Learn about the Greek alphabet
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Intro |
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| Michael: What alphabet does Greek use? |
| Chrissi: And has it changed over time? |
| Michael: At GreekPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Maritina Chalepa, a kindergarten student, is studying the alphabet with her mum, Valia Vamvaka. She sees an unfamiliar letter and asks, |
| "What letter is that?" |
| Μαριτίνα Χαλεπά: Ποιο γράμμα είναι αυτό; (Pio gráma íne aftó?) |
| Dialogue |
| Μαριτίνα Χαλεπά: Ποιο γράμμα είναι αυτό; (Pio gráma íne aftó?) |
| Βάλια Βαμβακά: Το ξ. (To xi.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Μαριτίνα Χαλεπά: Ποιο γράμμα είναι αυτό; (Pio gráma íne aftó?) |
| Michael: "What letter is that?" |
| Βάλια Βαμβακά: Το ξ. (To xi.) |
| Michael: "It's ξ (xi)." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: The Greek letter young Maritina was asking her mom about looks like the English letter ‘E’ in script, but its equivalent letter in English is actually the letter ‘X’. There are so many similarities between the English and the Greek alphabet, or, |
| Chrissi: αλφάβητο (alfávito) |
| Michael: and that’s because the English alphabet was derived from the Latin script, whose ancestor was the Etruscan alphabet which was based on a variation of the Greek alphabet. As a matter of fact, the word ‘alphabet’ itself is of Greek origin and is a combination of the names of the first and the second letters of the Greek alphabet: |
| Chrissi: άλφα (álfa) |
| Michael: or “a,” and |
| Chrissi: βήτα (vita) |
| Michael: or “b.” The Greek alphabet has been used since the late 9th or early 8th century BC and is still the one being used today in Modern Greek. It used to have multiple variants, but, by the end of the 4th century, the Greeks decided to settle on a standardized variant proposed by Euclid—thus the term “Euclidean alphabet.” The Greek alphabet as a whole is derived from the Phoenician alphabet, or |
| Chrissi: φοινικικό αλφάβητο (finikikó alfávito) |
| Michael: and was the first alphabetic script to develop distinct letters for vowels, |
| Chrissi: φωνήεντα (foníenda) |
| Michael: and consonants. |
| Chrissi: σύμφωνα (símfona) |
| Michael: There are twenty-four letters in the Greek alphabet, seven of which are vowels, and seventeen, consonants. It’s not too difficult to familiarize oneself with the letters of the Greek alphabet since most of them have their sound corresponding to the letters of the English alphabet. For instance, there’s the letter, |
| Chrissi: κάππα (kápa) |
| Michael: which is equivalent to the letter ‘k’ in English. And then there’s |
| Chrissi: ταυ (taf) |
| Michael: which corresponds to the letter ‘t’ in English. There are a few differences between Greek and English in the way some letters are written and or pronounced. For example, the Greek uppercase letter that looks like an English "X" is pronounced like an "H" and the equivalent of the English ‘x’ sound is the Greek letter, |
| Chrissi: ξι (xi) |
| Michael: which we saw in our dialogue. It sounds like an English ‘x,’ but it is written differently. Also, the Greek uppercase letter that looks like an English ‘H’ produces an /i/ vowel sound in Greek. And then, there’s the letter |
| Chrissi: ρω (ró) |
| Michael: or ‘r’ in English, that is written in Greek exactly the same as the English letter ‘p’. Despite the differences and "false friends," the letters of the Greek alphabet generally have a consistent symbol-to-sound identification, making them easy to retain. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review the sample conversation: respond to the prompts by speaking aloud, and then listen carefully as the native speaker models the correct answer. Repeat focusing on the pronunciation. Are you ready? |
| How do you say "What letter is that?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Ποιο γράμμα είναι αυτό; (Pio gráma íne aftó?) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Chrissi: Ποιο γράμμα είναι αυτό; (Pio gráma íne aftó?) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Ποιο γράμμα είναι αυτό; (Pio gráma íne aftó?) |
| Michael: Let's move on to the second sentence. How do you say "It's ξ (xi)." |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Το ξ. (To xi.) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Chrissi: Το ξ. (To xi.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Το ξ. (To xi.) |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: The Greek alphabet is a truly unique and interesting script having been the model of various other alphabets and scripts including, |
| Chrissi: το ετρουσκικό αλφάβητο (to etruskikó alfávito) |
| Michael: the Etruscan alphabet, |
| Chrissi: το γοτθικό αλφάβητο (to gotthikó alfávito) |
| Michael: the Gothic alphabet, |
| Chrissi: η κυριλλική γραφή (i kirilikí grafí) |
| Michael: and the Cyrillic script. Not only that, but the letters of the Greek alphabet have also been used as symbols in mathematics and other sciences, making them the most recognizable alphabetical symbols apart from the English alphabet. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Chrissi: Γεια χαρά! (Ya hará!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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