lesson one

Question 1

Digraphs

Answer 1

A digraph is a combination of two letters representing one sound. In Greek…

ει (fiancé) and ou (boo) are single sounds

Question 2

Double-consonants

Answer 2

A double consonant is a consonant letter appearing twice consecutively in a word

Question 3

Sigma and iota subscript

Answer 3

Observe that ç is used at the end of words, while o is used elsewhere (e.g. στασις, revolt’). Sometimes i is printed underneath a preceding a (4), η (1) and ω (4) when it is called ‘iota subscript (Latin, ‘written under’). It is always written ‘adscript’ in capitals, c.g. τίμῃ → TIMHI.

Question 4

Breathings

Answer 4

All words that begin with a vowel have a breathing. above a lower-case vowel, or in front of a capital, indicates the presence of an ‘h’ sound, e.g. όρος = horos (“marker’), όπλιτης = hoplites (‘hoplite’), ‘Έλλας = Hellas (‘Greece’).

‘Smooth’ breathing
above a lower-case vowel, or in front of a capital, indicates the absence of ‘h’ sound, e.g. όρος = oros (‘mountain’), άτομος = atomos (‘atom’).

Question 5

Diphthongs

Answer 5

a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards another (as in coin, loud, and side ).

Question 6

Vowel-length

Answer 6

Diphthongs and the vowels η and w are always pronounced long; o and e are always pronounced short. A macron is used to indicate where a, 1, v are pronounced long (ã, 1, 0) in learning vocabularies, total vocabularies and tables in the Grammar. A vowel with a circumflex accent or iota subscript, is long, need-ing no macron to mark it.

Question 7

accents

Answer 7

Greek words have accent marks, i.e. (acute), ‘(grave), (circumflex). These denote the musical pitch at which the accented syllable was pronounced high pitch, low pitch, high pitch falling to low.

Question 8

Punctuation

Answer 8

There are four punctuation marks in Greek, though we have used some English ones in places to ease reading. The four Greek marks are:
full stop, as in English
, comma, as in English
⚫ colon or semicolon (note that is placed slightly above the line)
; question-mark