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The Greek Alphabet
What
is the Greek Alphabet?
Kyler
What is the Greek
alphabet? Well, the question really does answer itself this time.
Simply put, the Greek
alphabet is an alphabet, used by the Greeks. It’s been around since about 800
BC.
Unlike the NATO
phonetic alphabet, we don’t use the Greek alphabet as a phonetic alphabet
nowadays.
Of course, Greek is
still a language, and the Greek alphabet is used in that context. But it’s
gained a handful of other uses over time as well.
But before we move
on, we should probably lay out what the Greek alphabet actually looks like.
What Is the Greek
Alphabet?
Symbol (Uppercase /
Lowercase) Name Symbol (Uppercase/ Lowercase) Name
𝚨
/ 𝛂 Alpha 𝚴 / 𝛎 Nu
𝚩
/ 𝜷 Beta 𝚵 / 𝛏 Xi
𝚪
/ 𝛄 Gamma 𝚶 / 𝛐 Omicron
𝝙
/ 𝝳 Delta 𝚷 / 𝛑 Pi
𝚬
/ 𝛆 Epsilon 𝚸 / 𝛒 Rho
𝚭
/ 𝛇 Zeta 𝚺 / 𝛔
(alternative 𝛓) Sigma
𝚮
/ 𝛈 Eta 𝚻 / 𝛕 Tau
𝚯
/ 𝚹 Theta 𝚼 / 𝛖 Upsilon
𝚰
/ 𝛊 Iota 𝚽 / 𝛗 Phi
𝚱
/ 𝛋 Kappa 𝚾 / 𝛘 Chi
𝝠
/ 𝝺 Lambda 𝚿 / 𝛙 Psi
𝚳
/ 𝛍 Mu 𝛀 / 𝛚 Omega
Is Ancient Greek
Different from Modern Greek?
In short, yes,
today’s Greek alphabet is different than it was in the past.
Things evolve over
time, and language is no different.
Ancient Greek had
different pronunciations and a few more letters here and there (𝟊
and Ϙ, digamma and koppa).
There are also
diacritics, which weren’t introduced to the Greek alphabet until about the 3rd
century BC.
They’ve kind of come
and gone over the years, but modern Greek still retains two.
Furthermore, Greek
was an ancestor of Latin, and interestingly, both languages did not have
lower-case letters during Classical times.
It wasn’t until the
medieval period, when scribes added lower-case symbols to make writing easier,
that both languages gained upper- and lower-casing.
What Is the Greek
Alphabet Used for Now?
So what is the Greek
alphabet used for today? The answer really depends on whom you ask.
If you ask someone
who speaks, reads, or otherwise knows/works with Greek regularly, the Greek
alphabet is still very much used as an alphabet. Greek isn’t a dead language.
But even if you don’t
know Greek, you probably see it a lot, especially if you’re working in the
sciences.
You’ve probably seen
theta (𝚯) used in reference to angles, and of
course pi (𝝿) is used to represent the ratio of a
circle’s circumference to its diameter.
Greek alphabet
symbols are so common that they even double up every now and then.
For example, lambda (𝝺)
is used as a symbol for wavelength. It’s also used to denote linear charge
density of an electric field (aka too much physics for a blog post).
Lastly, if you’re
anywhere near a college or university, you’ve probably seen Greek lettering
used in association with campus fraternities or sororities.
This is commonly
referred to as “Greek life”. Fun fact, they aren’t inspired by the way Greeks
actually used to live. But that’s a topic for another time.
Think you’re an
expert on all things Greek? Test your knowledge of the Greek alphabet in the
quiz below!
Kyler is
a content writer at Sporcle. He currently spends most of his time hitting the
university grind while drinking black coffee like water.
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