Attic Greek Alphabet Pronunciation
Greek alphabet classical attic pronunciation note.
Attic greek alphabet pronunciation. The greek alphabet and pronunciation. Pronunciation was shifting during this period and shifted further over the following. An introduction to the greek alphabet using the pronunciation of the biblical era. The hard d sound is made using nt.
Ancient greek phonology is the reconstructed phonology or pronunciation of ancient greek this article mostly deals with the pronunciation of the standard attic dialect of the fifth century bc used by plato and other classical greek writers and touches on other dialects spoken at the same time or earlier. Pronunciation practice provides examples of pronunciation of over 100 basic greek words taken from the early chapters of the textbook. The greek alphabet was taken over from the semitic as used in the phoenician area which in turn was based on an egyptian alphabet. According to the classification of archaic greek alphabets which was introduced by adolf kirchhoff the old attic system belongs to the eastern or blue type as it uses the letters ψ and χ with their classical values ps and kʰ unlike western or red alphabets which used χ for.
The j sound is created with a combination of t and z which doesn t quite match but comes close and the same goes for the hard ch sound which is written using ts the exception to this rule is in crete where in the local dialect the letter k is often given the hard ch sound. Before listing the letters let us make a brief comment on the pronunciation of the language as it evolved through the millennia. The pronunciation of ancient greek is not known from direct observation but determined. Brief description of modules.
Attic greek like other dialects was originally written in a local variant of the greek alphabet. These were also used for the numerals so that the order of the symbols was maintained if changed at times in sound value. At first there were a number of different versions of the alphabet used in various different greek cities. The information presented here is essentially the same as the core information in unit 1 of introduction to attic greek but broken into smaller chunks and provided with audio examples the aim is to discuss the pronunciation of attic greek in the 5th and 4th centuries b c e.
The b sound is created by putting together m and p. These local alphabets known as epichoric can be divided into three groups. Greek numerals and other symbols. σ z before voiced consonants.
Accentuation tutorial presents information and examples to help in the understanding and. Green blue and red the blue group developed into the modern greek alphabet while the red group developed into the etruscan alphabet other alphabets of ancient italy and eventually the latin alphabet.