Arrggghhhh ... nevermind ... it won't let me type in Greek characters

Anyone know how?

EDIT - Yay, SarahFlute did it!! Here's the alphabet






























There is no letter 'h' in Greek. To show the sound 'h' at the beginning of a word, the Greeks use a backwards apostrophe over a vowel. Words that begin with a vowel but do not have the 'h' sound have a normal apostrophe over the vowel. (sorry that was hard to explain as i dont know where to find the symbols)

Cut and paste from elsewhere?

Hmm...

Probably a good place to start would be the alphabet? If you could find somewhere that would let you cut and paste that, that would be a start - or an image of it.

Also, try posting a few things in English letters, it would at least be something to get started with

I tried to copy and paste ... it jsut came up with squares. I'll try and scan in my alphabet sheet

I'm intrigued - what are you trying to post??!!

Hehe, sort of like the Spanish thread ... but Greek instead

Ελληνικό αλφάβητο

Just seeing if this works...

For Windows:

click on START, then

ALL PROGRAMS /ACCESSORIES /SYSTEM TOOLS/ CHARACTER MAP

then select <symbol> from the font pull-down at the top of the application.

Regards

piano63

piano secrets, if you can quote my post then you can add appropriate pronunciation help/any corrections! I don't trust my memory and don't want to get it wrong. I believe it may differ from Modern Greek pronunciation?

Α α alpha
Β β beta
Γ γ gamma
Δ δ delta
Ε ε epsilon
Ζ ζ zeta
Η η eta
Θ θ theta
Ι ι iota
Κ κ kappa
Λ λ lambda
Μ μ mu
Ν ν nu
Ξ ξ xi
Ο ο omicron
Π π pi
Ρ ρ rho
Σ σ sigma
Ï‚ sigma, final
Τ τ tau
Î¥ Ï… upsilon
Φ φ phi
Χ χ chi
Ψ ψ psi
Ω ω omega

Hope this works

Yay! It worked! Do you mind if i copy it, and put it on the origional post with some pronunciations?

No worries at all!

If you click quote and then take out the [quote] bits at the start and end of the post you should be able to add in anything you like and guarantee (I hope!!) that the Greek letters will still be there

Now I really have no excuse not to learn some Greek . Thanks to both of you for starting this thread...

I've editied the first post It now contains the alphabet

Yay

I'm attempting to teach myself Ancient Greek at the moment. It died a bit over the exam period (couldn't maintain 5AS-levels, an A-level, two instruments AND a subject in my spare time) but I'm trying to revive it now. Yay Greek! Am going on an Ancient G{r}eek course this summer too...

Greek!!

*Copies alphabet onto paper to attach to wall*

Perhaps I should take some stuff down first! I'm running out of wall space! *Evicts sine/cosine/tangent graphs*

Are the English equivalents also the pronunciations?

Wow, when did someone work out how ancient greek was pronounced? That's amazing. They've been arguing over Latin for centuries.

I've got my greek books out again for our third trip - this time to Crete. Comes in so useful. It's a fascinating language.

But why Ancient Greek?

If you need a train to Turkey, I guess it must come out as "Where is the wooden horse to Troy?"

Steve

As with any dead language, one can hardly be sure, but there is an accepted pronunciation that is taught, and it is possible for linguists much more knowledgable than thee or me to have a fair idea.

Uncertainty notwithstanding, the way Ancient Greek is taught doesn't correspond with how Modern Greek is pronounced, so it is important to make the distinction for people who may not realise there is a difference. Whether they are right or not, it is an important distinction for a learner to know.

As for why: why not? Think of all the literature a Greek speaker can read in its original forms. Ancient Greek is also similar enough to Koine Greek to give those who wish to study New Testament theology a head start in their Greek studies.

So I guess from the title of the thread this is ancient Greek we are talking about here? And the english equivalents are the pronunciations?

Sorry, I only put Ancient Greek in the heading because that's what i'm studying, and I don't know any modern Greek. Yep, the English equivalent is how i's pronounced

Nearly at the end of Greek A level- just prose composition to go!

It's great when you get to the literature- not so fun learning the grammar!:D

Haha, I prefer the grammar ...... seriously

You won't when you get to where I have...

Haha, i'll take your word for that

Seriously though, the tragedy is great, and Aristophanes is good for a laugh (though not a little crude!) ;D

Yeh, but it's such a bore having to go through it al line by line learning it. The grammar just sticks in my head as we go along ...

Which is another way of saying that "nobody really knows but we're going to do it anyway". No problems. I believe there was a huge fuss when the latin 'v' was pronounced as a"w". Over ten Cambridge Latin scholars chained themselves to the railings outside Trinity and refused to eat or drink, accepting only small gifts of pate du fois gras and Bollinger champagne before they were finally cut free over one hour later!

As long as our greek hotel has air conditioning, fresh calamari and cold wine/beer, they can speak whatever form of greek they want!

Steve

Any more takers for learning Ancient Greek? I can try and help as much as I can, but i'm not very good at it .... Any more willing teachers?

Hello- I would like to start learning as well...

I'll carry on learning - got the alphabet somewhere over here!

Am I the only one who can see a problem with that?

Yes

Thought I might be. Glad we cleared that up.

I'll try and post some general grammar stuff up for you (and anyone else who wants to learn ) when i've got time. It will probably be sometime tomorrow

If you say "hair" (unless you have a strong accent) the vowel sound you are actually saying is basically "eeeh" - only that's not a very good approximation ... but the vowel sound of hair certainly isn't usually a or i