How to read Greek

Single Letters

á is always pronounced as a in father
â as v in violent
ã doesn't have an English counterpart; it sounds like a soft version of g in brag but continued;
before å and é (and all *e* and *i* sounds) it sounds as y in yield
ä as th in that
å as e in met
æ as z in zone
ç as ee in see
è as th in thin
é as ee in see
ê as k in ask
before å and é (and all *e* and *i* sounds) it sounds as Qu in Quebec (as it is in French)
ë almost as l in lizard but the tongue touches the back of the front teeth
ì as m in man
í as n in not
î as x in six
ï as o in port
ð as p in step
ñ as r in British English very; it is slightly trilled
ó as s in sea;
it is pronounced as z in zone before voiced consonants (â,ã,ä,ì)
ò same as ó, but is only encountered at the end of a word
ô as t in bet
õ as ee in see
ö as f in fire
÷ doesn't have an English counterpart; sounds as the German ch in Bach;
before å and é (and all *e* and *i* sounds) it sounds almost as H in Houston
ø as ps in rhapsody
ù as o in port

Letter Combinations

áé exactly like å
åé exactly like é
ïé exactly like é
õé exactly like é
ïõ as oo in loot
áõ as uff in cuff before voiceless consonants;
as av in maverick before voiced consonants (â,ã,ä,ì,æ) and vowels;
åõ as ef in chef before voiceless consonants;
as ev in eleven before voiced consonants (â,ã,ä,ì,æ) and vowels;
ìð at the beggining of a word as b in base;
in the middle of a word as mb in timber
íô at the beggining of a word as d in door;
in the middle of a word as nd in tender
ãê at the beggining of a word as g in good;
in the middle of a word as ng in finger
ãã exactly like ãê, but is always encountered in the middle of a word
ôó as ts in bits, but pronounced as one unit
ôæ as dz in red zone, but pronounced as one unit

Note : This is all you have to know in order to speak Greek with an acceptable accent. What follows is just an overview of some details in the pronunciation, that will improve your accent, but they are not extremely essential for reading Greek.

The *i* modifier

All consonants are pronounced differently if an *i* sound (ç,é,õ,åé,ïé,õé) is following.

As has been noted, the consonants pertaining to the throat (*laring'ikA*),ãê,ê,ã,÷, have different pronunciation, when they precede an *i* or *e* (å,áé) sound (they turn into the corresponding palatal sound, i.e., *g'*, *k'*, *gh'* and *kh'* respectively).

The letters ë and í before an *i* sound as the Italian gl and gn, e.g., as in migliori and bagno.

When an *i* vowel is inserted between one of the other consonant sounds and a vowel it's effect is that either a *gh'* or a *kh'* sound is inserted. The former corresponds to voiced consonant sounds (ìð,â,íô,ä,ôæ,æ) and the latter to unvoiced consonant sounds (ð,ö,ô,è,ôó,ó).

Thus âá = *bha*, but âéá = *bhgh'a* and óá = *sa*, but óéá = *skh'a*

There are two excpeptions to this : ìéá = *mn'a* and ñéá = *rgh'a*.

There are a few cases though where the *i* sound has to be spoken explicitely, for example ìéåñüò is pronounced *mierOs*, not *mn'erOS*. It is also possible that two words are spelled the same but have different pronunciations and meanings. For example, Üäåéá may mean "permission" or "vacation", so will be pronounced *Adhia* or it may mean "empty" and be pronounced *Adhgh'a*. Another example is ßäéïò with *Idhios* meaning "self-","eigen-" and *Idhgh'os* meaning "same".

Comments

Two more consonants
The consonants î and ø are called äéðëÜ ("double") consonants, because they virtually represent the consonant combinations êó and ðó respectively. To pronounce those two "double" consonants pronounce the corresponding (single) consonants.

One special case
The consonant ã is pronounced like the "n" in the English word "finger" (something between *n* and *n'*) when it precedes the consonant ÷, e.g. óõã÷ùñþ = *sinkhorO*.

The final consonants
The final ò is pronounced *z* (az the "z" in "zebra") if the first letter of the next word is a voiced consonant, e.g. ðåò ìïõ = *pEzmou*
If a word ends in í and the next word starts with ê, ð or ô then the two consonants are pronounced as *ng*,*mb* and *nd* respectively, e.g. ôïí êÞðï = *tongIpo*. If the next word starts with ø, ôó or î then they are pronounced as *mbz*, *ndz* and *ngz* respectively, e.g. ôïí îÝíï = *tongzEno*.

Silent letters
There are a few cases where a letter is not pronounced. Those are:

  1. The letter õ of the letter combination åõ when the following letter is â or ö, e.g. åõöïñßá=*eforIa* (BTW, that's where the English word "euforia" comes from!)
  2. One of two identical consonants, e.g. Üëëá=*Ala*
  3. Often the letter ð in the consonant combination ìðô, e.g. ÐÝìðôç=*pEmti*

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