Greek alphabet Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Letter shapes === [[File:Gospel Estienne 1550.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|A 16th-century edition of the New Testament ([[Gospel of John]]), printed in a renaissance typeface by [[Claude Garamond]]]] [[File:Theocritus-Syracusanus-et-al-Lodewijk-Caspar-Valckenaer MG 0683 - detail - Greek text - Theocritus - Idyll 1.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|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 [[Greek cursive|cursive]] writing, used for everyday purposes.<ref name="thompson">{{harvnb|Thompson|1912|pp=102–103}}</ref> The cursive forms approached the style of lowercase letter forms, with [[Ascender (typography)|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.<ref name="thompson"/> This [[Greek minuscule|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. {|class="wikitable" |- !colspan="2"|Inscription !colspan="2"|Manuscript !colspan="2"|Modern print |- style="font-size: smaller;" !Archaic!!Classical!![[Uncial]]!![[Greek minuscule|Minuscule]]!!Lowercase!!Uppercase |- |{{GrGl|Alpha 03}} |{{GrGl|Alpha classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Alpha}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Alpha.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|α |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Α |- |{{GrGl|Beta 16}} |{{GrGl|Beta classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Beta}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Beta.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|β |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Β |- |{{GrGl|Gamma archaic 1}} |{{GrGl|Gamma classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Gamma}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Gamma.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|γ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Γ |- |{{GrGl|Delta 04}} |{{GrGl|Delta classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Delta}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Delta.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|δ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Δ |- |{{GrGl|Epsilon archaic}} |{{GrGl|Epsilon classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Epsilon}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Epsilon.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|ε |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Ε |- |{{GrGl|Zeta archaic}} |{{GrGl|Zeta classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Zeta}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Zeta.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|ζ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Ζ |- |{{GrGl|Eta archaic}} |{{GrGl|Eta classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Eta}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Eta.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|η |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Η |- |{{GrGl|Theta archaic}} |{{GrGl|Theta classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Theta}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Theta.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|θ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Θ |- |{{GrGl|Iota normal}} |{{GrGl|Iota classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Iota}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Iota.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|ι |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Ι |- |{{GrGl|Kappa normal}} |{{GrGl|Kappa classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Kappa}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Kappa.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|κ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Κ |- |{{GrGl|Lambda 09}} |{{GrGl|Lambda classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Lambda}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Lambda.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|λ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Λ |- |{{GrGl|Mu 04}} |{{GrGl|Mu classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Mu}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Mu.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|μ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Μ |- |{{GrGl|Nu 01}} |{{GrGl|Nu classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Nu}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Nu.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|ν |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Ν |- |{{GrGl|Xi archaic}} |{{GrGl|Xi classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Xi}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Xi.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|ξ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Ξ |- |{{GrGl|Omicron 04}} |{{GrGl|Omicron classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Omicron}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Omicron.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|ο |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Ο |- |{{GrGl|Pi archaic}} |{{GrGl|Pi classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Pi}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Pi.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|π |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Π |- |{{GrGl|Rho pointed}} |{{GrGl|Rho classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Rho}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Rho.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|ρ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Ρ |- |{{GrGl|Sigma normal}} |{{GrGl|Sigma classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Sigma}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Sigma.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|σς |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Σ |- |{{GrGl|Tau normal}} |{{GrGl|Tau classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Tau}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Tau.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|τ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Τ |- |{{GrGl|Upsilon normal}} |{{GrGl|Upsilon classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Upsilon}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Upsilon.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|υ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Υ |- |{{GrGl|Phi 03}} |{{GrGl|Phi archaic}} |{{GrGl|uncial Phi}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Phi.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|φ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Φ |- |{{GrGl|Chi normal}} |{{GrGl|Chi classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Chi}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Chi.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|χ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Χ |- |{{GrGl|Psi straight}} |{{GrGl|Psi classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Psi}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Psi.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|ψ |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Ψ |- |{{GrGl|Omega normal}} |{{GrGl|Omega classical}} |{{GrGl|uncial Omega}} |[[File:Greek minuscule Omega.svg|x30px]] |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|ω |style="font-family:serif;font-size:larger;"|Ω |} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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