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The Greek Alphabet

The Greek alphabet is old! It is derived from the Phoenician alphabet, going back at least 3,000 years. Modern Greek uses the 24-letter alphabet of Classical Greek, though the sounds of the letters have changed over the past two millennia.

There are seven vowels in the Greek alphabet but only four vowel sounds. Vowels are only ever pronounced one way as shown below i.e. never rounded and always short.

There are two consonants which are very unfamiliar to the English language ear. These are Gamma and Hi. Gamma may be pronounced as the Y in yes or a deep gutteral sound, something between a hard G and the ch in loch. The sound used will depend on the preceeding vowel. The closest equievelent of the Hi sound in Enlish language is the ch sound in loch as it would be said by a Scot.

Uppercase	Lowercase	Name of letter	Sound of letter
Α	α	Alpha	a as in u in under
Β	β	Beta	v
Γ	γ	Gamma	Refer to the notes above
Δ	δ	Delta	th as in ‘the’
Ε	ε	Epsilon	e as in ‘egg’
Ζ	ζ	Zita	z
Η	η	Ita	i as in ‘igloo’
Θ	θ	Thita	th as in ‘thank’
Ι	ι	Yiota	i as in ‘igloo’
Κ	κ	Kappa	k
Λ	λ	Lamda	l
Μ	μ	Mi	m
Ν	ν	Ni	n
Ξ	ξ	Xi	ks
Ο	ο	Omikron	o as in ‘oxygen’
Π	π	Pi	p
Ρ	ρ	Rho	rh
Σ	σ	Sigma	s
Τ	τ	Taf	t
Υ	υ	Ypsilon	i as in ‘igloo’
Φ	φ	Fi	f
Χ	χ	Hi	Refer to the notes above
Ψ	ψ	Psi	ps
Ω	ω	Omega	o as in ‘oxygen’