Ancient Greek

Dialects of ancient Greek around the Aegean

Ancient Greek or more appropriately Classical Greek, is a language from the Indo-European language family;a group of related languages that stretches from India to Norway. Classical Greek was used across several periods of Greek history; Archaic (spanning the 9th-6th centuries BC), Classical (5th-4th centuries BC) and Hellenistic (3rd century BC-6th century AD).

The Indo-European language family in the Old World

The Classical Greek language was used thoroughly throughout the Hellenistic period, when Greek culture was spread as far as India. The language later evolved to Koine (Common or Hellenistic), Medieval (Byzantine) and Modern Greek. Medieval Greek was the official language of (particularly the late) Byzantine Empire. The New Testament of the Bible was mostly written in Greek, more specifically in Koine.

According to tradition, Cadmus, son of King Agenor of Phoenicia brought the Phoenician alphabet to Greece where, with the help of Palamedes, it evolved into the classical writing system.

Alphabet

The Greek alphabet was based on the Phoenician alphabet and, in turn, influenced the Latin alphabet, used in English today. The word alphabet is derived from the first two Greek letters.

Greek alphabet (all dialects)

Upper	Lower	Name	Phoenician	Phoenician name
Α	α	Alpha		aleph
B	β	Beta		beth
Γ	γ	Gamma		gimel
Δ	δ	Delta		dalet
E	ε	Epsilon		he
Ϝ	ϝ	Digamma1		wau
Ϛ	ϛ	Stigma1		wau
Z	ζ	Zeta		zayin
Ͱ	ͱ	Heta1	thumb	heth
H	η	Eta	thumb	heth
Θ	θ	Theta		teth
Ι	ι/℩3	Iota		yodh
Ϳ	ϳ	Yot1		yodh
K	κ	Kappa		kaph
Λ	λ	Lamda		lemda
M	μ	Mu		mem
N	v	Nu		nun
Ξ	ξ	Xi		samech
O	o	Omicron2		eyn
Π	π	Pi		pe
Ϻ	ϻ	San1		tsade
Ϙ	ϙ	Koppa1		qof
P	ρ	Rho		rosh
Σ	σ/ς4	Sigma		shin
T	τ	Tau		taw
Y	υ	Upsilon		wau
Φ	φ	Phi		qof
X	χ	Chi		samech
Ψ	ψ	Psi		qof
Ω	ω	Omega2		eyn
Ͳ	ͳ	Sampi1		tsade
Ϸ	ϸ	Sho1		tsade

Notes

¹ Defunct Greek letters
² The names omicron and omega signify the length of the sound - (o micron = short o, o mega = long o)
³ The first iota is used as vowel. The second is only used as consonant
⁴ The first sigma is used in the middle of a word. The second is only used at the end of a word

Influences

The Greek alphabet has influenced various writing systems, such as:

• The Gothic alphabet, which was used to translate the Bible and spread Christianity among the Goths
• The Glagolitic alphabet, the earliest Slavic alphabet, originally used for Old Church Slavonic
• The Cyrillic alphabet, which replaced Glagolitic and currently has national status as the writing system for 12 sovereign states
• Possibly the Armenian alphabet, modeled on Greek with Syriac and Pahlavi influences
  • The Georgian alphabet, mostly modeled on or alongside Armenian

Additionally, Classical Greek letters are frequently used in scientific and mathematical notation. Greek roots, sometimes alongside Latin, are also often used to coin words in other languages (especially English). A prominent example is the word "alphabet" itself, derived from the letters "alpha" and "beta", the first two letters of the Greek alphabet.

References

• Greek alphabet in Unicode (*GREEK*LETTER* marks instance of letter from Greek alphabet in Unicode)