Understanding the Greek Language, Lesson 1

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UNDERstanding the greek language

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By Eirini Verykiou

The Alphabet

Where is Greece?

Principles of the Greek Language

Lesson 1

Learning A new language

Every learning poses a challenge

Learning something new and completely out of one's everyday knowings can prove hard and stressful. Some questions flowing in our minds when we think of learning a new language are :1. How do I do it? Or 2. Where do I start? Key : First of all, nobody is perfect and nobody knows everything since day one. Progress needs time. Make sure you give yourself the necessary time to advance and understand what you learn. After that we have : The Basics

The alphabet

The Greek letters

Greek language has 24 basic letters and some important letter combinations during the word formation. The alphabet doesn't have latin origins, even though the latin alphabet was inspired by the greek one. The greek language is consisted of capital letters (A, B, Γ, Δ, ... , Ω) and small letters (α, β, γ, δ, ... , ω).

the alphabet

• Capital letters are used at the beginning of a sentence, for names, city names, celebrations etc. For example :

Καλημέρα, τι κάνεις; (beginning of a sentence)Κατερίνα (name)Αθήνα (city name)Πάσχα (celebration)

• Small letters are used for everything else (objects etc.) For example :

φρούτο (= fruit)

• In Greek, as well as in English, Portugese or many other languages, the writing goes from left to right.

• We write every sound we hear. For example :

The name FATIMA has six letters and, therefore, six sounds. That means that when we want to write it, it'll go like this : Φ-Α-Τ-Ι-Μ-Α

+ info

the alphabet

Let's see how greek letters are written and pronounced!

the alphabet

Do you agree that songs make us remember things easier?

principles of the greek language

Attention : There are some letters that have the same sound, but different writing. Let's see what do we mean by that :

ι, η, υ, all have the same sound /i/

ο and ω also have the same sound /o/

Principles of the greek language

We also have letter combinations with different pronunciations, but there's no need to let them scare you because you'll be able to comprehend them just fine in time. You just need to get the hang of it! So we have : ει, οι which are both pronounced /i/, like ι, η and υ (e.g. Ειρήνη, οικογένεια) αι, which has the same pronounciation as ε (epsilon), /e/ (e.g. αίσθημα) ευ, which is pronounced "ef" (e.g. ευχαριστώ) αυ, which can be pronounced either as "af" or "av", depending on the word it's used in (e.g. αυτί "afti" and αυγό "avgo")

principles of the greek language

In Greek, in order to distinguish all the words' pronunciation, we use a tone, a tiny line drawn above letters. That way, we know which syllable is to be emphasized.

For example : ντομάτα Αθήνα κανέλα Σαντορίνη πατάτα Θεσσαλονίκη

Note down that :

Ancient Greeks used to have six different tones, which they combined in every word, as you can see below :

This is why we should consider ourselves lucky to only have one tone that we use in every word without exception.

Summary

Durning our first lesson, we :

1. Had a first glimpse of the Greek Alphabet.

2. Spoke about the different pronounciations.

3. Learned about the toning.

We learned about the letters and how they're written.

We saw how those letters are pronounced according to their different combinations.

Every word in the Greek Alphabet has its own tone.

surprise

Let's end this session with a simple exercise!

Did you know that the modern Greek language has today over 7 million different words? In order to discover a bit more about it and strengthen your knowledge, here's your task : Find a Greek word, whichever you like, its pronounciation and its meaning and share it with the rest of the class next time we meet! Use whatever means you like (books, internet, etc.).

thank you all for your attention

See you next time!