Φωνητική (Phonetics) – Consonants

Like alphabet, ‘phonetics’ is another word with Greek roots. Similar to telephone (distance-voice), megaphone (large-voice), or phonology (voice-study), ‘phonetics’ refers to sound and voice, specifically, the sounds of spoken language.

The Modern Greek alphabet has 24 letters. Six represent vowel sounds, and the remainder are consonants.

People often describe the Greek alphabet as ‘phonetic’ in that generally, each letter is pronounced as it appears.

Unlike English, there are no silent letters (as in knight), and no heteronyms. That’s another Greek word – hetero means different (as in heterosexual), and nym means name (as in anonymous).

‘Lead’ (as in ‘lead pencil’) and ‘lead’ (as in ‘lead singer’) are examples of heteronyms – these words are spelled the same but pronounced differently.

Modern Greek doesn’t have these sorts of traps. But it does have a few special nuances you should be aware of. While they might seem tricky at first, these rules are highly regular (unlike English), and you will get used to them with practice!

We’ll start with some of the rules relating to consonants.

Consonants in context: κ, γ, χ

Κκ (kappa) is one of the easiest letters for English speakers to recognise in Greek. In most contexts, it’s pronounced ‘k’, but before ‘e’ or ‘i’ sounds, it has an ever-so-slightly softer sound, like ‘ky’.

Γγ (gamma) is pronounced ‘g’ in most contexts, but before ‘e’ or ‘i’ sounds, it sounds more like the ‘y’ it resembles.

Χχ (chi) is pronounced ‘h’ in most contexts, but before vowel sounds like ‘e’ or ‘i’, it can sound closer to ‘ch’.

You can hear these syllables – and all other syllables possible in Modern Greek – pronounced on the Nostos website. Make sure to follow along with Ελληνικά Τώρα/Ellinika Tora (Greek Now) 1, starting page 15.

The two ‘th’s: θ & δ

In English, words like ‘there’ and ‘theme’ both start with ‘th’, even though the sounds these letters represent are different. Learning when to use a soft vs. a hard th is one of the most difficult aspects of English pronunciation for many learners.

Greek, fortunately, uses different letters to represent these distinct sounds, so you don’t need to guess which one to use.

Δ ‘delta’ and its lowercase δ are pronounced like the soft th in there.

Θ ‘theta’ and its lowercase θ are pronounced like the hard th as in theme.

In linguistics, δ is often referred to as ‘voiced’, since it relies on the vocal chords. If you put a finger on your throat while saying ‘there’ (you may have to over-emphasise it) you should feel this vibration.

By contrast, θ is called ‘unvoiced’ since air flows more freely from the lungs to the mouth, and the tongue, teeth, and lips do most of the work in making this sound. You should feel less vibration in your throat saying ‘theme’.

It’s common for θ to be represented as ‘th‘ and δ as ‘d‘ in English spelling. This helps differentiate between the two different sounds. But it doesn’t reflect the modern pronunciation of Greek words. In fact, a completely different letter combination ντ, is used to represent a ‘d’ sound in Modern Greek.

To better reflect their current pronunciation, some books (like Get Talking Greek) represent θ as TH, and δ as th.

Although we use this convention, it’s useful to remember that words borrowed from (typically Ancient) Greek into English typically transcribe δ as ‘d’, e.g. δημοκρατία (thimokratía) = democracy.

If you see a word of Greek origin in English spelled with a ‘d‘, it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s spelled ‘δ‘, but pronounced ‘th‘ in Modern Greek!

You can hear Anna the Greek teacher pronounce lots of examples of words containing θ and δ (with phonetic transcription):

The two sigmas: σ & ς

Like English, the Greek Alphabet has both upper case (Α, Β, Γ,…) and lower case (α, β, γ,…) letters.

It’s a good idea to remember them in pairs: Αα, Ββ, Γγ,…

But there’s one letter which has three versions rather than two: sigma.

Just as A and a have the same pronunciation, all three of these sigmas are pronounced exactly the same: ‘s’. The only difference in their use is where they appear in words and sentences.

Capital (kefalaío) sigma Σ is used at the beginning of sentences, the initials of proper nouns (e.g. Ολυμπιακό Στάδιο, Olympic Stadium), and in any position in all-caps words (e.g. ΟΔΥΣΣΕΑΣ, ODYSSEUS).

The typical lower case (pezó) sigma σ is used at the beginning of words that don’t require a capital (e.g. στάδιο, stadium), or in the middle of words (e.g. μουσική, music).

The final (telikó) lower case (pezó) sigma ς, as the name suggests, is only used at the end of words (e.g. κόσμος, cosmos).

It may seem strange to have a special s for the end of words, but there is only one group of words in Greek which end with s: masculine nouns like κόσμος or Οδυσσέας.

In some grammatical contexts, this final s is dropped. The special ς character is a useful reminder of this rule.