Alphabet

If you want to learn Greek online and you can type and view Greek on your screen, the first logical step is to learn the Greek letters, accents and breathings, and how to pronounce them. For those who want to know more on the origin and historical evolution of the Greek alphabet, I refer to the section History of the Greek Language.

Apprenez l’alphabet grec ♠♠♠

(by François J. Bayard): this is an ideal website to learn the Greek alphabet, although accents and breathings are not considered here. The letters are divided in five groups (vowels, dentals, labials, velars and finally the continuants). Each letter is presented in a beautiful GIF-file and followed by its name, an explanation of how to pronounce it and a model word which sounds familiar because of its modern French derivations. Each group of letters is concluded with a set of very simple exercises, and when you have finished the whole, you are invited to read the names of the most important Greek gods and the capitals of some modern Greek signboards.

Ancient Greek Tutorials: Pronunciation and Accentuation ♠♠♠

the material in this excellent site from Berkeley is based on the manual of Donald J. Mastronarde, //Introduction to Attic Greek, University of California Press, 1993, (or the new //CD-version of 2003). It consists of five parts: the Pronunciation Guide provides information and examples for the pronunciation of the sounds of ancient Attic Greek, Pronunciation Practice //provides examples of pronunciation of over 100 basic Greek words (taken from the early chapters of the textbook), the //Accentuation Tutorial presents information and examples to help in the understanding and mastery of the accentuation system of ancient Attic Greek, //Accentuation Practice// and //Principal Parts //contain interactive exercises (see below). The name of Professor Mastronarde guarantees in-depth treatment and scholarly accuracy: in the Pronunciation Guide the sound corresponding with each letter of the alphabet is described and explained in phonetic categories (different kinds of plosives, continuants, double consonants and vowels) and in the //Accentuation Tutorial //this complex subject is treated in an intelligent way, paying attention to the historical evolution. This scholarly approach is combined here with revolutionary computer technology: the Greek is made with Javascript, which yields high quality without necessitating the installation of a font on your computer (on the application of Java see Java and Ancient Greek by Bruce G. Robertson), the use of Quicktime allows you to hear the right pronunciation of all the letters of the alphabet and of all the words quoted as examples - you may choose between a male voice and a female voice but both produce a clear and well articulated sound. The quality of the pronunciation is far above that of any of the websites discussed here.

Biblical Greek ♠♠†

(by Job): this "LORD of Hosts Website on Biblical Greek" offers a simple but excellent Greek Pronunciation Guide divided in six lessons, explaining not only the Greek Alphabet but also dealing with the Accents and breathing Marks, the Diphthongs, the Iota Subscripts, the Diaeresis Mark and with Punctuation. Errors are rare and, although these pages focus on biblical Greek, almost all of this applies to classical Attic Greek as well.

The Sound of Ancient Greek - Classical Pronunciation

(by S. Hagel): apart from a very limited bibliography on the subject, this page presents three samples of the classical pronunciation of Ancient Greek texts (with a reconstruction of the classical pitch accent): Homer, Iliad 18.39-96 (Catalogue of Nereids, dialogue between Thetis and Achilles), Aischylos, Agamemnon 503-539 (Messenger arriving at Argos) and the beginning of Plato, Symposion (172f.). To listen to this ’recital’ - the audio quality is really good - you must have installed RealPlayer on your computer.

Society for the Oral Reading of Greek and Latin Literature (SORGLL)

(by CUNY Professor Emeritus Stephen G. Daitz): It is the aim of this Society to encourage students and teachers to listen to and to reproduce the authentic sounds of Greek and Latin literature. On these pages it presents, apart from a short statement of purpose and an even shorter bibliography, a ’Guide to restored Greek pronunciation’: here the pronunciation of each letter of the alphabet is described with international phonetic symbols as well as by an accompanying audio file. In another audio file Stephen Daitz reads for us Homer’s Iliad, Book 1, lines 1-52, a sample of the famous audio cassettes with his oral presentation of the complete Iliad and Odyssey in Greek. To listen to these audio files RealPlayer is required.

The Greek Alphabet

On this website Prof. John Schwandt gives an audio-visual presentation on the Greek alphabet. In the introduction the choice for the modern Greek pronunciation is explained. In a chart all the upper and lower case letters are alphabetically listed with their name, their pronunciation and a presentation on how they should be written. In the audio-comment the pronunciation and the shape are further illustrated.

Guide to Greek Pronunciation Conventions

This page of the Institute of Biblical Greek provides a brief history of the sounds of ancient, biblical (Koine), Erasmian, and modern Greek pronunciation and a comparative Greek pronunciation chart with audio files for the major conventions (Erasmian, Historic Attic, Historic Biblical and Modern) for the letters of the alphabet and the diphthongs. The information on the pronunciation is basic, but the page offers several links to more detailed websites.

New Testament Greek Course: Lesson 1-5: Alphabet and Phonology ♠†

(by William D. Ramey): the first five lessons of this Greek course offer an in-depth treatment of the Greek alphabet, including a phonological description of each consonant, vowel and diphthong as well as a presentation of the breathing marks, accent marks and punctuation marks. All the lessons are provided with a panoply of study aids (exercises with answer keys) and can be freely downloaded in PDF-format (Adobe Acrobat Reader). Moreover, in the Tutorial Guide to the Greek Alphabet the twenty-four Greek letters are animatedly drawn (gif files) to demonstrate how to write them correctly, and MP3 audio files are included as a pronunciation guide. To view and print the Greek characters you have to install the SPIonic font.

The Greek Alphabet

(provided by the Greek Language and Linguistics Gateway): this web site contains a simple list of the Greek letters with their traditional English transliteration and some notes on the modern Greek pronunciation and the reconstructed classical pronunciation. Some links to related sites on the Greek alphabet and pronunciation system are added

Greek Language and the Alphabet

(by Katerina Sarri): this website gives in a rather complex chart for each letter of the alphabet, but also for earlier abandoned letters: the transcription, the numeric value, the Modern Greek and the Erasmian pronunciation, the letter name and sound examples of words that are familiar because of their modern English derivations. In an additional window the history of the shape and sound of the letter is discussed. The point of view is a modern Greek one and the Greek script is monotonic.

About the Greek Language

(by Harry Foundalis): this web site, made by a Greek from Macedonia who studies in the United States, contains a clear presentation of the alphabet (with nice GIF-files) provided with notes on pronunciation, phonology and orthography. These notes focus on the differences between Classical Greek and Modern Greek, including some interesting observations about the Erasmian pronunciation of Ancient Greek and the way it is pronounced by present-day Greeks. However, the author of these pages is no professional linguist or philologist and his general outline of the syntax of Ancient and Modern Greek is very superficial.

A Brief Guide to Ancient Greek Pronunciation

(by John Opsopaus): this page is meant as a help to pronounce Ancient Greek according to current scholarly reconstructions of Attic pronunciation in the fifth century BC. It contains a simple description of the pronunciation of each letter, a presentation of the three accents and some suggestions for further reading.

Musical Pitch Accents in Greek

(by William Harris): this essay on the stress and pitch of Ancient Greek with reference to modern musical conventions is a defence of the correct musical pronunciation of the three Greek accentuation marks against the stress accent pronunciation which has become traditional.

The Greek Alphabet

This page, which is part of a Mathematics Encyclopedia, offers a simple presentation of all the Greek letters and their names with nice GIF-files.

Numerals

Ancient Greek Number Codes ♠♠

Those who want to count in Ancient Greek find here a convenient list of all Greek numerals and figures, offered by the Cornell University Greek Epigraphy Project.

Greek Numbers and Arithmetic

confrontation of the early Attic system of numerical notation with the later practice of the Ionian or alphabetic numerals. Short notes are added on how the Greeks represented large numbers, fractions and calculations, such as multiplication and division.

Chiffres grecs

(by François J. Bayard): list of Greek figures, both those used in the manuscripts and the symbols used in ancient inscriptions

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