Φωνητική (Phonetics) – Vowels

Modern Greek has five vowel sounds – a, e, i, o, u.

But there are more than five ways to represent these sounds in writing.

Let’s take a look at them, starting with the easiest:

/a/: α

The first of these vowel sounds, ‘a’, has only one letter to represent it, alpha: α (or in uppercase, Α).

Nice and easy.

/o/: ο, ω

You may have noticed that the Greek alphabet contains two letters that represent an ‘o’ sound: ο and ω.

In Classical Greek, omicron (small o) represented a close-mid back rounded vowel. It is written the same as the letter used in English: Οο. Notice how the circle is closed.

Omega (large o) represented an open-mid back rounded vowel. It is written Ωω. Notice how the circle is open. You may also see versions that look like omicron underlined: Ο – a truly ‘mega’ O.

In Modern Greek, these two letters are pronounced the same. Both are commonly used, but the most familiar o, omicron, appears more than twice as often as omega.

If you’re not sure whether a word is spelled with an omicron or an omega, and you don’t have access to a dictionary, omicron is the safer bet.

Many neuter nouns end with ο, e.g. φαινόμενο (phenomenon). And most names, like Odysseus (Ὀδυσσεύς) and Homer (Όμερος) begin with omicron rather than omega.

But be careful! There is one class of words which often end with omega.

Omega (ω) is a typical ending for many verbs. It indicates that you (the person speaking or writing) are the one doing some action, e.g. παίζω (I play).

/e/: ε, αι

There are also two ways to represent an ‘e’ sound in Greek.

The simplest, and by far most commonly used, is the letter ε (or in uppercase, Ε).

Occasionally, however, you’ll come across the combination αι, pronounced exactly the same as ε. It appears, for example, in the word αίμα (‘e-ma’) meaning ‘blood’. You may recognize this as the root of words like ‘hematology’ (study of blood) or ‘hematoma’ (broken blood vessel). It also appears in the very common (and important) word ναι (‘ne’) meaning ‘yes’.

Almost nine times out of ten though, an ‘e’ sound is represented using epsilon, ε:

Though it’s always best to check a dictionary, if you come across a word with an ‘e‘ sound in Greek, it’s a pretty safe guess that it contains ε.

/i/: η, ι, υ, οι, ει

You may also have noticed that there are three different letters representing the /i/ sound in the Modern Greek alphabet: ι, η, υ.

In earlier versions of Greek, these letters represented different sounds.

In Modern Greek, all three letters are in common use, and sound essentially the same.

ι (or in upper case, Ι) is the most familiar to English speakers, and is used more often than the other letters.

But wait, there’s more! The letter combinations οι and ει are also pronounced /i/.

Take for example the word for ‘family’: οικογένεια is pronounced i-ko-ye-ni-a.

Here are all five ways to write an /i/ sound, in one handy chart:

Although these sounds are variously represented in English as e, i, or y, with or without a h, in Modern Greek, they all sound the same – like the ‘i‘ in ‘igloo’.

The two most common ways to represent an ‘i’ sound are ι and η. Together, they make up more than 70% of the ‘i’ sounds recorded in Greek. That’s because ι is a typical ending of neuter nouns, while η is a typical ending of feminine nouns.

Another reason for the prevalence of ι is its common use in borrowed words, e.g. κλικ (click).

So, if you are wondering which ‘i’ to use at the end of a word, it is most likely ι or η, and if the word is borrowed from a language other than Greek, any ‘i’ sound it contains is likely to be represented by ι.

The combinations οι and ει are comparatively uncommon, but they still appear frequently enough to confuse beginners.

Here’s an easy way to remember: anything + ι is pronounced ‘i‘ except for ‘αι‘ as in ‘ναι‘ (which is pronounced ‘ne‘, similar to how the English word ‘said’ sounds like ‘sed’).

/u/: ου

What about ‘u’? Now that υ represents an ‘i’ sound in Modern Greek, there is no single letter representing an ‘u’ sound as in ‘put’.

Instead, the combination ου is used. This is a fairly easy combination to remember, since it looks and sounds like the ‘ou’ in ‘you‘ or ‘through’.

You can hear all five Modern Greek vowel sounds pronounced on the Nostos website. Make sure to follow along with Ελληνικά Τώρα/Ellinika Tora (Greek Now) 1, focusing on page 16.

If you want to go into more depth with Greek vowels, check out this video from GreekPod101: