Without any further delays, here are the Greek letters in geek dialect. You can consider this as a mini-handbook of some of the uses of the Greek letters. Moreover, lowercase and uppercase symbols may have different meanings when used in a technical context. Please feel free to tell us what you use these letters for in the comments section. Interested in learning the basics of more languages? Check out our guides on How to Say Good Morning in Japanese and French, Spanish Body Parts and Love Quotes, and Thank You in German.įor math and science subjects where you'll probably encounter Greek letters, read all about dynamic equilibrium, trig identities, and STEM careers.Just a warning though, if you belong to an engineering branch that is not civil or structural then you may have other uses for these letters. What's Next?Ĭurious about Greek mythology? Start with Zeus, the King of the Greek gods. Even if you don’t plan on becoming fluent, it’s definitely worth knowing. Knowing the Greek alphabet can help you gain a better understanding of Greek classics, as well as provide knowledge and reference in science and math where it requires you to know the Greek alphabet. Even Greek mythology is a major part of our collective consciousness, and the alphabet was the beginning of these major achievements. The Greek alphabet has been a significant part of historical events and major contributions to the arts and humanities. Keep in mind that these pronunciations are the closest we could find to English, but are not exact. Greek Uppercase LettersĬhart 2: Greek Alphabet Letters With Modern and Ancient Pronunciations If you go ahead and start learning Greek, you’ll find that some sounds are more frequent than others, and the pronunciations in some cases are slightly different than what we’ve outlined below. Of course, the English equivalents are not exact, but are the closest we could find. Now that you recognize where and how you’ve encountered Greek alphabet symbols, we can go over which Greek letters are which, and how to identify and pronounce them.Ĭhart 1: Greek Alphabet Letters and Their English Equivalents Greek letters are also used often on college campuses by fraternities and sororities, and the organizations are often referred to collectively as “Greek Life” because they have adopted the alphabet as a naming technique, originally as a way to keep their organization a secret from non-members. Greek alphabet letters are also used in computer science and is an important part of some coding methods, such as Unicode. The biggest star in a constellation would be referred to as the Alpha, and the second biggest star as the beta and so forth. ![]() Greek letters are also used in astronomy, to identify stars within a constellation. There are just a few common examples of where you might see Greek lettersĪ common example is the Greek letter Pi, which is a mathematical constant and is used as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its radius. While you may not use the Greek alphabet symbols in your own language, you may recognize some of the letters from math, science, and other labeling. The same Greek alphabet is still used today, with some modifications in the letters and pronunciations. In this way, the Greek alphabet is very phonetic, and you can see these phonetic influences in other languages across the globe. They also changed what the letters were called to match the changing pronunciation. These were added in the late ninth century. Originally, there were no uppercase letters. The way the letters were written were adapted over time as well. ![]() The Southern dialect was most similar to the ancient Phoenician. The Greeks added and dropped letters over time and changed their sounds and meaning.Īt first, the language used the same alphabet was pronunciations, and therefore dialects, differed by region, being separated into Southern, Western, Eastern, and Classic. Initially, the Greek alphabet used all the symbols from the Phoenician alphabet and adapted some to denote vowel sounds. The Greek language was adapted from the earlier Phoenician and Semitic alphabet. Below, we will go over the Greek letters as they’re used today, modern pronunciation, and their approximate English equivalents. In addition to being used in the Greek language, Greek letters are also used as symbols in math and science, as well as in other fields. Though the ancient Greek alphabet originally had multiple variants, The Euclidean Alphabet, which is still used today, has been used since the 4th century B.C. The Greeks were also one of the first to develop a comprehensive, written language that surfaced around the 8th century B.C, and was used widely across the region. ![]() The Greeks are often thought of as the founders of philosophy, as well as early pioneers in literature, government, and more. The Ancient Greeks are known for their contributions to modern society.
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