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! == Glyph variants == Some letters can occur in variant shapes, mostly inherited from medieval [[History of the Greek alphabet#Later developments|minuscule]] handwriting. While their use in normal typography of Greek is purely a matter of font styles, some such variants have been given separate encodings in [[Unicode]]. * The symbol {{not a typo|ϐ}} ("curled beta") is a cursive variant form of [[Beta (letter)|beta]] (β). In the French tradition of Ancient Greek typography, β is used word-initially, and {{not a typo|ϐ}} is used word-internally. * The letter [[delta (letter)|delta]] has a form resembling a cursive capital letter D; while not encoded as its own form, this form is included as part of the symbol for the [[Modern drachma|drachma]] (a Δρ digraph) in the [[Currency Symbols (Unicode block)|Currency Symbols]] block, at U+20AF (₯). * The letter [[epsilon]] can occur in two equally frequent stylistic variants, either shaped <math>\epsilon\,\!</math> ('lunate epsilon', like a semicircle with a stroke) or <math>\varepsilon\,\!</math> (similar to a reversed number 3). The symbol ϵ (U+03F5) is designated specifically for the lunate form, used as a technical symbol. * The symbol {{not a typo|ϑ}} ("script theta") is a cursive form of [[theta]] (θ), frequent in handwriting, and used with a specialized meaning as a technical symbol. * The symbol {{not a typo|ϰ}} ("kappa symbol") is a cursive form of [[kappa]] (κ), used as a technical symbol. * The symbol {{not a typo|ϖ}} ("variant pi") is an archaic script form of [[pi]] (π), also used as a technical symbol. * The letter [[rho (letter)|rho]] (ρ) can occur in different stylistic variants, with the descending tail either going straight down or curled to the right. The symbol {{not a typo|ϱ}} (U+03F1) is designated specifically for the curled form, used as a technical symbol. * The letter [[sigma]], in standard orthography, has two variants: ς, used only at the ends of words, and σ, used elsewhere. The form {{not a typo|ϲ}} ("[[lunate sigma]]", resembling a Latin ''[[c]]'') is a medieval stylistic variant that can be used in both environments without the final/non-final distinction. * The capital letter [[upsilon]] (Υ) can occur in different stylistic variants, with the upper strokes either straight like a Latin ''Y'', or slightly curled. The symbol ϒ (U+03D2) is designated specifically for the curled form (<math>\Upsilon</math>), used as a technical symbol, e.g. in physics. * The letter [[Phi (letter)|phi]] can occur in two equally frequent stylistic variants, either shaped as <math>\textstyle\phi\,\!</math> (a circle with a vertical stroke through it) or as <math>\textstyle\varphi\,\!</math> (a curled shape open at the top). The symbol {{not a typo|ϕ}} (U+03D5) is designated specifically for the closed form, used as a technical symbol. * The letter [[omega]] has at least three stylistic variants of its capital form. The standard is the "open omega" (Ω), resembling an open partial circle with the opening downward and the ends curled outward. The two other stylistic variants are seen more often in modern typography, resembling a raised and underscored circle (roughly <sup>o̲</sup>), where the underscore may or may not be touching the circle on a tangent (in the former case it resembles a superscript omicron similar to that found in the [[numero sign]] or masculine [[ordinal indicator]]; in the latter, it closely resembles some forms of the Latin letter Q). The open omega is always used in symbolic settings and is encoded in [[Letterlike Symbols]] (U+2126) as a separate code point for backward compatibility. 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. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page