Reading Greek: vowels

You will learn the sounds of Greek best by practicing the reading of entire words. The English words listed to illustrate the meaning of the Greek words are often derivatives. Of course they are not intended to offer a guide to the pronunciation of the Greek.

At this time I do not include theory of accents. An introduction is presented at 7.3. The ancients had a pitch accent which gradually evolved into a stress accent. We use a stress accent.

When vowels are written at the beginning of a word, they must carry either the smooth breathing or the rough breathing. The rough breathing indicates that the vowel is preceded by an aspirate (like our h at the beginning of a word, e.g. in hot); the smooth breathing indicates that there is no rough breathing. Early on the speakers of the language knew when to make their initial vowels aspirated. Later, the Alexandrian scholars (third century BCE) who invented punctuation complicated the life of Greek students for all posterity... Or maybe they helped us. Do not be surprised if ου is listed as a vowel sound, because that is what it represented. It is a diphthong only in appearance.

Vowels, as you now know, may be short or long. Modern readers do not make this distinction unless they read Greek poetry, characterized by sequences of long and short syllables rather than by rhyme. It is also the case that short and long vowels had qualitative differences: we should pronounce a long e (eta) and a long o (omega) as open, in contrast to the short close e (epsilon) and o (omicron), but, alas, most students and teachers of ancient or koinê Greek ignore this contrast, and so do I. :-(

Words beginning with smooth breathing	Transliteration	Meanings and English derivatives	Words beginning with rough breathing	Transliteration	meanings and English derivatives
1. ἀδικία	adikia	injustice	8. ἅλς (classical) or ἅλα (koinê)	hals, hala	salt
2. ἐκκλησία	ekklêsia	assembly / church	9. ἕξ	hex	six; cf hexagonal
3. ἠχώ	ēkhō	echo	10. ἡμέρα	hēmera	day
4. ἰατρός	iatros	doctor; cf psychiatrist	11. ἱερόν	hieron	temple
5. Ὀλύμπια¹	Olumpia or Olympia	Olympia, site of the games	12. ὅλος	holos	whole, entire; cf holocaust
Initial υ² is almost always aspirated			13. ὕπνος	hupnos or hypnos	sleep; cf hypnosis
6. ὠκεανός	ōkeanos	Okeanos, a mythic stream	14. ὥρα	hōra	season, time; cf horoscope
7. οὐρανός	ouranos	sky, heaven; cf Uranos	15. οὕτως	houtōs	thus

Note 1: Breathings, accents, or their combinations, that pertain to a capital letter are placed before that letter: Ἕ, Ὦ , etc.

Note 2: To pronounce the vowel υ, if you know French or German, use the sound of the vowel in tu or üben. If that doesn't ring a bell, frame your lips as if you intended to say "u" as it English "tooth" but pronounce instead "ee" as in "deed."