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! == 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.{{sfn|Macrakis|1996|p=}} For some of them, additional letters were introduced. ==== Antiquity ==== * Most of the [[Iron Age]] [[alphabets of Asia Minor]] were also adopted around the same time, as the early Greek alphabet was adopted from the [[Phoenician Alphabet]]. The Lydian and Carian alphabets are generally believed to derive from the Greek alphabet, although it is not clear which variant is the direct ancestor. While some of these alphabets such as [[Phrygian language|Phrygian]] had slight differences from the Greek counterpart, some like [[Carian alphabet]] had mostly different values and several other characters inherited from pre-Greek local scripts. They were in use {{Circa|800}}–300 BC until all the [[Anatolian languages]] were extinct due to [[Hellenization]].<ref>[https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/305290/Understanding%20Relations%20Between%20Scripts%20II_PrintPDF_1.pdf '''Understanding Relations Between Scripts II'''] by '''Philip J Boyes''' & '''Philippa M Steele'''. ''Published in the UK in 2020 by Oxbow Books'': "The Carian alphabet resembles the Greek alphabet, though, as in the case of Phrygian, no single Greek variant can be identified as its ancestor", "It is generally assumed that the Lydian alphabet is derived from the Greek alphabet, but the exact relationship remains unclear (Melchert 2004)"</ref><ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lycian-alphabet '''Britannica – Lycian Alphabet'''] "The Lycian alphabet is clearly related to the Greek, but the exact nature of the relationship is uncertain. Several letters appear to be related to symbols of the Cretan and Cyprian writing systems."</ref><ref>[https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=script_detail&key=Cari '''Scriptsource.org – Carian''']"Visually, the letters bear a close resemblance to Greek letters. Decipherment was initially attempted on the assumption that those letters which looked like Greek represented the same sounds as their closest visual Greek equivalents. However it has since been established that the phonetic values of the two scripts are very different. For example the theta θ symbol represents 'th' in Greek but 'q' in Carian. Carian was generally written from left to right, although Egyptian writers wrote primarily from right to left. It was written without spaces between words."</ref><ref>[https://omniglot.com/writing/carian.php '''Omniglot.com – Carian'''] "The Carian alphabet appears in about 100 pieces of graffiti inscriptions left by Carian mercenaries who served in Egypt. A number of clay tablets, coins and monumental inscriptions have also been found. It was possibly derived from the Phoenician alphabet."</ref><ref>[https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.31826/jlr-2019-163-405/pdf '''Ancient Anatolian languages and cultures in contact: some methodological observations'''] by '''Paola Cotticelli-Kurras''' & '''Federico Giusfredi''' ''(University of Verona, Italy)'' "During the Iron ages, with a brand new political balance and cultural scenario, the cultures and languages of Anatolia maintained their position of a bridge between the Aegean and the Syro-Mesopotamian worlds, while the North-West Semitic cultures of the Phoenicians and of the Aramaeans also entered the scene. Assuming the 4th century and the '''hellenization of Anatolia''' as the '''terminus ante quem''', the correct perspective of a contact-oriented study of the Ancient Anatolian world needs to take as an object a large net of cultures that evolved and changed over almost 16 centuries of documentary history."</ref> * The original [[Old Italic script|Old Italic alphabets]] was the early Greek alphabet with only slight modifications. * It was used in some [[Paleo-Balkan languages]], including [[Thracian language|Thracian]]. For other neighboring languages or dialects, such as [[Ancient Macedonian language|Ancient Macedonian]], isolated words are preserved in Greek texts, but no continuous texts are preserved. * The [[Greco-Iberian alphabet]] was used for writing the ancient [[Iberian language]] in parts of modern Spain. * [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]] inscriptions (in modern France) used the Greek alphabet until the Roman conquest * The [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] text of the [[Bible]] was written in Greek letters in [[Origen]]'s [[Hexapla]]. * The [[Bactrian language]], an [[Iranian languages|Iranian language]] spoken in what is now [[Afghanistan]], was written in the Greek alphabet during the [[Kushan Empire]] (65–250 AD). It adds an extra letter {{angbr|[[Sho (letter)|þ]]}} for the ''sh'' sound {{IPAblink|ʃ}}.{{sfn|Sims-Williams|1997|p=}} * The [[Coptic alphabet]] adds eight letters derived from [[Demotic (Egyptian)|Demotic]]. It is still used today, mostly in Egypt, to write [[Coptic language|Coptic]], the liturgical language of Egyptian Christians. Letters usually retain an [[Uncial script|uncial form]] different from the forms used for Greek today. The alphabet of [[Old Nubian]] is an adaptation of Coptic. ==== Middle Ages ==== * Coins from the 4th-8th centuries known as [[mordovka]]s were used as currency in Eastern Europe by [[Uralic languages|Uralic peoples]] and were written in [[Moksha language|Moksha]] using Greek uncial script.<ref>{{harvnb|Zaikovsky|1929}}</ref> * An 8th-century [[Arabic language|Arabic]] fragment preserves a text in the Greek alphabet,<ref>J. Blau, "Middle and Old Arabic material for the history of stress in Arabic", ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'' '''35''':3:476-84 (October 1972) [https://www.academia.edu/38210328/Joshua_Blau_Middle_and_Old_Arabic_Material_for_the_History_of_Stress_in_Arabic_Bulletin_of_the_School_of_Oriental_and_African_Studies_vol_35_no_3_1972_476_484 full text]</ref> as does a 9th or 10th century psalm translation fragment.<ref>Ahmad Al-Jallad, ''The Damascus Psalm Fragment: Middle Arabic and the Legacy of Old Ḥigāzī'', in series ''Late Antique and Medieval Islamic Near East'' (LAMINE) '''2''', Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2020; [https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/lamine/lamine2 full text]; see also [[Bible translations into Arabic]]</ref> * An [[Ossetic language|Old Ossetic]] inscription of the 10th–12th centuries found in [[Arxyz]], the oldest known attestation of an Ossetic language. * The [[Old Nubian language]] of [[Makuria]] (modern Sudan) adds three Coptic letters, two letters derived from [[Meroitic script]], and a digraph of two Greek gammas used for the [[velar nasal]] sound. * Various [[South Slavic languages|South Slavic]] dialects, similar to the modern [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] and [[Macedonian language]]s, have been written in Greek script.{{sfn|Miletich|1920|p=}}{{sfn|Mazon|Vaillant|1938|p=}}{{sfn|Kristophson|1974|p=11}}{{sfn|Peyfuss|1989|p=}} The modern South Slavic languages now use modified [[Cyrillic alphabets]].<!--see footnote in Macrakis 1996--> ==== Early modern ==== [[File:Karamanlidika title page 1784.JPG|thumb|right|18th-century title page of a book printed in Karamanli Turkish]] * [[Turkish language|Turkish]] spoken by [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christians]] (''[[Karamanlides]]'') was often written in Greek script, and called ''[[Karamanli Turkish|Karamanlidika]]''. * [[Tosk language|Tosk]] [[Albanian language|Albanian]] was often written using the Greek alphabet, starting in about 1500.{{sfn|Elsie|1991|p=}} The printing press at [[Moschopolis]] published several Albanian texts in Greek script during the 18th century. It was only in 1908 that the [[Bitola|Monastir]] conference standardized a [[Albanian alphabet|Latin orthography]] for both Tosk and [[Gheg language|Gheg]]. Greek spelling is still occasionally used for the local Albanian dialects ([[Arvanitika]]) in Greece. * [[Gagauz language|Gagauz]], a [[Turkic language]] of the northeast Balkans spoken by Orthodox Christians, was apparently written in Greek characters in the late 19th century. In 1957, it was standardized on Cyrillic, and in 1996, a [[Gagauz alphabet]] based on Latin characters was adopted (derived from the [[Turkish alphabet]]). * [[Surguch]], a [[Turkic language]], was spoken by a small group of [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christians]] in northern Greece. It is now written in Latin or Cyrillic characters. * [[Urum language|Urum]] or Greek Tatar, spoken by Orthodox Christians, used the Greek alphabet. * [[Judaeo-Spanish language|Judaeo-Spanish]] or Ladino, a Jewish dialect of Spanish, has occasionally been published in Greek characters in Greece.<ref>Katja Šmid, "Los problemas del estudio de la lengua sefardí", ''Verba Hispanica'' '''10''':1:113-124 (2002) [https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/VerbaHispanica/article/download/6006/5734 full text]: "Es interesante el hecho que en Bulgaria se imprimieron unas pocas publicaciones en alfabeto cirílico búlgaro y en Grecia en alfabeto griego."</ref> * The Italian humanist [[Giovan Giorgio Trissino]] tried to add some Greek letters (Ɛ ε, Ꞷ ω) to [[Italian orthography]] in 1524.<ref name="Trissino">{{cite book |last1=Trissino |first1=Gian Giorgio |author1-link=Gian Giorgio Trissino |title=De le lettere nuωvamente aggiunte ne la lingua Italiana – Wikisource |date=1524 |url=https://it.wikisource.org/wiki/De_le_lettere_nu%CF%89vamente_aggiunte_ne_la_lingua_Italiana |access-date=20 October 2022 |language=it }}</ref> === In mathematics and science === {{Main|Greek letters used in mathematics, science, and engineering}} Greek symbols are used as symbols in [[mathematics]], [[physics]] and other [[science]]s. Many symbols have traditional uses, such as lower case epsilon (ε) for [[Limit (mathematics)|an arbitrarily small positive number]], lower case pi (π) for the [[Pi|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 [[Tropical cyclone naming#North Atlantic Ocean|naming North Atlantic hurricanes]] if the normal list ran out. This happened only in the [[2005 Atlantic hurricane season|2005]] and [[2020 Atlantic hurricane season|2020]] hurricane seasons for a total of 15 storms, the last one being [[Hurricane Iota]]. However, this practice would be discontinued in 2021, citing the confusion many similar-sounding names caused. 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.<ref>{{Cite web|title=WHO announces simple, easy-to-say labels for SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Interest and Concern|url=https://www.who.int/news/item/31-05-2021-who-announces-simple-easy-to-say-labels-for-sars-cov-2-variants-of-interest-and-concern|access-date=2021-06-01|website=www.who.int|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-05-31|title=Covid-19 variants to be given Greek alphabet names to avoid stigma|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/01/covid-19-variants-to-be-given-greek-alphabet-names-to-avoid-stigma|access-date=2021-06-01|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref> === Astronomy === {{main|Bayer designation}} Greek letters are used to denote the brighter stars within each of the eighty-eight [[constellation]]s. 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).<ref>{{cite book|title=Handbook of the International Phonetic Association|year=1999|place=Cambridge|publisher=University Press|pages=176–181}}</ref> 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:<ref>For chi and beta, separate codepoints for use in a Latin-script environment were added in Unicode versions 7.0 (2014) and 8.0 (2015) respectively: U+AB53 "Latin small letter chi" (ꭓ) and U+A7B5 "Latin small letter beta" (ꞵ). As of 2017, the International Phonetic Association still lists the original Greek codepoints as the standard representations of the IPA symbols in question [https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart].</ref> {|class="wikitable" |{{IPA|β}} ||beta ||U+03B2 ||[[voiced bilabial fricative]] |- |{{IPA|θ}} ||theta ||U+03B8 ||[[voiceless dental fricative]] |- |{{IPA|χ}} ||chi ||U+03C7 ||[[voiceless 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. {|class="wikitable" |- !colspan="3"|Greek letter !colspan="3"|Phonetic letter !Uppercase |- |φ||phi||U+03C6||{{IPA|ɸ}} ||U+0278 ||[[Voiceless bilabial fricative]]||– |- |γ||gamma||U+03B3||{{IPA|ɣ}}||U+0263||[[Voiced velar fricative]] ||Ɣ U+0194 |- |ε||epsilon||U+03B5||{{IPA|ɛ}}||U+025B||[[Open-mid front unrounded vowel]] ||Ɛ U+0190 |- |α||alpha||U+03B1||{{IPA|ɑ}}||U+0251||[[Open back unrounded vowel]]||Ɑ U+2C6D |- |υ||upsilon||U+03C5||{{IPA|ʊ}}||U+028A||[[near-close near-back rounded vowel]] ||Ʊ U+01B1 |- |ι||iota||U+03B9||{{IPA|ɩ}}||U+0269||Obsolete for [[near-close near-front unrounded vowel]] now [[ɪ]] ||Ɩ U+0196 |} The symbol in [[Americanist phonetic notation]] for the [[voiceless alveolar lateral fricative]] is the Greek letter lambda {{angbr|{{lang|el|λ}}}}, but {{angbr IPA|ɬ}} in the IPA. The IPA symbol for the [[palatal lateral approximant]] is {{angbr IPA|ʎ}}, which looks similar to lambda, but is actually an inverted lowercase ''y''. === Use as numerals === {{Main|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]] {{angbr|Ϝ}} for 6, [[koppa (letter)|koppa]] {{angbr|Ϙ}} for 90, and a rare Ionian letter for [ss], today called [[sampi]] {{angbr|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 {{angbr|ϛ}}, {{angbr|ϟ}} and {{angbr|ϡ}} respectively. To mark a letter as a numeral sign, a small stroke called ''[[Greek numerals#keraia|keraia]]'' is added to the right of it. <div style="float:none;"> {|class="wikitable" style="float:left;" |- |Αʹ αʹ ||[[alpha]] ||1 |- |Βʹ βʹ ||[[beta]] ||2 |- |Γʹ γʹ ||[[gamma]] ||3 |- |Δʹ δʹ ||[[delta (letter)|delta]] ||4 |- |Εʹ εʹ ||[[epsilon]] ||5 |- |ϛʹ ||''[[digamma]] ([[stigma (letter)|stigma]])'' ||6 |- |Ζʹ ζʹ ||[[zeta (letter)|zeta]] ||7 |- |Ηʹ ηʹ ||[[eta]] ||8 |- |Θʹ θʹ||[[theta]] ||9 |} {|class="wikitable" style="float:left;" |- |Ιʹ ιʹ ||[[iota]] ||10 |- |Κʹ κʹ ||[[kappa]] ||20 |- |Λʹ λʹ ||[[lambda]] ||30 |- |Μʹ μʹ ||[[mu (letter)|mu]] ||40 |- |Νʹ νʹ ||[[nu (letter)|nu]] ||50 |- |Ξʹ ξʹ ||[[xi (letter)|xi]] ||60 |- |Οʹ οʹ ||[[omicron]] ||70 |- |Πʹ πʹ ||[[pi (letter)|pi]] ||80 |- |ϟʹ ||''[[koppa (letter)|koppa]]'' ||90 |} {|class="wikitable" style="float:left;" |- |Ρʹ ρʹ ||[[rho]] ||100 |- |Σʹ σʹ ||[[sigma]] ||200 |- |Τʹ τʹ ||[[tau (letter)|tau]] ||300 |- |Υʹ υʹ ||[[upsilon]] ||400 |- |Φʹ φʹ ||[[phi (letter)|phi]] ||500 |- |Χʹ χʹ ||[[chi (letter)|chi]] ||600 |- |Ψʹ ψʹ ||[[psi (letter)|psi]] ||700 |- |Ωʹ ωʹ||[[omega]] ||800 |- |ϡʹ ||''[[sampi]]'' ||900 |} {{clear|left}} </div> === Use by student fraternities and sororities === In North America, many college [[Fraternities and sororities in North America|fraternities and sororities]] are named with combinations of Greek letters, and are hence also known as "Greek letter organizations".{{sfn|Winterer|2010|page=377}} This naming tradition was initiated by the foundation of the [[Phi Beta Kappa Society]] at the [[College of William and Mary]] in 1776.{{sfn|Winterer|2010|page=377}} 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.{{sfn|Winterer|2010|page=377}} 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.{{sfn|Winterer|2010|page=377}} 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 [[Latin alphabet|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|date=January 2020}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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