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Greek diacritics

Greek orthography has used a variety of diacritics starting in the Hellenistic period. The more complex polytonic orthography (Greek: πολυτονικό σύστημα γραφής, romanizedpolytonikó sýstīma grafī́s), which includes five diacritics, notates Ancient Greek phonology. The simpler monotonic orthography (Greek: μονοτονικό σύστημα γραφής, romanizedmonotonikó sýstīma grafīs), introduced in 1982, corresponds to Modern Greek phonology, and requires only two diacritics.

Polytonic orthography (from Ancient Greek πολύς (polýs) 'much, many', and τόνος (tónos) 'accent') is the standard system for Ancient Greek and Medieval Greek. The acute accent (´), the circumflex (ˆ), and the grave accent (`) indicate different kinds of pitch accent. The rough breathing () indicates the presence of the /h/ sound before a letter, while the smooth breathing (᾿) indicates the absence of /h/.

Since in Modern Greek the pitch accent has been replaced by a dynamic accent (stress), and /h/ was lost, most polytonic diacritics have no phonetic significance, and merely reveal the underlying Ancient Greek etymology.

Monotonic orthography (from Ancient Greek μόνος (mónos) 'single', and τόνος (tónos) 'accent') is the standard system for Modern Greek. It retains two diacritics: a single accent or tonos (΄) that indicates stress, and the diaeresis ( ¨ ), which usually indicates a hiatus but occasionally indicates a diphthong: compare modern Greek παϊδάκια (/paiðaca/, "lamb chops"), with a diphthong, and παιδάκια (/peˈðaca/, "little children") with a simple vowel. A tonos and a diaeresis can be combined on a single vowel to indicate a stressed vowel after a hiatus, as in the verb ταΐζω (/taˈizo/, "to feed").

Although it is not a diacritic, the hypodiastole (comma) has in a similar way the function of a sound-changing diacritic in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι (ó,ti, "whatever") from ότι (óti, "that").[1]

History

 
The Lord's Prayer in a 4th-century uncial manuscript Codex Sinaiticus, before the adoption of minuscule polytonic. Note spelling errors: elthatō ē basilia (ΕΛΘΑΤΩΗΒΑΣΙΛΙΑ) instead of elthetō ē basileia (ΕΛΘΕΤΩ Η ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑ).

The original Greek alphabet did not have diacritics. The Greek alphabet is attested since the 8th century BC, and until 403 BC, variations of the Greek alphabet—which exclusively used what are now known as capitals—were used in different cities and areas. From 403 on, the Athenians decided to employ a version of the Ionian alphabet. With the spread of Koine Greek, a continuation of the Attic dialect, the Ionic alphabet superseded the other alphabets, known as epichoric, with varying degrees of speed. The Ionian alphabet, however, also only consisted of capitals.

Introduction of breathings

 
An example of polytonic text with ekphonetic neumes in red ink from a Byzantine manuscript, of 1020 AD, displaying the beginning of the Gospel of Luke (1:3–6)

The rough and smooth breathings were introduced in classical times in order to represent the presence or absence of an /h/ in Attic Greek, which had adopted a form of the alphabet in which the letter Η (eta) was no longer available for this purpose as it was used to represent the long vowel /ɛː/.

Introduction of accents

During the Hellenistic period (3rd century BC), Aristophanes of Byzantium introduced the breathings—marks of aspiration (the aspiration however being already noted on certain inscriptions, not by means of diacritics but by regular letters or modified letters)—and the accents, of which the use started to spread, to become standard in the Middle Ages. It was not until the 2nd century AD that accents and breathings appeared sporadically in papyri. The need for the diacritics arose from the gradual divergence between spelling and pronunciation.

Uncial script

The majuscule, i.e., a system where text is written entirely in capital letters, was used until the 8th century, when the minuscule polytonic supplanted it.

Grave accent rule

By the Byzantine period, the modern rule which turns an acute accent (oxeia) on the last syllable into a grave accent (bareia)—except before a punctuation sign or an enclitic—had been firmly established. Certain authors have argued that the grave originally denoted the absence of accent; the modern rule is, in their view, a purely orthographic convention. Originally, certain proclitic words lost their accent before another word and received the grave, and later this was generalized to all words in the orthography. Others—drawing on, for instance, evidence from ancient Greek music—consider that the grave was "linguistically real" and expressed a word-final modification of the acute pitch.[2][3][4]

Stress accent

In the later development of the language, the ancient pitch accent was replaced by an intensity or stress accent, making the three types of accent identical, and the /h/ sound became silent.

Simplification

At the beginning of the 20th century (official since the 1960s), the grave was replaced by the acute, and the iota subscript and the breathings on the rho were abolished, except in printed texts.[5] Greek typewriters from that era did not have keys for the grave accent or the iota subscript, and these diacritics were also not taught in primary schools where instruction was in Demotic Greek.

Official adoption of monotonic system

Following the official adoption of the demotic form of the language, the monotonic orthography was imposed by law in 1982. The latter uses only the acute accent (or sometimes a vertical bar, intentionally distinct from any of the traditional accents) and diaeresis and omits the breathings. This simplification has been criticized on the grounds that polytonic orthography provides a cultural link to the past.[6][7]

Modern use of polytonic system

Some individuals, institutions, and publishers continue to prefer the polytonic system (with or without grave accent), though an official reintroduction of the polytonic system does not seem probable. The Greek Orthodox church, the daily newspaper Estia, as well as books written in Katharevousa continue to use the polytonic orthography. Though the polytonic system was not used in Classical Greece, these critics argue that modern Greek, as a continuation of Byzantine and post-medieval Greek, should continue their writing conventions.

Some textbooks of Ancient Greek for foreigners have retained the breathings, but dropped all the accents in order to simplify the task for the learner.[8]

Description

Polytonic Greek uses many different diacritics in several categories. At the time of Ancient Greek, each of these marked a significant distinction in pronunciation.

Monotonic orthography for Modern Greek uses only two diacritics, the tonos and diaeresis (sometimes used in combination) that have significance in pronunciation. Initial /h/ is no longer pronounced, and so the rough and smooth breathings are no longer necessary. The unique pitch patterns of the three accents have disappeared, and only a stress accent remains. The iota subscript was a diacritic invented to mark an etymological vowel that was no longer pronounced, so it was dispensed with as well.

Acute Acute,
diaeresis
Diaeresis
Άά Έέ Ήή Ίί Όό Ύύ Ώώ ΐ ΰ Ϊϊ Ϋϋ

The transliteration of Greek names follows Latin transliteration of Ancient Greek; modern transliteration is different, and does not distinguish many letters and digraphs that have merged by iotacism.

Accents

   
Acute Grave
   
Circumflex (alternative forms)

The accents (Ancient Greek: τόνοι, romanizedtónoi, singular: τόνος, tónos) are placed on an accented vowel or on the last of the two vowels of a diphthong (ά, but αί) and indicated pitch patterns in Ancient Greek. The precise nature of the patterns is not certain, but the general nature of each is known.

The acute accent (ὀξεῖα, oxeîa, 'sharp' or "high") – 'ά' – marked high pitch on a short vowel or rising pitch on a long vowel.

The acute is also used on the first of two (or occasionally three) successive vowels in Modern Greek to indicate that they are pronounced together as a stressed diphthong.

The grave accent (βαρεῖα, bareîa, 'heavy' or "low", modern varia) – '' – marked normal or low pitch.

The grave was originally written on all unaccented syllables.[9] By the Byzantine period it was only used to replace the acute at the end of a word if another accented word follows immediately without punctuation.

The circumflex (περισπωμένη, perispōménē, 'twisted around') – '' – marked high and falling pitch within one syllable. In distinction to the angled Latin circumflex, the Greek circumflex is printed in the form of either a tilde (◌̃) or an inverted breve (◌̑). It was also known as ὀξύβαρυς oxýbarys "high-low" or "acute-grave", and its original form (^ ) was from a combining of the acute and grave diacritics. Because of its compound nature, it only appeared on long vowels or diphthongs.

Breathings

   
Rough Smooth
   
Combined with accents

The breathings were written over a vowel or ρ.

The rough breathing (Ancient Greek: δασὺ πνεῦμα, romanized: dasù pneûma; Latin spīritus asper)—''—indicates a voiceless glottal fricative (/h/) before the vowel in Ancient Greek. In Greek grammar, this is known as aspiration. This is different from aspiration in phonetics, which applies to consonants, not vowels.

  • Rho (Ρρ) at the beginning of a word always takes rough breathing, probably marking unvoiced pronunciation. In Latin, this was transcribed as rh.
  • Upsilon (Υυ) at the beginning of a word always takes rough breathing. Thus, words from Greek begin with hy-, never with y-.

The smooth breathing (ψιλὸν πνεῦμα, psilòn pneûma; Latin spīritus lēnis)—''—marked the absence of /h/.

A double rho in the middle of a word was originally written with smooth breathing on the first rho and rough breathing on the second one (διάῤῥοια). In Latin, this was transcribed as rrh (diarrhoea or diarrhea).

Coronis

 
Coronis, marking crasis in the word κἀγώ = καὶ ἐγώ

The coronis (κορωνίς, korōnís, 'curved') marks a vowel contracted by crasis. It was formerly an apostrophe placed after the contracted vowel, but is now placed over the vowel and is identical to the smooth breathing. Unlike the smooth breathing, it often occurs inside a word.

Subscript

     
     
Different styles of subscript/adscript iotas

The iota subscript (ὑπογεγραμμένη, hypogegramménē, 'written under')—''—is placed under the long vowels , η, and ω to mark the ancient long diphthongs ᾱι, ηι, and ωι, in which the ι is no longer pronounced.

Adscript

Next to a capital, the iota subscript is usually written as a lower-case letter (Αι), in which case it is called iota adscript (προσγεγραμμένη, prosgegramménē, 'written next to').

Diaeresis

 
Diaeresis, used to distinguish the word ΑΫΛΟΣ (ἄϋλος, "immaterial") from the word ΑΥΛΟΣ (αὐλός "flute")

In Ancient Greek, the diaeresis (Greek: διαίρεσις or διαλυτικά, dialytiká, 'distinguishing') – ϊ – appears on the letters ι and υ to show that a pair of vowel letters is pronounced separately, rather than as a diphthong or as a digraph for a simple vowel.

In Modern Greek, the diaeresis usually indicates that two successive vowels are pronounced separately (as in κοροϊδεύω /ko.ro.iˈðe.vo/, "I trick, mock"), but occasionally, it marks vowels that are pronounced together as an unstressed diphthong rather than as a digraph (as in μποϊκοτάρω /boj.koˈtar.o/, "I boycott"). The distinction between two separate vowels and an unstressed diphthong is not always clear, although two separate vowels are far more common.

The diaeresis can be combined with the acute, grave and circumflex but never with breathings, since the letter with the diaeresis cannot be the first vowel of the word.[10]

In Modern Greek, the combination of the acute and diaeresis indicates a stressed vowel after a hiatus.

Vowel length

In textbooks and dictionaries of Ancient Greek, the macron—''—and breve—''—are often used over α, ι, and υ to indicate that they are long or short, respectively.

Nonstandard diacritics

Caron

In some modern non-standard orthographies of Greek dialects, such as Cypriot Greek and Griko, a caron (ˇ) may be used on some consonants to show a palatalized pronunciation.[11][12] They are not encoded as precombined characters in Unicode, so they are typed by adding the U+030C ◌̌ COMBINING CARON to the Greek letter. Latin diacritics on Greek letters may not be supported by many fonts, and as a fall-back a caron may be replaced by an iota ⟨ι⟩ following the consonant.

Examples of Greek letters with a combining caron and their pronunciation: α̌ /ɛ/, γκ̌ /ɟ/ & /d͡ʒ/, ζ̌ /ʒ/, κ̌ /c/ & /t͡ʃ/, λ̌ /ʎ/, μ̌ /mʲ/, μπ̌ /bʲ/, νγκ̌ /j̃/, ντ̌ /ɟ/, ν̌ /ɲ/, ξ̌ /kʃ/, ο̌ /ø/, π̌ /pʲ/, ρ̌ /r̝/, σ̌ ς̌ /ʃ/, τ̌ /c/, τζ̌ /d͡ʒ/, τσ̌ τς̌ /t͡ʃ/ & /t͡ʃː/, ψ̌ /pʃ/, ω̌ /ø/.

It’s the one and only, a new language, Greek 2.0.

Dot above

A dot diacritic was used above some consonants and vowels in Karamanli Turkish, which was written with the Greek alphabet.[13]

Position in letters

Diacritics are written above lower-case letters and at the upper left of capital letters. In the case of a digraph, the second vowel takes the diacritics. A breathing diacritic is written to the left of an acute or grave accent but below a circumflex. Accents are written above a diaeresis or between its two dots. Diacritics are only written on capital letters if they are at the beginning of a word with the exception of the diaeresis, which is always written. Diacritics can be found above capital letters in medieval texts.

Examples

The Lord's Prayer
Polytonic Monotonic

Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου·
ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου·
γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ, καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς·
τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον·
καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν,
ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφίεμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν·
καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.
Ἀμήν.

Πάτερ ημών ο εν τοις ουρανοίς· αγιασθήτω το όνομά σου·
ελθέτω η βασιλεία σου·
γενηθήτω το θέλημά σου, ως εν ουρανώ, και επί της γης·
τον άρτον ημών τον επιούσιον δος ημίν σήμερον·
και άφες ημίν τα οφειλήματα ημών,
ως και ημείς αφίεμεν τοις οφειλέταις ημών·
και μη εισενέγκης ημάς εις πειρασμόν, αλλά ρύσαι ημάς από του πονηρού.
Αμήν.

Computer encoding

There have been problems in representing polytonic Greek on computers, and in displaying polytonic Greek on computer screens and printouts, but these have largely been overcome by the advent of Unicode and appropriate fonts.

IETF language tag

The IETF language tags have registered subtag codes for the different orthographies:[14]

  • el-monoton for monotonic Greek.
  • el-polyton for polytonic Greek.

Unicode

While the tónos of monotonic orthography looks similar to the oxeîa of polytonic orthography in most fonts, Unicode has historically separate symbols for letters with these diacritics. For example, the monotonic "Greek small letter alpha with tónos" is at U+03AC, while the polytonic "Greek small letter alpha with oxeîa" is at U+1F71. The monotonic and polytonic accent however have been de jure equivalent since 1986, and accordingly the oxeîa diacritic in Unicode decomposes canonically to the monotonic tónos—both are underlyingly treated as equivalent to the multiscript acute accent, U+0301, since letters with oxia decompose to letters with tonos, which decompose in turn to base letter plus multiscript acute accent. For example: U+1F71 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA
➔ U+03AC GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH TONOS
➔ U+03B1 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA, U+0301 COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT.

Below are the accented characters provided in Unicode. In the uppercase letters, the iota adscript may appear as subscript depending on font.

Upper case

Breathing,
etc.
Accent Vowel Rho
Adscript
  Α Ε Η Ι Ο Υ Ω Ρ
Acute ´ Ά Έ Ή Ί Ό Ύ Ώ        
Grave `        
Smooth ᾿  
Acute  
Grave  
Circumflex  
Rough
Acute  
Grave  
Circumflex Ἷ  
Diaeresis ¨ Ϊ Ϋ
Macron ˉ
Breve ˘

Lower case

Breathing,
etc.
Accent Vowels Rho
Subscript
α ε η ι ο υ ω ρ
Acute ´ ά έ ή ί ό ύ ώ  
Grave `  
Circumflex      
Smooth ᾿
Acute  
Grave  
Circumflex      
Rough
Acute  
Grave  
Circumflex      
Diaeresis ¨ ϊ ϋ
Acute ΅ ΐ ΰ
Grave
Circumflex
Macron ˉ
Breve ˘
Greek Extended[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+1F0x
U+1F1x
U+1F2x
U+1F3x Ἷ
U+1F4x
U+1F5x
U+1F6x
U+1F7x
U+1F8x
U+1F9x
U+1FAx
U+1FBx ᾿
U+1FCx
U+1FDx
U+1FEx
U+1FFx
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

See also

References

  1. ^ Nicolas, Nick. "Greek Unicode Issues: Punctuation 2015-10-30 at the Wayback Machine". 2005. Accessed 7 Oct 2014.
  2. ^ Probert, Philomen (2006). Ancient Greek accentuation. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 59. ISBN 9780199279609.
  3. ^ Devine, Andrew M.; Stephens, Laurence D. (1994). The prosody of Greek speech. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 180. ISBN 0-19-508546-9.
  4. ^ Allen, William S. (1987). Vox graeca. London: Cambridge University Press. pp. 124–130.
  5. ^ Alkis K. Tropaiatis; Telis Peklaris; Philippos D. Kolovos (1976). Συγχρονισμένο ορθογραφικό λεξικό της νεοελληνικής (Contemporary Orthographic Dictionary of Modern Greek) (in Greek). Κέντρον Εκπαιδευτικών Μελετών και Επιμορφώσεως. p. 11.
  6. ^ Χαραλάμπους, Γιάννης. "Καλῶς ὁρίσατε στὸν ἱστοχῶρο τῆς Κίνησης Πολιτῶν γιὰ τὴν Ἐπαναφορὰ τοῦ Πολυτονικοῦ Συστήματος". www.polytoniko.gr.
  7. ^ "Welcome to the Web site of the Citizens' Movement for the Re-introduction of the Polytonic System". www.polytoniko.org. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  8. ^ Betts, G. (2004). Teach Yourself New Testament Greek. London: Teach Yourself Books. ISBN 0-340-87084-2.
  9. ^ Smyth, par. 155
  10. ^ Abbott, Evelyn; Mansfield, E. D. (1977). A Primer of Greek Grammar. London: Duckworth. p. 14. ISBN 0-7156-1258-1.
  11. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-08-06. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
  12. ^ "Griko alphabets, pronunciation and language". www.omniglot.com.
  13. ^ "Karamanli Turkish alphabet and language". omniglot.com.
  14. ^ "Language subtag registry". IANA. 2021-03-05. Retrieved 13 April 2021.

Further reading

  • Panayotakis, Nicolaos M. (1996). "A Watershed in the History of Greek Script: Abolishing the Polytonic". In Macrakis, Michael S. (ed.). Greek Letters: From Tablets to Pixels. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press. ISBN 1-884718-27-2. Panayotakis is critical of the adoption of monotonic, and also provides a useful historical sketch.
  • Key, T. Hewitt (1855). "On Greek Accentuation". Transactions of the Philological Society (9). See also: [1].

External links

General information:

  • Citizens' Movement for the Reintroduction of the Polytonic System, in Greek and English
  • , in Greek
  • Greek polytonic to monotonic converter (free online tool)

Polytonic Greek fonts:

  • Greek Font Society public domain polytonic fonts 2008-07-01 at the Wayback Machine
  • Public domain Greek polytonic unicode fonts
  • Athena, public domain polytonic Greek font

How-to guides for polytonic keyboard layouts:

  • Google Docs guide for Linux Covers installation of layouts, use of dead-keys etc. Updated to 2010.

greek, diacritics, this, article, about, diacritics, placed, above, below, greek, letters, greek, punctuation, greek, orthography, punctuation, polytonic, redirects, here, musical, term, polytonality, greek, orthography, used, variety, diacritics, starting, he. This article is about diacritics placed above or below Greek letters For Greek punctuation see Greek orthography Punctuation Polytonic redirects here For the musical term see polytonality Greek orthography has used a variety of diacritics starting in the Hellenistic period The more complex polytonic orthography Greek polytoniko systhma grafhs romanized polytoniko systima grafi s which includes five diacritics notates Ancient Greek phonology The simpler monotonic orthography Greek monotoniko systhma grafhs romanized monotoniko systima grafis introduced in 1982 corresponds to Modern Greek phonology and requires only two diacritics Polytonic orthography from Ancient Greek polys polys much many and tonos tonos accent is the standard system for Ancient Greek and Medieval Greek The acute accent the circumflex ˆ and the grave accent indicate different kinds of pitch accent The rough breathing indicates the presence of the h sound before a letter while the smooth breathing indicates the absence of h Since in Modern Greek the pitch accent has been replaced by a dynamic accent stress and h was lost most polytonic diacritics have no phonetic significance and merely reveal the underlying Ancient Greek etymology Monotonic orthography from Ancient Greek monos monos single and tonos tonos accent is the standard system for Modern Greek It retains two diacritics a single accent or tonos that indicates stress and the diaeresis which usually indicates a hiatus but occasionally indicates a diphthong compare modern Greek paidakia paidaca lamb chops with a diphthong and paidakia peˈdaca little children with a simple vowel A tonos and a diaeresis can be combined on a single vowel to indicate a stressed vowel after a hiatus as in the verb taizw taˈizo to feed Although it is not a diacritic the hypodiastole comma has in a similar way the function of a sound changing diacritic in a handful of Greek words principally distinguishing o ti o ti whatever from oti oti that 1 Contents 1 History 1 1 Introduction of breathings 1 2 Introduction of accents 1 3 Uncial script 1 4 Grave accent rule 1 5 Stress accent 1 6 Simplification 1 7 Official adoption of monotonic system 1 8 Modern use of polytonic system 2 Description 2 1 Accents 2 2 Breathings 2 3 Coronis 2 4 Subscript 2 5 Adscript 2 6 Diaeresis 2 7 Vowel length 2 8 Nonstandard diacritics 2 8 1 Caron 2 8 2 Dot above 3 Position in letters 4 Examples 5 Computer encoding 5 1 IETF language tag 5 2 Unicode 5 2 1 Upper case 5 2 2 Lower case 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External linksHistory Edit The Lord s Prayer in a 4th century uncial manuscript Codex Sinaiticus before the adoption of minuscule polytonic Note spelling errors elthatō e basilia EL8ATWHBASILIA instead of elthetō e basileia EL8ETW H BASILEIA The original Greek alphabet did not have diacritics The Greek alphabet is attested since the 8th century BC and until 403 BC variations of the Greek alphabet which exclusively used what are now known as capitals were used in different cities and areas From 403 on the Athenians decided to employ a version of the Ionian alphabet With the spread of Koine Greek a continuation of the Attic dialect the Ionic alphabet superseded the other alphabets known as epichoric with varying degrees of speed The Ionian alphabet however also only consisted of capitals Introduction of breathings Edit An example of polytonic text with ekphonetic neumes in red ink from a Byzantine manuscript of 1020 AD displaying the beginning of the Gospel of Luke 1 3 6 The rough and smooth breathings were introduced in classical times in order to represent the presence or absence of an h in Attic Greek which had adopted a form of the alphabet in which the letter H eta was no longer available for this purpose as it was used to represent the long vowel ɛː Introduction of accents Edit During the Hellenistic period 3rd century BC Aristophanes of Byzantium introduced the breathings marks of aspiration the aspiration however being already noted on certain inscriptions not by means of diacritics but by regular letters or modified letters and the accents of which the use started to spread to become standard in the Middle Ages It was not until the 2nd century AD that accents and breathings appeared sporadically in papyri The need for the diacritics arose from the gradual divergence between spelling and pronunciation Uncial script Edit Main article Uncial script The majuscule i e a system where text is written entirely in capital letters was used until the 8th century when the minuscule polytonic supplanted it Grave accent rule Edit By the Byzantine period the modern rule which turns an acute accent oxeia on the last syllable into a grave accent bareia except before a punctuation sign or an enclitic had been firmly established Certain authors have argued that the grave originally denoted the absence of accent the modern rule is in their view a purely orthographic convention Originally certain proclitic words lost their accent before another word and received the grave and later this was generalized to all words in the orthography Others drawing on for instance evidence from ancient Greek music consider that the grave was linguistically real and expressed a word final modification of the acute pitch 2 3 4 Stress accent Edit In the later development of the language the ancient pitch accent was replaced by an intensity or stress accent making the three types of accent identical and the h sound became silent Simplification Edit At the beginning of the 20th century official since the 1960s the grave was replaced by the acute and the iota subscript and the breathings on the rho were abolished except in printed texts 5 Greek typewriters from that era did not have keys for the grave accent or the iota subscript and these diacritics were also not taught in primary schools where instruction was in Demotic Greek Official adoption of monotonic system Edit Following the official adoption of the demotic form of the language the monotonic orthography was imposed by law in 1982 The latter uses only the acute accent or sometimes a vertical bar intentionally distinct from any of the traditional accents and diaeresis and omits the breathings This simplification has been criticized on the grounds that polytonic orthography provides a cultural link to the past 6 7 Modern use of polytonic system Edit Some individuals institutions and publishers continue to prefer the polytonic system with or without grave accent though an official reintroduction of the polytonic system does not seem probable The Greek Orthodox church the daily newspaper Estia as well as books written in Katharevousa continue to use the polytonic orthography Though the polytonic system was not used in Classical Greece these critics argue that modern Greek as a continuation of Byzantine and post medieval Greek should continue their writing conventions Some textbooks of Ancient Greek for foreigners have retained the breathings but dropped all the accents in order to simplify the task for the learner 8 Description EditPolytonic Greek uses many different diacritics in several categories At the time of Ancient Greek each of these marked a significant distinction in pronunciation Monotonic orthography for Modern Greek uses only two diacritics the tonos and diaeresis sometimes used in combination that have significance in pronunciation Initial h is no longer pronounced and so the rough and smooth breathings are no longer necessary The unique pitch patterns of the three accents have disappeared and only a stress accent remains The iota subscript was a diacritic invented to mark an etymological vowel that was no longer pronounced so it was dispensed with as well Acute Acute diaeresis DiaeresisAa Ee Hh Ii Oo Yy Ww i y Ii YyThe transliteration of Greek names follows Latin transliteration of Ancient Greek modern transliteration is different and does not distinguish many letters and digraphs that have merged by iotacism Accents Edit See also Ancient Greek accent Acute Grave Circumflex alternative forms The accents Ancient Greek tonoi romanized tonoi singular tonos tonos are placed on an accented vowel or on the last of the two vowels of a diphthong a but ai and indicated pitch patterns in Ancient Greek The precise nature of the patterns is not certain but the general nature of each is known The acute accent ὀ3eῖa oxeia sharp or high a marked high pitch on a short vowel or rising pitch on a long vowel The acute is also used on the first of two or occasionally three successive vowels in Modern Greek to indicate that they are pronounced together as a stressed diphthong The grave accent bareῖa bareia heavy or low modern varia ὰ marked normal or low pitch The grave was originally written on all unaccented syllables 9 By the Byzantine period it was only used to replace the acute at the end of a word if another accented word follows immediately without punctuation The circumflex perispwmenh perispōmene twisted around ᾶ marked high and falling pitch within one syllable In distinction to the angled Latin circumflex the Greek circumflex is printed in the form of either a tilde or an inverted breve It was also known as ὀ3ybarys oxybarys high low or acute grave and its original form was from a combining of the acute and grave diacritics Because of its compound nature it only appeared on long vowels or diphthongs Breathings Edit Rough Smooth Combined with accentsThe breathings were written over a vowel or r The rough breathing Ancient Greek dasὺ pneῦma romanized dasu pneuma Latin spiritus asper ἁ indicates a voiceless glottal fricative h before the vowel in Ancient Greek In Greek grammar this is known as aspiration This is different from aspiration in phonetics which applies to consonants not vowels Rho Rr at the beginning of a word always takes rough breathing probably marking unvoiced pronunciation In Latin this was transcribed as rh Upsilon Yy at the beginning of a word always takes rough breathing Thus words from Greek begin with hy never with y The smooth breathing psilὸn pneῦma psilon pneuma Latin spiritus lenis ἀ marked the absence of h A double rho in the middle of a word was originally written with smooth breathing on the first rho and rough breathing on the second one diaῤῥoia In Latin this was transcribed as rrh diarrhoea or diarrhea Coronis Edit Coronis marking crasis in the word kἀgw kaὶ ἐgw The coronis korwnis korōnis curved marks a vowel contracted by crasis It was formerly an apostrophe placed after the contracted vowel but is now placed over the vowel and is identical to the smooth breathing Unlike the smooth breathing it often occurs inside a word Subscript Edit Different styles of subscript adscript iotasThe iota subscript ὑpogegrammenh hypogegrammene written under ᾳ is placed under the long vowels ᾱ h and w to mark the ancient long diphthongs ᾱi hi and wi in which the i is no longer pronounced Adscript Edit Next to a capital the iota subscript is usually written as a lower case letter Ai in which case it is called iota adscript prosgegrammenh prosgegrammene written next to Diaeresis Edit Diaeresis used to distinguish the word AYLOS ἄylos immaterial from the word AYLOS aὐlos flute In Ancient Greek the diaeresis Greek diairesis or dialytika dialytika distinguishing i appears on the letters i and y to show that a pair of vowel letters is pronounced separately rather than as a diphthong or as a digraph for a simple vowel In Modern Greek the diaeresis usually indicates that two successive vowels are pronounced separately as in koroideyw ko ro iˈde vo I trick mock but occasionally it marks vowels that are pronounced together as an unstressed diphthong rather than as a digraph as in mpoikotarw boj koˈtar o I boycott The distinction between two separate vowels and an unstressed diphthong is not always clear although two separate vowels are far more common The diaeresis can be combined with the acute grave and circumflex but never with breathings since the letter with the diaeresis cannot be the first vowel of the word 10 In Modern Greek the combination of the acute and diaeresis indicates a stressed vowel after a hiatus Vowel length Edit In textbooks and dictionaries of Ancient Greek the macron ᾱ and breve ᾰ are often used over a i and y to indicate that they are long or short respectively Nonstandard diacritics Edit Caron Edit In some modern non standard orthographies of Greek dialects such as Cypriot Greek and Griko a caron ˇ may be used on some consonants to show a palatalized pronunciation 11 12 They are not encoded as precombined characters in Unicode so they are typed by adding the U 030C COMBINING CARON to the Greek letter Latin diacritics on Greek letters may not be supported by many fonts and as a fall back a caron may be replaced by an iota i following the consonant Examples of Greek letters with a combining caron and their pronunciation a ɛ gk ɟ amp d ʒ z ʒ k c amp t ʃ l ʎ m mʲ mp bʲ ngk j nt ɟ n ɲ 3 kʃ o o p pʲ r r s s ʃ t c tz d ʒ ts ts t ʃ amp t ʃː ps pʃ w o It s the one and only a new language Greek 2 0 Dot above Edit A dot diacritic was used above some consonants and vowels in Karamanli Turkish which was written with the Greek alphabet 13 Position in letters EditDiacritics are written above lower case letters and at the upper left of capital letters In the case of a digraph the second vowel takes the diacritics A breathing diacritic is written to the left of an acute or grave accent but below a circumflex Accents are written above a diaeresis or between its two dots Diacritics are only written on capital letters if they are at the beginning of a word with the exception of the diaeresis which is always written Diacritics can be found above capital letters in medieval texts Examples EditThe Lord s Prayer Polytonic MonotonicPater ἡmῶn ὁ ἐn toῖs oὐranoῖs ἁgias8htw tὸ ὄnoma soy ἐl8etw ἡ basileia soy genh8htw tὸ 8elhma soy ὡs ἐn oὐranῷ kaὶ ἐpὶ tῆs gῆs tὸn ἄrton ἡmῶn tὸn ἐpioysion dὸs ἡmῖn shmeron kaὶ ἄfes ἡmῖn tὰ ὀfeilhmata ἡmῶn ὡs kaὶ ἡmeῖs ἀfiemen toῖs ὀfeiletais ἡmῶn kaὶ mὴ eἰsenegkῃs ἡmᾶs eἰs peirasmon ἀllὰ ῥῦsai ἡmᾶs ἀpὸ toῦ ponhroῦ Ἀmhn Pater hmwn o en tois oyranois agias8htw to onoma soy el8etw h basileia soy genh8htw to 8elhma soy ws en oyranw kai epi ths ghs ton arton hmwn ton epioysion dos hmin shmeron kai afes hmin ta ofeilhmata hmwn ws kai hmeis afiemen tois ofeiletais hmwn kai mh eisenegkhs hmas eis peirasmon alla rysai hmas apo toy ponhroy Amhn Computer encoding EditThere have been problems in representing polytonic Greek on computers and in displaying polytonic Greek on computer screens and printouts but these have largely been overcome by the advent of Unicode and appropriate fonts IETF language tag Edit The IETF language tags have registered subtag codes for the different orthographies 14 el monoton for monotonic Greek el polyton for polytonic Greek Unicode Edit While the tonos of monotonic orthography looks similar to the oxeia of polytonic orthography in most fonts Unicode has historically separate symbols for letters with these diacritics For example the monotonic Greek small letter alpha with tonos is at U 03AC while the polytonic Greek small letter alpha with oxeia is at U 1F71 The monotonic and polytonic accent however have been de jure equivalent since 1986 and accordingly the oxeia diacritic in Unicode decomposes canonically to the monotonic tonos both are underlyingly treated as equivalent to the multiscript acute accent U 0301 since letters with oxia decompose to letters with tonos which decompose in turn to base letter plus multiscript acute accent For example U 1F71 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA U 03AC GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH TONOS U 03B1 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA U 0301 COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT Below are the accented characters provided in Unicode In the uppercase letters the iota adscript may appear as subscript depending on font Upper case Edit Breathing etc Accent Vowel Rho Adscript A E H I O Y W ᾼ ῌ ῼ RAcute A E H I O Y W Grave Ὰ Ὲ Ὴ Ὶ Ὸ Ὺ Ὼ Smooth Ἀ Ἐ Ἠ Ἰ Ὀ Ὠ ᾈ ᾘ ᾨ Acute Ἄ Ἔ Ἤ Ἴ Ὄ Ὤ ᾌ ᾜ ᾬ Grave Ἂ Ἒ Ἢ Ἲ Ὂ Ὢ ᾊ ᾚ ᾪ Circumflex Ἆ Ἦ Ἶ Ὦ ᾎ ᾞ ᾮ Rough Ἁ Ἑ Ἡ Ἱ Ὁ Ὑ Ὡ ᾉ ᾙ ᾩ ῬAcute Ἅ Ἕ Ἥ Ἵ Ὅ Ὕ Ὥ ᾍ ᾝ ᾭ Grave Ἃ Ἓ Ἣ Ἳ Ὃ Ὓ Ὣ ᾋ ᾛ ᾫ Circumflex Ἇ Ἧ Ἷ Ὗ Ὧ ᾏ ᾟ ᾯ Diaeresis I YMacron ˉ Ᾱ Ῑ ῩBreve Ᾰ Ῐ ῨLower case Edit Breathing etc Accent Vowels Rho Subscript a e h i o y w ᾳ ῃ ῳ rAcute a e h i o y w ᾴ ῄ ῴ Grave ὰ ὲ ὴ ὶ ὸ ὺ ὼ ᾲ ῂ ῲ Circumflex ᾶ ῆ ῖ ῦ ῶ ᾷ ῇ ῷ Smooth ἀ ἐ ἠ ἰ ὀ ὐ ὠ ᾀ ᾐ ᾠ ῤAcute ἄ ἔ ἤ ἴ ὄ ὔ ὤ ᾄ ᾔ ᾤ Grave ἂ ἒ ἢ ἲ ὂ ὒ ὢ ᾂ ᾒ ᾢ Circumflex ἆ ἦ ἶ ὖ ὦ ᾆ ᾖ ᾦ Rough ἁ ἑ ἡ ἱ ὁ ὑ ὡ ᾁ ᾑ ᾡ ῥAcute ἅ ἕ ἥ ἵ ὅ ὕ ὥ ᾅ ᾕ ᾥ Grave ἃ ἓ ἣ ἳ ὃ ὓ ὣ ᾃ ᾓ ᾣ Circumflex ἇ ἧ ἷ ὗ ὧ ᾇ ᾗ ᾧ Diaeresis i yAcute i yGrave ῒ ῢCircumflex ῗ ῧMacron ˉ ᾱ ῑ ῡBreve ᾰ ῐ ῠGreek Extended 1 2 Official Unicode Consortium code chart PDF 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E FU 1F0x ἀ ἁ ἂ ἃ ἄ ἅ ἆ ἇ Ἀ Ἁ Ἂ Ἃ Ἄ Ἅ Ἆ ἏU 1F1x ἐ ἑ ἒ ἓ ἔ ἕ Ἐ Ἑ Ἒ Ἓ Ἔ ἝU 1F2x ἠ ἡ ἢ ἣ ἤ ἥ ἦ ἧ Ἠ Ἡ Ἢ Ἣ Ἤ Ἥ Ἦ ἯU 1F3x ἰ ἱ ἲ ἳ ἴ ἵ ἶ ἷ Ἰ Ἱ Ἲ Ἳ Ἴ Ἵ Ἶ ἿU 1F4x ὀ ὁ ὂ ὃ ὄ ὅ Ὀ Ὁ Ὂ Ὃ Ὄ ὍU 1F5x ὐ ὑ ὒ ὓ ὔ ὕ ὖ ὗ Ὑ Ὓ Ὕ ὟU 1F6x ὠ ὡ ὢ ὣ ὤ ὥ ὦ ὧ Ὠ Ὡ Ὢ Ὣ Ὤ Ὥ Ὦ ὯU 1F7x ὰ ά ὲ έ ὴ ή ὶ ί ὸ ό ὺ ύ ὼ ώU 1F8x ᾀ ᾁ ᾂ ᾃ ᾄ ᾅ ᾆ ᾇ ᾈ ᾉ ᾊ ᾋ ᾌ ᾍ ᾎ ᾏU 1F9x ᾐ ᾑ ᾒ ᾓ ᾔ ᾕ ᾖ ᾗ ᾘ ᾙ ᾚ ᾛ ᾜ ᾝ ᾞ ᾟU 1FAx ᾠ ᾡ ᾢ ᾣ ᾤ ᾥ ᾦ ᾧ ᾨ ᾩ ᾪ ᾫ ᾬ ᾭ ᾮ ᾯU 1FBx ᾰ ᾱ ᾲ ᾳ ᾴ ᾶ ᾷ Ᾰ Ᾱ Ὰ Ά ᾼ ι U 1FCx ῂ ῃ ῄ ῆ ῇ Ὲ Έ Ὴ Ή ῌ U 1FDx ῐ ῑ ῒ ΐ ῖ ῗ Ῐ Ῑ Ὶ Ί U 1FEx ῠ ῡ ῢ ΰ ῤ ῥ ῦ ῧ Ῠ Ῡ Ὺ Ύ Ῥ U 1FFx ῲ ῳ ῴ ῶ ῷ Ὸ Ό Ὼ Ώ ῼ Notes 1 As of Unicode version 15 0 2 Grey areas indicate non assigned code pointsSee also EditAcute accent Voiceless glottal fricative Diaeresis Synaeresis Greek language Koine Greek phonology Modern Greek grammar Greek alphabet Greek language question Greek ligatures Greek braille Greek minuscule Textual criticism Aristarchian symbols Obelism Dagger typography Greek numerals Attic numerals Isopsephy Ancient Greek Musical Notation Byzantine Musical SymbolsReferences Edit Nicolas Nick Greek Unicode Issues Punctuation Archived 2015 10 30 at the Wayback Machine 2005 Accessed 7 Oct 2014 Probert Philomen 2006 Ancient Greek accentuation New York Oxford University Press p 59 ISBN 9780199279609 Devine Andrew M Stephens Laurence D 1994 The prosody of Greek speech New York Oxford University Press p 180 ISBN 0 19 508546 9 Allen William S 1987 Vox graeca London Cambridge University Press pp 124 130 Alkis K Tropaiatis Telis Peklaris Philippos D Kolovos 1976 Sygxronismeno or8ografiko le3iko ths neoellhnikhs Contemporary Orthographic Dictionary of Modern Greek in Greek Kentron Ekpaideytikwn Meletwn kai Epimorfwsews p 11 Xaralampoys Giannhs Kalῶs ὁrisate stὸn ἱstoxῶro tῆs Kinhshs Politῶn giὰ tὴn Ἐpanaforὰ toῦ Polytonikoῦ Systhmatos www polytoniko gr Welcome to the Web site of the Citizens Movement for the Re introduction of the Polytonic System www polytoniko org Retrieved 2022 02 05 Betts G 2004 Teach Yourself New Testament Greek London Teach Yourself Books ISBN 0 340 87084 2 Smyth par 155 Abbott Evelyn Mansfield E D 1977 A Primer of Greek Grammar London Duckworth p 14 ISBN 0 7156 1258 1 Cypriot Greek Lexicography A Reverse Dictionary of Cypriot Greek PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2016 08 06 Retrieved 2017 02 08 Griko alphabets pronunciation and language www omniglot com Karamanli Turkish alphabet and language omniglot com Language subtag registry IANA 2021 03 05 Retrieved 13 April 2021 Further reading EditPanayotakis Nicolaos M 1996 A Watershed in the History of Greek Script Abolishing the Polytonic In Macrakis Michael S ed Greek Letters From Tablets to Pixels New Castle DE Oak Knoll Press ISBN 1 884718 27 2 Panayotakis is critical of the adoption of monotonic and also provides a useful historical sketch Key T Hewitt 1855 On Greek Accentuation Transactions of the Philological Society 9 See also 1 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Greek diacritics General information Accentuation history and tutorial Citizens Movement for the Reintroduction of the Polytonic System in Greek and English How the law to abandon polytonic orthography was passed in the Greek parliament in Greek Greek polytonic to monotonic converter free online tool Program that converts correct written monotonic texts into polytonic textsPolytonic Greek fonts Greek Font Society public domain polytonic fonts Archived 2008 07 01 at the Wayback Machine Public domain Greek polytonic unicode fonts Athena public domain polytonic Greek fontHow to guides for polytonic keyboard layouts Google Docs guide for Linux Covers installation of layouts use of dead keys etc Updated to 2010 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Greek diacritics amp oldid 1132846680, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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