Diphthongs, Accents and Breathing Marks | Beginning Greek for Christians
In the previous video, we concluded our examination of the Greek alphabet.
Let’s begin with a recitation to review what you’ve previously learned:
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/ς (sigma), Τ/τ
(tau), Υ/υ (upsilon), Φ/φ (phi), Χ/χ (chi), Ψ/ψ (psi), Ω/ω (omega).
Very good!
You are well on your way to understanding Biblical Greek.
Before we leave the alphabet entirely, there are a few more things you need to learn in
order to be fully prepared to understand the language.
First, the letter Γ (gamma – regularly pronounced as a hard “G”) can sometimes
mimic an “N” sound when paired in combination with certain letters: Κ, Ξ, Χ or another
Γ.
This phenomenon is known as a gamma nasal.
For example, the Greek word for angel is ἄγγελος.
Notice the double-gamma; the first of which is pronounced with an “N” sound.
Second, in addition to the alphabet, the Greek language also possesses several important
vowel combinations called diphthongs.
Diphthongs are two vowels that combine to form a single sound.
These diphthong combinations are: αι, ει, οι, υι, αυ, ευ, ηυ, ου, and ωυ.
I’ve found the sounds produced by these vowel pairings to be fairly intuitive for
the native English speaker; once you’ve learned the alphabet, the diphthongs are easy
to recognize and pronounce.
Note, however, that not all vowel pairings are diphthongs.
When two vowels are next to each other that are not a diphthong, you must pronounce each
letter separately.
You will also frequently see what’s called an improper diphthong.
This is when a vowel is paired with an iota subscript (an iota written below the line).
We will discuss these more in a future lesson; for now, all you need to know is that this
iota is not pronounced, but it is important to recognize for reasons of translation.
Sometimes, you will encounter a diphthong with two dots above one of the letters.
This mark is called a diaeresis.
It indicates that the two vowels of the diphthong are to be pronounced separately.
Third, for everything you have learned thus far with the Greek alphabet, you may have
noticed that there is no letter corresponding to the English “H”.
Consider the Greek word for a Greek person – Ἕλλην.
This word is transliterated into English as Hellén.
The “H” sound that begins the word does not come from a Greek letter.
Instead, it comes from this mark before the first letter.
This mark is called a breathing mark.
Breathing marks occur at the beginning of all words that begin with a vowel.
They can manifest in one of two forms: smooth breathing or rough breathing.
A smooth breathing mark, such as found in ἄγγελος, is a right half-circle.
This mark is silent, thus we pronounce the first letter normally.
On the other hand, a rough breathing mark, such as in Ἕλλην, is a left half-circle.
This mark is pronounced as an English “H”.
We add this sound in combination with the natural sound of the vowel that begins the
word.
When paired with a lower case letter, the breathing mark will be over the top of the
letter.
When paired with a capital, it will precede the letter.
When paired with a diphthong, it will appear over the second vowel.
Words that begin with consonants do not contain breathing marks.
Though they are small, breathing marks can influence translation.
You will encounter words represented by a single letter.
Whether that letter has a smooth or rough breathing mark will designate whether it is
one word or another.
Be sure to pay attention to them in your attempts at reading and translation.
This brings us to our final point for this video.
You may have noticed other marks over Greek words that we have not accounted for yet.
These marks are accent marks.
Greek accents come in three types: acute, grave and circumflex.
Whereas English uses a stress accent, Greek uses a pitch accent.
For the native English speaker, it is more convenient to treat these accents as stress
accents, as we would in English.
Acute accents are represented by the up tilted line, graves by the down tilted line and circumflexes
by the symbol often called the tilde.
As you may have guessed, the orientation of the accent tells you what it is doing; acutes
rise, while graves fall.
Circumflexes oscillate from high-to-low emphasis.
The accent will be located over the letter it modifies.
When a diphthong is accented, it will appear over the second letter, just like a breathing
mark or a diaeresis.
With an accented capital at the beginning of a word, the accent will appear before the
letter, also, again, like a breathing mark.
In your personal study of Greek, accents are not often necessary for reading and translating.
For proper pronunciation, they should be noted, but again, we are treating these as stress
accents rather than pitch accents anyway to accommodate our English tendencies.
They are of much less significance than the other points we’ve covered in this video,
such as breathing marks.
For a further study of Greek, I recommend “Greek 101: Learning an Ancient Language”
from The Great Courses and “Basics of Biblical Greek” by Zondervan Academic.
You will find links to both of these courses in the description.