03.3. The Greek alphabet

3.3. The Greek alphabet

It is now time to look at the Greek alphabet. Is it different from our English alphabet? You know more Greek letters than you ever imagined. Actually, our alphabet was taken from the Greek which was taken from the Hebrew language family. Even the word alphabet was taken from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, Alpha (A) and Beta (B).The Greek alphabet has twenty-four letters, two less than in English. It has seven vowels and seventeen consonants. When you look at the next table with the Greek alphabet, you will be able to recognise most of the small letters. If you have studied mathematics, you will recognise even a few more. There are ten Greek letters that are the same as in English. These are:

Some Greek letters look like English letters, but are pronounced differently.

There are nine Greek letters which differ from English letters, but most are recognisable from mathematics.

The next table gives you all the Greek letters in their alphabetical order.

With all the letters of the alphabet covered, you are almost able to read everything in Greek. There are four more things that you must take into consideration.

(1) When two Greek vowels appear together they are pronounced as one vowel. This combination of vowels is called a diphthong. The word diphthong is derived from the Greek and means ‘two sounds’ or ‘two tones’. English examples of diphthongs include the ‘oy’ in ‘boy’ and the ‘ow’ in ‘cow’.

(2) The γ (gamma) sounds like ng before γ, κ, χ, or ξ. This is called a nasal sound.

(3) When a word begins with a vowel, its pronunciation may have a rough breathing, (῾), which is pronounced like h. This sign is often left out in the text of ES and TW.

(4) Greek has four punctuation marks:

1.    The comma (,);

2.    The semicolon or colon, expressed by a point above the line (·);

3.    The full stop (.);

4.    The English question mark (?) is indicated by the Greek semicolon(;).

Greek uses three kinds of accents:

1.    The acute (´);

2.    The grave (`);

3.The circumflex (~). With this information you will able to read your Greek New Testament in Greek. The best thing for you to do now is to try to read 2 John 1:1-3 (GNT).

¹ ο πρεσβυτερος εκλεκτη κυρια και τοις τεκνοις αυτης ους εγω αγαπω εν αληθεια και ουκ εγω μονος αλλα και παντες οι εγνωκοτες την αληθειαν ² δια την αληθειαν την μενουσαν εν ημιν και μεθ ημων εσται εις τον αιωνα ³ εσται μεθ ημων χαρις ελεος ειρηνη παρα θεου πατρος και παρα κυριου ιησου χριστου του υιου του πατρος εν αληθεια και αγαπη ^. Were you successful? This is a text without the accent signs in Greek. I chose a simple straightforward text.

One way to read the Greek New Testament is to have both the Greek text and the transliterated version open. The following screenshot was taken from TW.

As you read the transliterated text, you will realise that the transliteration is not always perfect. It only serves as a guide. By way of practice, write your own names with Greek characters.