psili / comma above" (spiritus lenis)
U+0314U+02BD( ̔ )"dasia / reversed comma above" (spiritus asper)
U+0342( ͂ )"perispomeni" (circumflex)
U+0343( ̓ )"koronis" (= U+0313)
U+0344U+0385( ̈́ )"dialytika tonos" (deprecated, = U+0308 U+0301)
U+0345U+037A( ͅ )"ypogegrammeni / iota subscript".

Encodings with a subset of the Greek alphabet

IBM code pages 437, 860, 861, 862, 863, and 865 contain the letters ΓΘΣΦΩαδεπστφ (plus β as an alternative interpretation for ß).


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