Greek Writing System

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Greek Writing System

 

the writing system that developed from the Phoenician consonantal script in the tenth to eighth centuries B.C. (its oldest monuments are from the eighth to seventh centuries B.C.). The system that was used by the ancient Greeks is still in use. An innovation in the development of the Greek writing system was the introduction of separate letters for the vowels, in addition to those designating consonants.

Table 1. Greek writing system
1Letters in brackets are the Library of Congress transliterations when they differ from the values given in the original
Letter	Name	Ancient Greek pronunciation	Modern Greek pronunciation	Numerical value
Aα	alpha	a	a	1
Bβ	beta	b	v	2
Гγ	gamma	g	g	3
			(fricative)
			j
		η	η
Δδ	delta	d	δ(voiced interdental)	4
E ε	epsilon	e	e	5
Zζ	zeta	dz	z	7
H η	eta	ē	i	8
Ɵθ	theta	th	th (unvoiced interdental)	9
Iι	iota	i	i	10
K ϰ	kappa	k	k	20
∧ λ	lambda	1	1	30
M μ	mu	m	m	40
ƞv	nu	n	n	50
Ξ ξ	xi	ks	ks [x]1	60
O o	omicron	0	0	70
П п	pi	P	p	80
Pρ	rho	r	r[rh]	100
∑ σ, ς	sigma	s	S	200
T τ	tau	t	t	300
Y υ	upsilon	u →0	i[y; u in diphthong]	400
Φ φ	phi	ph	f	500
Ψ ψ	psi	ps	ps	700
Ω ω	omega	ō	0	800
ει	–	ei	i	–
o ι	–	αi	ө	–
oι	–	oi	i	–
ευ	–	eu	ev, ef	–
α υ	–	au	av, af	–
oυ	–	u	u	–
ηυ	–	–	iv, if	–
υι	–	–	i	–
μ п	–	mp	b, mb	–
υτ	–	nt	d, nd	–

REFERENCES

Istrin, V. A. Vozniknovenie i razvitie pis’ma. Moscow, 1965.
Jeffery, J. H. The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece. Oxford, 1961.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.