The AcademyThe alphabet
The alphabetτὰ γράμματα
Twenty-four letters, seven of them vowels. Choose a letter to see how it is written, what it is called, and how it sounded.
About this pronunciation
How Athenians of the 5th and 4th centuries BC most probably spoke, reconstructed from ancient grammarians' descriptions, spelling mistakes in inscriptions, transcriptions into other languages, and the rhythm of verse. It has a pitch accent: the accent marks show rising and falling pitch, not stress.
vowels (7): α ε η ι ο υ ω
Α α alpha
Greek name ἄλφα
short: like the u in "cup" but further forward; long: like "father"
IPA [a, aː]
Alpha can be short or long; the spelling does not show which. Dictionaries mark long ones with a line: ᾱ.
Vowel pairs (diphthongs)
Two vowels said as one sound. In Reconstructed Classical Attic:
| Spelling | Sound | IPA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| αι | as in "aisle" | [ai̯] | |
| ει | a long close e, like French é held By Classical times ει was a single long vowel, not a glide. | [eː] | |
| οι | as in "oil" | [oi̯] | |
| ου | as in "food" Earlier [oː]; it had become [uː] by the fourth century BC. | [uː] | |
| υι | French u gliding to "ee" | [yi̯] | |
| αυ | as in "how" | [au̯] | |
| ευ | e gliding to "oo" | [eu̯] | |
| ηυ | long open e gliding to "oo" | [ɛːu̯] | |
| ᾳ ῃ ῳ | a long vowel gliding to a short "ee" The small iota written under the vowel (iota subscript) was a real, pronounced iota in Classical Attic. | [aːi̯, ɛːi̯, ɔːi̯] |
Classical sounds after W. S. Allen, Vox Graeca: The Pronunciation of Classical Greek, 3rd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 1987). Example words and definitions from the Dickinson College Commentaries Greek Core Vocabulary (CC BY-SA 3.0).