The Greek Alphabet

The Greek Alphabet

The Ancient Greeks developed an alphabet for writing. Their common language and writing was one of the things that bound the Greeks together. The Greek Alphabet is still used today. It is even used in the United States of America where Greek letters are popular as mathematical symbols.

HistoryThe Greeks learned about writing and the alphabet from the Phoenicians. These were people who were an ancient civilization who lived in what we know today as Lebanon. The Middle Eastern country of Lebanon is located in the west of the continent of Asia.

HistoryThe Ancient Greeks were inspired by the Phoenician alphabet, but they added a few new letters. They also linked some of the letters to vowel sounds. The Greek Alphabet was the first alphabet to use vowels.Do you remember these?

Some interesting facts about the Greek alphabet

- It was originally written (and read) from right to left.- They cut it down from thousands of characters to twenty-four. This made it much easier to learn. As the Greeks made it easier to learn to read and write, Greeks were much more educated than other ancient people.- Greek was originally written with only capital letters.

The LettersThere are 24 letters in the Greek alphabet.

Letter

alpha

beta

gamma

delta

epsilon

zeta

eta

theta

iota

kappa

lamda

mu

nu

xi

omicron

pi

rho

sigma

tau

upsilon

phi

chi

psi

omega

Upper Case

Α

Β

Γ

Δ

Ε

Ζ

Η

Θ

Ι

Κ

Λ

Μ

Ν

Ξ

Ο

Π

Ρ

Σ

Τ

Υ

Φ

Χ

Ψ

Ω

Lower Case

α

β

γ

δ

ε

ζ

η

θ

ι

κ

λ

μ

ν

ξ

ο

π

ρ

σ

τ

υ

φ

χ

ψ

ω

Upperand lowercase letters.

How to pronounce the Greek Alphabet?

alpha (al-fah) beta (bay-tah) gamma (gam-ah) delta (del-ta) epsilon (ep-si-lon) zeta (zay-tah) eta (ay-tah) theta (thay-tah) iota (eye-o-tah) kappa (cap-ah) lamda (lamb-dah) mu (mew) nu (new) xi (zai) omicron (om-e-cron) pi (pie) rho (roe) sigma (sig-mah) tau (taw)

How to pronounce the Greek alphabet?

upsilon (oop-si-lon) phi (fie) chi (kie) psi (sigh) omega (o-may-gah)

Greek Numbers

Greek letters were also used for writing Greek numerals. The first nine letters (from alpha to theta) were used for the numbers 1 to 9. The next nine letters (from iota to koppa) were used for multiples of 10 from 10 to 90. Finally, the next nine letters (from rho to sampi) were used for 100 to 900. For example, the numbers 1, 2, and 3 are alpha, beta, and gamma.

The Greeks added three letters for numbers

The Greeks added three letters for numbers. This increased the letters from 24 to 27 in total. They were digamma for number 6, koppa for the number 90 and sampi for the number 900.

Digamma pronounced – dig-a-ma ( Ϝϝ Digamma )Koppa pronounced – kop-pa ( Ϟϟ Koppa )Sampi pronounced – sam-pe ( Ϡϡ Sampi )

Greek Letters in Science and Mathematics today

A lot of Greek letters are used in science and mathematics today. Some examples include: • Δ Delta - a difference or change in quantity• π Pi - the constant 3.14159… used in calculating the circumference and volume of a circle

• λ Lambda - represents the wavelength of light in physics

• θ Theta - is often used to represent an angle• Σ Sigma - is used to represent a summation of a number of items

More interesting facts about the Greek Alphabet

• The word "alphabet" comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet "alpha" and "beta".

• The original Greek alphabet did not have upper case and lower case letters. These were developed later.

• Many Greek letters are used in the International Phonetic Alphabet.• Today Greek is the official language of the country of Greece and one of the official languages of Cyprus.

• It is estimated that around 30% of English words are derived from some sort of classical Greek word.

• Many Greek letters are the same as Latin letters (Latin is an old language that you will sometimes hear at Mass), but some of them sound different.

Activities1. Return to slide 7 and record the Greek alphabet (upper and lowercase letters) in your best handwriting.2. Create a short fact file about the history of the Greek Alphabet.2. How many words can you write using the Greek Alphabet? Can you write your name? Write down as many words as you can.3. Present your fact file (including the Greek Alphabet and your words using the Greek Alphabet) to your class or family.

These activities are challenging and youcan complete them over two lessons.