Alpha
a · /a/
ox
Greek Alphabet
The Greek alphabet has been used to write Greek since the 8th century BCE. Its 24 letters were the first alphabet to include vowels, and are the ancestor of the Latin and Cyrillic scripts.
24 letters · c. 8th century BCE–present
Beta
b · /b/
house
Gamma
g · /ɡ/
camel
Delta
d · /d/
door
Epsilon
e · /e/
plain e
Zeta
z · /zd/
possibly weapon
Eta
ē · /ɛː/
possibly fence
Theta
th · /tʰ/
possibly wheel
Iota
i · /i/
possibly hand
Kappa
k · /k/
possibly palm
Lambda
l · /l/
possibly goad
Mu
m · /m/
possibly water
Nu
n · /n/
possibly fish
Xi
x · /ks/
possibly prop
Omicron
o · /o/
small o
Pi
p · /p/
possibly mouth
Rho
r · /r/
possibly head
Sigma
s · /s/
possibly tooth
Tau
t · /t/
possibly mark
Upsilon
y · /y/
plain u
Phi
ph · /pʰ/
unknown origin
Chi
ch · /kʰ/
unknown origin
Psi
ps · /ps/
unknown origin
Omega
ō · /ɔː/
long o
History
The Greek alphabet developed from the Phoenician alphabet around the 8th century BCE, and was the first alphabet to include letters for vowels. The word "alphabet" comes from its first two letters, alpha and beta.
The alphabet spread widely with Greek culture and scholarship. It is the ancestor of the Latin, Cyrillic, and Coptic scripts, and the same 24 letters are still used to write Greek today.
Sources
Character order and forms follow Unicode; names and sounds follow standard classical reconstructions.
- The Unicode Consortium, Greek and Coptic (U+0370-U+03FF)
- Roger D. Woodard, Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer (1997)
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