The Sounds of Greek TWO

#Greek #greekabc #classicalgreek

January is back to basics month on metousia during which I edit redo and hopefully some posts on some basics like the Greek Alphabet and Grammar

THE SOUNDS OF GREEK 

How Greek Was and Is Pronounced

 part two of a series of 4 blogs

Η η Eta

 a LONG e sound like the e in hAIry or French tête

Modern Greek I though or “ee” as in fEEt

Θ θ Theta 

 is an aspirated T as in the beginning of Tin or Tare or the sound in the middle of hot-house however it later became TH as in THIN. The lack of the fricative sound in Irish Gaelic is why some speakers of Irish English even those with no knowledge of Gaelic change th in some English words to a t sound. This is declining due to the influence of modern media but if you've ever wondered about the Irish accent jokes in old movies and books well that's the origin of them.

Θ θ th Φ φ ph Χ χ kh 

 are all aspirated sounds in Classical Greek not fricatives.

Ι ι Iota 

I in machIne or bIn.

These letters are ALL pronounced IOTA in Modern Greek.

However NOTE that in Modern Greek η υ ει οι υι all = ι as in English bEAd IPA [i]

Κ κ Kappa K in Kinetic or Back or sKin

Λ λ Lambda L in Labyrinth or Look

Μ μ M in Metaphor or Seem.