Help:IPA/Greek

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Greek on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Greek in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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The charts below show how the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents the Ancient Greek (AG) and Modern Greek (MG) pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. The Ancient Greek pronunciation shown here is a reconstruction of the Attic dialect in the 5th century BC. For other Ancient Greek dialects, such as Doric, Aeolic, or Koine Greek, please use |generic=yes. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Ancient Greek phonology and Modern Greek phonology for a more thorough look at their sounds.

Consonants^[1]
IPA	AG	MG	Example	English approximation
c		κ	κιόλας^[2]	skew
k	κ		κατά^[3]^[2]	scar
kʰ	χ		χάρτης^[2]	car
x		χ	χάρτης^[2]	Scottish English loch, German Bach
ç		χ	χέρι^[2]	hue
j	ι		εἴη^[4]	toy yacht
ʝ		γ	γη^[2]	similar to yes
ɣ		γ	γάλα^[2]	Spanish amigo
ɡ	γ		γάλα^[2]	again
ɡ		γκ γγ	εγκώμιο^[2]^[5]	again
ɟ		γκ γγ	άγγελος^[2]^[5]	argue
p	π		πέτρα^[3]	spy
pʰ	φ		φως	paint
f		φ	φως	four
v		β, υ^[6]	βέλος	vet
b	β		βέλος	about
b		μπ	μπαμπάς^[5]	about
w	υ		παύω^[4]	well
t	τ		τάφος	stay
tʰ	θ		θεός	take
θ		θ	θεός	thought
ð		δ	δούλη	the
d	δ		δούλη	today
d		ντ	εντάξει^[5]	today
h	῾◌		ἥρως^[7]	hat
l	λ		λόγος	look
ʎ		λ	ελιά	million
m	μ		μοίρα	mole
n	ν		ναι	no
ɲ		ν	νιότη	onion
ŋ	γ		άγχος	sing
r	ρ		ώρα	similar to American English autumn or Scottish rule^[8]
r̥	ῥ		ῥίζα	similar to train
s	σ, ς ξ, ψ		σοφός, ψυχή, ξένος^[3]	between sip and ship (retracted)
z	ζ, σ		κόσμος, ζωή^[3]	between zone and genre (retracted)
Consonant clusters
ks	ξ		ξένος	tax
ps	ψ		ψυχή	lapse
t͡s		τσ	τσάι	between cats and catch (retracted)
d͡z	ζ	τζ	τζάκι	between buds and budge (retracted)

Dialectal segments
IPA	English approximation
ʃ	ship
ɕ	ship
ʒ	genre
ʑ	genre
t͡ʃ	catch
t͡ɕ	catch
d͡ʒ	budge
d͡ʑ	budge
æ	cat
IPA	Explanation
◌ː	marks a consonant produced twice as long^[1]

Vowels
Monophthongs
IPA	AG	MG	Example	English approximation
a	ᾰ	α	άρτος	Australian English father
aː	ᾱ		χώρᾱ	father
ɛː	η		ψυχή^[9]	bed
e	ε^[10]		θεός	bet
eː	ει		εἰμί^[9]^[11]	similar to bay but without the glide
i	ῐ	ι^[9]	ίδιος	like neat
iː	ῑ		πίνω^[9]	like need
ɔː	ω		ἐγώ^[10]	talk (Irish or South African English)
o		ω	ἐγώ^[10]	chore
o	ο^[10]		οδός	chore
uː	ου		μου	pool (long)
u		ου	μου	pool (short)
y	ῠ		φύσις^[9]	similar to few, French tu
yː	ῡ		ψυχή^[9]	similar to fume, French juge
Diphthongs^[4]
IPA	AG	MG	Example	English approximation
ai̯	αι		αἴτιος, πάλαι, ψῡχαί^[10]	tie
ai̯		αϊ^[12]	γαϊδούρι	tie
au̯	αυ		αὐτός^[6]	how
au̯		αου	Νικολάου	how
ei̯	ει		εἴη^[9]	hey
ei̯		έι^[13]		hey
eu̯	ευ		εὖ^[6]	Italian and Spanish neutro
eu̯		εου	Θέουτα	Italian and Spanish neutro
oi̯	οι		οἶδα, λόγοι^[9]	toy
oi̯		όι^[14]	κορόιδο	toy
yi̯	υι		υἱός^[9]	Yeast
aːi̯	ᾳ		ᾄδω, χώρᾳ^[15]	No English equivalent
ɛːi̯	ῃ		ᾖς, ψυχῇ^[9]^[15]	No English equivalent
ɔːi̯	ῳ		ᾠδή, λόγῳ^[15]	No English equivalent

Suprasegmentals
IPA^[16]	AG	MG	Example	Explanation
◌́	´		γάλα [ɡála]	high tone
◌̌	´		ἐγώ [eɡɔ̌ː]	rising tone
◌	`		μὲν [men]	mid tone
◌̂	῀		γῆ [ɡɛ̂ː]	falling tone
ˈ		΄	άλλος [ˈa.los]	stress
.			άλλος [ˈa.los]	syllable break

Notes

^ ^a ^b Ancient Greek had geminate consonants, pronounced longer than single ones, which may be transcribed by a double consonant letter ⟨ss⟩ or the length symbol ⟨sː⟩. Modern Standard Greek does not have geminate consonants, but some nonstandard dialects do.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h In Modern Greek, ⟨κ; γκ, γγ; γ; χ⟩ are pronounced as palatal [c, ɟ, ʝ, ç] before the front vowels [e i], and velar [k, ɡ, ɣ, x] in other cases.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ⟨ζ⟩ represented the cluster [zd] in Classical Attic, but it represents [z] in Modern Greek. In both Ancient and Modern Greek, ⟨σ⟩ is pronounced as voiced [z] before a voiced consonant.
^ ^a ^b ^c In Ancient Greek, a diphthong before a vowel was realised as a vowel and a double semivowel sequence: [jj, ww].
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d In Modern Greek, ⟨μπ, ντ, γκ, γγ⟩ are pronounced as prenasalised voiced stops [mb, nd, ɲɟ, ŋɡ] or voiced stops without nasalisation [b, d, ɟ, ɡ].
^ ^a ^b ^c In Modern Greek, ⟨υ⟩, in ⟨αυ ευ ηυ⟩, is pronounced as [f] before a voiceless consonant or at the end of the word and [v] otherwise. In Ancient Greek, ⟨αυ ευ ηυ⟩ were diphthongs [au̯ eu̯ ɛːu̯].
^ The rough breathing ⟨῾⟩ represented [h] before a vowel, and the smooth breathing ⟨᾿⟩ represented the absence of [h].
^ It may be an alveolar approximant [ɹ] between vowels, like English r, and is usually a trill [r] in clusters, trilled r like in Spanish, with two or three short cycles (Arvaniti 2007:15).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j In Modern Greek, ⟨η, ῃ, ει, ι, οι, υ, υι⟩ all represent [i], but they were pronounced [ɛː, ɛːi̯, eː, ei̯, i(ː) oi̯, y(ː), yi̯] in Ancient Greek. The large number of vowel mergers into [i] is called iotacism.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d In Modern Greek, ⟨ε, αι⟩ represent [e], and ⟨ο, ω⟩ represent [o]. In Ancient Greek, ⟨ε, ο⟩ represented [e, o], ⟨ω⟩ represented [ɔː] and ⟨αι⟩ represented the diphthong [ai̯].
^ In archaic and some dialectal Greek ⟨ει⟩ represented the true diphthong [ei̯] but in inter alia Attic Greek, [ei̯] and [eː] later merged into the latter hence ⟨ει⟩ is a spurious diphthong, i.e. it actually represents the monophthong [eː].
^ Also ⟨άι⟩ and sometimes ⟨άϊ⟩.
^ Also ⟨εϊ⟩ and sometimes ⟨έϊ⟩.
^ Also ⟨οϊ⟩ and sometimes ⟨όϊ⟩.
^ ^a ^b ^c In early Ancient Greek, ⟨ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ⟩ were diphthongs, but the second element [i̯] was lost soon after the Classical period, and they merged with ⟨ᾱ, η, ω⟩.
^ The symbols used here for Ancient Greek pitch accent must be added as combining characters in some cases. Place the numeric character reference after the letter that on which the accent is to be put, press "Show preview" and copy the resulting accented character. ́ is the numeric character reference for combining acute tone mark (high tone), ̌ for combining caron (rising tone), ̂ for combining circumflex (falling tone).

References

Arvaniti, Amalia (2007). "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art". Journal of Greek Linguistics. 8 (1): 97–208. doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv.

External links

Greek dictionary with pronunciation key (in Greek)

[double-1] Ancient Greek had geminate consonants, pronounced longer than single ones, which may be transcribed by a double consonant letter ⟨ss⟩ or the length symbol ⟨sː⟩. Modern Standard Greek does not have geminate consonants, but some nonstandard dialects do.

[palatal-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h In Modern Greek, ⟨κ; γκ, γγ; γ; χ⟩ are pronounced as palatal [c, ɟ, ʝ, ç] before the front vowels [e i], and velar [k, ɡ, ɣ, x] in other cases.

[sibilant-3] ⟨ζ⟩ represented the cluster [zd] in Classical Attic, but it represents [z] in Modern Greek. In both Ancient and Modern Greek, ⟨σ⟩ is pronounced as voiced [z] before a voiced consonant.

[semivowel-4] In Ancient Greek, a diphthong before a vowel was realised as a vowel and a double semivowel sequence: [jj, ww].

[prenasalized-5] In Modern Greek, ⟨μπ, ντ, γκ, γγ⟩ are pronounced as prenasalised voiced stops [mb, nd, ɲɟ, ŋɡ] or voiced stops without nasalisation [b, d, ɟ, ɡ].

[u_diphthong-6] In Modern Greek, ⟨υ⟩, in ⟨αυ ευ ηυ⟩, is pronounced as [f] before a voiceless consonant or at the end of the word and [v] otherwise. In Ancient Greek, ⟨αυ ευ ηυ⟩ were diphthongs [au̯ eu̯ ɛːu̯].

[7] The rough breathing ⟨῾⟩ represented [h] before a vowel, and the smooth breathing ⟨᾿⟩ represented the absence of [h].

[8] It may be an alveolar approximant [ɹ] between vowels, like English r, and is usually a trill [r] in clusters, trilled r like in Spanish, with two or three short cycles (Arvaniti 2007:15).

[iotacism-9] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j In Modern Greek, ⟨η, ῃ, ει, ι, οι, υ, υι⟩ all represent [i], but they were pronounced [ɛː, ɛːi̯, eː, ei̯, i(ː) oi̯, y(ː), yi̯] in Ancient Greek. The large number of vowel mergers into [i] is called iotacism.

[mid_vowel-10] In Modern Greek, ⟨ε, αι⟩ represent [e], and ⟨ο, ω⟩ represent [o]. In Ancient Greek, ⟨ε, ο⟩ represented [e, o], ⟨ω⟩ represented [ɔː] and ⟨αι⟩ represented the diphthong [ai̯].

[11] In archaic and some dialectal Greek ⟨ει⟩ represented the true diphthong [ei̯] but in inter alia Attic Greek, [ei̯] and [eː] later merged into the latter hence ⟨ει⟩ is a spurious diphthong, i.e. it actually represents the monophthong [eː].

[12] Also ⟨άι⟩ and sometimes ⟨άϊ⟩.

[13] Also ⟨εϊ⟩ and sometimes ⟨έϊ⟩.

[14] Also ⟨οϊ⟩ and sometimes ⟨όϊ⟩.

[long_diphthong-15] In early Ancient Greek, ⟨ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ⟩ were diphthongs, but the second element [i̯] was lost soon after the Classical period, and they merged with ⟨ᾱ, η, ω⟩.

[16] The symbols used here for Ancient Greek pitch accent must be added as combining characters in some cases. Place the numeric character reference after the letter that on which the accent is to be put, press "Show preview" and copy the resulting accented character. ́ is the numeric character reference for combining acute tone mark (high tone), ̌ for combining caron (rising tone), ̂ for combining circumflex (falling tone).

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

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Help:IPA/Greek

Contents

See also

Notes

References

External links