![]() ![]() On the other hand, the accepted 'academic' pronunciation is artificial and strange. It would not be satisfactory for you to use this modern pronunciation with Euclid, since it tends to make different spellings sound the same, which will not help you to distinguish words. Greek is a living language, and has a modern pronunciation that has evolved from older ones. You will have to decide on some pronunciation of the Greek letters for your own use. This standard Greek was well-established by the first century AD, and is the language of Euclid. Greek was the international language of the classical world, and a standard Greek, called the koine, 'common', was understood by all educated people, who continued to use their local languages, such as Latin. All this is only so that you recognize the close relation of the two alphabets, and some of the reasons for the differences. The Latin alphabet was established before the Greek alphabet was regularized in Athens. This B-V uncertainty was a feature of later Latin, as it yet is in modern Spanish, where vino is pronounced bino. B represented the voiced labiodental sound in Greek (English v), but Latin used it for the voiced labial sound (English b). The koppa, representing a guttural sound Latin did not have, became the Q. For example, the digamma, representing a sound that did not occur in Latin, became the letter F, for an unvoiced labiodental sound that Greek did not have. Some of the Greek letters adopted were later dropped in Greek. ![]() The Latin alphabet was created from the early Greek alphabet by taking over those letters representing sounds common in the two languages, and adapting the others for Latin sounds that did not occur in Greek. There is no connected script for Greek even today, such as we use in English, but simply rapid ways of writing the minuscule characters. Sentences begin with the usual small letters. In our style, we use capital letters only for proper nouns, and for the first letter in a paragraph. The capital letters were retained for emphasis, as in Latin. With the introduction of printing, fonts were designed based on the minuscule letters, and this is the basis for the letters used today in Greek. Then, to facilitate rapid writing with a pen on parchment, these letters were modified into a minuscule form. At first, what we call capital letters were used. The ways of writing the letters changed gradually. The Greek alphabet reached its definitive form in 5th-century BC Athens, when some letters were dropped, others added, and still others written in new ways, in a thorough standardization of the alphabet. All this required a thousand years or so, and there were many local variations. Greeks took over the Phoenician symbols, and made them represent Greek sounds, vowels as well as consonants. As in Egypt, vowel sounds were not represented, since the consonants suggested some word that was known in the spoken tongue (like 'm dg s nmd spt'). The Phoenicians adopted the Egyptian writing and modified it to suit their Semitic language. Do not despair only time and practice can give you the skill, and it will invariably come.Īlphabetic writing began with the Egyptians, whose writing was phonetic. Nevertheless, it will require about a year's practice before you can read the Greek letters with ease. Greek writing is completely phonetic, unlike English, and this will be found a help. Alphabetic writing, as we do in English and Greek, is strongly tied to speech. The letters should be sounded out in your head as you look at them, and you should write them constantly, recalling the sound as you do so. This is facilitated by simultaneous use of vision, hearing, and muscular activity. It will be necessary to train your perception to recognize the letters automatically, as you do with the Latin alphabet. The first step is to begin to read the Greek alphabet. Greek For Euclid I Lesson α': The Alphabet
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