Beta must be V Gamma must be the voiced version of the CH sound on Loch and Bach Delta must be a voiced TH Theta must be a voiceless TH Rho despite looking like a P is a R And Upsilon must be I and so does H in Greek.
I am a scientist who uses the Greek alphabet a lot. Clearly most of the pronunciations of Greek letters used in western science education has no resemblance to Modern Greek. Thank you very much for the lesson and I’m happy to subscribe and follow your lessons.
Part of my girlfriend's family is Greek and I really want to learn at least a bit to impress them. This is going to be harder than I thought, but I want to keep learning. Thank you for helping us beginners!
If English speakers are confused about the differences in the pronunciation between Delta and Theta, consider the difference between the English pronunciations at the beginning of the words "think" and "this". They are totally not interchangeable. However I had always thought Delta in Greek is more like the fricative D in Spanish as in the "nada".
Excellent! I’m Greek-American and have so many pronunciation issues with modern Greek. You do a great job of explaining. If I have just one suggestion, please provide the translation for the examples so that we can learn the vocabulary as well.
And here is your discount for Helinika's intermediate course: www.udemy.com/course/intermediate-greek-language-course-b1b2-with-helinika/learn/lecture/28379522?referralCode=2C15574AD126B18E2FBC#overview
Thank you. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I have family living in Cyprus and have noticed similarities between Greek and Spanish pronunciation, for example beta (v) and delta (soft th). I was just never sure how much is Cypriot dialect and if it’s the same as in Greece. I lived in Cyprus myself during the 60s and have noticed that some pronunciations have changed over the years, for example kai, which I always learned was ke, but have often heard my nieces and nephews pronounce it like dshe or je.
thank you for this lovely little video :D I'm Danish, but have taken an interest in understanding the sounds of the greek alphabet as part of a little project I'm working on. Your video was very helpful. It is exciting to learn something new and have a door cracked open to an alphabet that used to be, well, total Greek to me, huehueh.
Gamma has definitely been the hardest for me to get the hang of the pronunciation. It’s also hard to tell when it’s a soft g, when it’s pronounced like a y, and when it’s a hard g or even an n or ng sometimes. So many different sounds for one letter. Η/η also gets me because I always want to pronounce it like an H or an n
I suspect it's pronounced as y when it's the first letter and is followed by i or e, e.g. the names Γιάννης and Γεώργιος, pronounced Yannis and Yeor(g)ios. In other cases gamma is pronounced like a voiced H, or something between h and g. This can be heard clearly in the video. And to get the proper g sound, they use double gamma (yy) or gamma-kappa (yk).
Fun fact: the letter Y comes from the greek letter ypsilon that is why in romanian, french and i think other romanic languages it is called "igrec" which means greek I
Many people think that the Greeks wanted to be tortured and so they put five different "ee" in the alphabet. So this question is an opportunity to clarify a few things about the Greek language, the alphabet and the many ... "ee's". The Greek language was created and codified over thousands of years of observing nature and human activity and slowly each word gives the exact meaning of the object or ideal (the signifier is related to what is pointed out and not random words that will be called everything). This development, when it came time to move on to the written record - and after the first attempts at representations, followed the rules of spoken language. Thus were discovered the forms of letters that could reproduce everything around us in the best possible way. No letter is random and of course none comes from a different language. How could that be? When we open our mouths, we hear A (the letter shows above, the man looks up). B(Vita), as one can easily see, represents the blast, the sound of B(V)-orrea=north wind > BBBB (VVVV), so the North (cold wind) is written with B(Vita). The exact same rule applies to all letters, but that's not the point here. The reason for the participation of more than one letter with the same phonetics was the need to illustrate various forms of things, which were not distinguished by oral speech. E.g. "Υδρία-(H)YDRIA - Υγρόν-(H)YGRON - Κύλιξ-KYLIX" etc. These words could not be better defined than with the "Y-υ" scheme, showing a cavity (water accumulates in cavities). It is difficult and complicated to explain the existence of "H-n". Plato says that they used it for the grandeur of words, but that was not all. "H" is two "I's" joined together (I-I), which means a heavier and more emphatic pronunciation of ee, for serious things (Ήλιος-Eelios -Sun - Ήθος-eethos-Moral - Ήρα-Eera -Hera - Ηφαίστιο-eefestio-Volcano) etc. "I-i" says Plato in Kratylos, is used to express the "thin (Ιστίο-tissue) - thin - weak or for intelligence (Ιδέα-Ιdea, which passes like an arrow from the mind). The double "ει" and "οι" were created to represent the long "ee" that existed in the spoken language and acquired spelling rules that we cannot analyze here. "οι" is always used in the suffixes of the masculine plural and in words that are related to something that surrounds us or that are related to human activity, eg. (οίνος-wine, οίκος-house, οίδα-I know, ο οποίος-which, (here "o" means the circle in which we act). "Ει" is a long "ee" and combines "ε" and "ι" because "ε" has a close phonetic relationship with "ι-ee". The "Ο-o" and the "Ω-ω" differ for the same reasons. The omega is a long o (oo), it always enters the endings of the verbs and the endings of the plural of all things or gernes e.g. (των ανθρώπων-of men, των παιδιών- of the children, των πόλεων-of the cities, των σκύλων-of the dogs, etc). The "ο=circle" in everything that bothers us and is related to property, energy, etc. (κόσμος-cosmos-world, πόλεμος-polemos-war, τόπος-topos-place, δρόμος-thromos-road, έξοδος-exodos-exit and so much more). In closing, I will repeat that every letter and especially the many "ee" have to do with the root of each word, so that we can understand what we are talking about to the one who reads us.
Hello, dear Marialena! My only interest in the Greek alphabet and language is based on my desire to read the texts of the Greek writings of the Bible. In your video, you bring out the "modern pronunciation" of some alphabets. That's why I have a question for you: How were these alphabets pronounced 2000 years ago? At that time, did the Greek language also have other alphabets than the current ones?
Clearly NO. Especially the meanings of the words, our church keeps the traditional pronunciation for 2000 years. Thus, we know that the ancient Greek language is almost the same to modern and if you know modern Greek, you can understand the ancient texts with a little effort and a dictionary.
I’m English and I’m trying to learn some Greek, but I really struggle with gamma and rho. I hear the W, R, G and Y sound, depending on who is saying it, and what word they are saying! And as for rolling my Rs..... well where do I start? It’s just impossible.
I'm really confused with the letter Δ,δ. Many people say it's the same with letter D in Latin, you pronounce it like "th" in the word there and when I try text to speech in translate, the female voice pronounce it like "v" like the v in the word venomous.
okay; that cleared that up. like socrates once said, 'im back to square -5'. not really i blame those uncontientious romans for interpreting greek letters and ideas superficially
Castilian Spanish has many of the same sounds! Alpha = A Beta = non-word-initial B or V Gamma = non-word-initial G, consonant Y, LL (yeismo only), N Delta = non-word-initial D Epsilon = E Zeta = (no equivalent, Spanish has no /z/ sound) Eta = I, vowel Y Theta = soft C, Z (distincion and ceceo only) Iota = I, vowel Y Kappa = C, K, QU, word-initial G Lambda = L, LL (lleismo only) Mu = M Nu = N, Ñ Xi = X Omicron = O Pi = P, word-initial B or V Rho = non-word-initial single R (tapped R) Sigma = S, soft C, Z (seseo only) Tau = T, word-initial D Upsilon = I, vowel Y Phi = F Chi = soft G, J Psi = PS Omega = O
It's nice to see a distinction between delta and theta, like eth and thorn (ð, đ) in old english. Also it's kind of fascinating that y becomes i in practically every country south of germany. instead of ü.
When did these modern pronunciations develop? How long have these been the most fashionable ways to speak these letters? I presume the vulgarisation of Greek has been a very long process, and this won't be how it sounded 500 years ago.
Such a shame the Greek alphabet doesn’t correspond with modern phonetics of modern Latin alphabet. She explained it all beautifully though. Growing up on the west coast of Turkey I used to watch a lot of Greek television as a child in 70s. Politics and history aside we have great fondness to and similarities with our Greek neighbours. Wouldn’t it be great if two countries were allies politically and just got in really well? So upsetting 😢 hopefully one day we will achieve that. Greetings to all our Greek neighbours 🇬🇷 ❤🇹🇷
I feel so bad, we non-Greeks like to use your letters and words quite often especially in the field of science and yet we botch the pronunciation. I wonder how you Greeks pronounce the words "photography" and "gymnastics" for example considering that they have their origins from the Greek words φῶς (phōs), and γραφή (graphé) for "photography" and γυμνός (gymnós) for the "gym" part of "gymnastics".
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How would one pronounce ΧΞϚ´ ?
I think X in Greek is a voiceless gamma. I think that's a acronym not a actual word.
Beta must be V
Gamma must be the voiced version of the CH sound on Loch and Bach
Delta must be a voiced TH
Theta must be a voiceless TH
Rho despite looking like a P is a R
And Upsilon must be I and so does H in Greek.
I am a scientist who uses the Greek alphabet a lot. Clearly most of the pronunciations of Greek letters used in western science education has no resemblance to Modern Greek. Thank you very much for the lesson and I’m happy to subscribe and follow your lessons.
Thank you for your encouraging comment!
Part of my girlfriend's family is Greek and I really want to learn at least a bit to impress them. This is going to be harder than I thought, but I want to keep learning. Thank you for helping us beginners!
If English speakers are confused about the differences in the pronunciation between Delta and Theta, consider the difference between the English pronunciations at the beginning of the words "think" and "this". They are totally not interchangeable.
However I had always thought Delta in Greek is more like the fricative D in Spanish as in the "nada".
Excellent! I’m Greek-American and have so many pronunciation issues with modern Greek. You do a great job of explaining. If I have just one suggestion, please provide the translation for the examples so that we can learn the vocabulary as well.
Thanks for the feedback Andrew!
Agreeeeed
A lot of fun to watch and learn with your videos. You convinced me to start learning Greek. Thank you!~ Subscribed.
Thank you so much ^^
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@@helinika hi
Thank you for teaching us,
Merci beaucoup pour cette intéressante leçon sur la prononciation des lettres grec.vous êtes formidable.
Mu Nu xi omicron pi rho sigma tau upsilon phi chi psi omega The end
Mu Nu xi omicron pi rho sigma tau upsilon phi chi psi omega The end
Actually only Germans in the middle and south of Germany have difficulties pronouncing r, in Bavaria we actually also roll the r :)
Swedes too
Bavaria is not south?
Thank you. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I have family living in Cyprus and have noticed similarities between Greek and Spanish pronunciation, for example beta (v) and delta (soft th). I was just never sure how much is Cypriot dialect and if it’s the same as in Greece. I lived in Cyprus myself during the 60s and have noticed that some pronunciations have changed over the years, for example kai, which I always learned was ke, but have often heard my nieces and nephews pronounce it like dshe or je.
Happy to hear that!
The dje/tse pronunciation for "και" is indeed a dialect (you hear it mostly in Creta and Cyprus)
@@helinika I thought as much. Thank you for verifying 🤔😊
Είμαι Αμερικανίδα 13 χρονών που μιλάει άπταιστα ελληνικά.. Φοβερή δουλειά!
Mu
Mu
Mu
Καλά
Looks like Γγ was actually pronounced 4 different ways in the 3 different sample words depending on the next letter or letter combination.
Very helpful lesson!
😊
thank you for this lovely little video :D
I'm Danish, but have taken an interest in understanding the sounds of the greek alphabet as part of a little project I'm working on. Your video was very helpful.
It is exciting to learn something new and have a door cracked open to an alphabet that used to be, well, total Greek to me, huehueh.
Great to hear that! :)
Gamma has definitely been the hardest for me to get the hang of the pronunciation. It’s also hard to tell when it’s a soft g, when it’s pronounced like a y, and when it’s a hard g or even an n or ng sometimes. So many different sounds for one letter. Η/η also gets me because I always want to pronounce it like an H or an n
I'm still not understanding why they say gamma is sometimes pronounced as a 'wh'. I don't hear that at all
I suspect it's pronounced as y when it's the first letter and is followed by i or e, e.g. the names Γιάννης and Γεώργιος, pronounced Yannis and Yeor(g)ios.
In other cases gamma is pronounced like a voiced H, or something between h and g. This can be heard clearly in the video. And to get the proper g sound, they use double gamma (yy) or gamma-kappa (yk).
Hi, the difference between δ and theta is still not clear for me Can you help?
@@PatrickSmits delta sounds like th in this, and theta - like th in path
I I think Delta is pronounced with Vocal chord and theta without Vocal chord( just tongue against upper teeth .) Is that wright?🤔😊
A great lesson and it helped me a lot
Χαίρομαι! Glad to hear that ^^
As I've been learning russian, the hard parts for me are the ones that look like cyrillic like epsilon which sounds like "oo" as in moon
Σας ευχαριστώ! Είσαι όμορφος ~ ☺️
Ooo polska widzę 🥴
@@zapatrzenieuwu5171 owszem xd
*όμορφη
Iota pi phi beta sigma alpha alpha phi beta sigma tau kappa sigma tau phi beta sigma tau alpha alpha kappa phi chi psi psi omega sigma tau kappa alpha phi chi alpha alpha kappa phi gamma alpha
preparing for my first greek lesson with you right now. thank you
Καλή αρχή! :)
I have never heard of a distinction between the "ee" sounds how to recognize there place in spelling that is awesome
Fun fact: the letter Y comes from the greek letter ypsilon that is why in romanian, french and i think other romanic languages it is called "igrec" which means greek I
In Italian we say either ipsilon or i greca/greco
Yeah that was confusing for me, thank u for make it clear ☺️
Thank you, very kind of you.
excellent video. thank you very much.
Many people think that the Greeks wanted to be tortured and so they put five different "ee" in the alphabet.
So this question is an opportunity to clarify a few things about the Greek language, the alphabet and the
many ... "ee's".
The Greek language was created and codified over thousands of years of observing nature and human activity
and slowly each word gives the exact meaning of the object or ideal (the signifier is related to what is
pointed out and not random words that will be called everything). This development, when it came time to
move on to the written record - and after the first attempts at representations, followed the rules of spoken
language. Thus were discovered the forms of letters that could reproduce everything around us in the best
possible way. No letter is random and of course none comes from a different language. How could that be?
When we open our mouths, we hear A (the letter shows above, the man looks up). B(Vita), as one can easily see,
represents the blast, the sound of B(V)-orrea=north wind > BBBB (VVVV), so the North (cold wind) is written with B(Vita). The exact same rule applies to all letters, but that's not the point here.
The reason for the participation of more than one letter with the same phonetics was the need to illustrate
various forms of things, which were not distinguished by oral speech. E.g. "Υδρία-(H)YDRIA - Υγρόν-(H)YGRON
- Κύλιξ-KYLIX" etc.
These words could not be better defined than with the "Y-υ" scheme, showing a cavity (water accumulates in
cavities).
It is difficult and complicated to explain the existence of "H-n". Plato says that they used it for the
grandeur of words, but that was not all. "H" is two "I's" joined together (I-I), which means a heavier
and more emphatic pronunciation of ee, for serious things (Ήλιος-Eelios -Sun - Ήθος-eethos-Moral - Ήρα-Eera -Hera - Ηφαίστιο-eefestio-Volcano) etc.
"I-i" says Plato in Kratylos, is used to express the "thin (Ιστίο-tissue) - thin - weak or for intelligence
(Ιδέα-Ιdea, which passes like an arrow from the mind).
The double "ει" and "οι" were created to represent the long "ee" that existed in the spoken language and
acquired spelling rules that we cannot analyze here. "οι" is always used in the suffixes of the masculine
plural and in words that are related to something that surrounds us or that are related to human activity,
eg. (οίνος-wine, οίκος-house, οίδα-I know, ο οποίος-which, (here "o" means the circle in which we act).
"Ει" is a long "ee" and combines "ε" and "ι" because "ε" has a close phonetic relationship with "ι-ee".
The "Ο-o" and the "Ω-ω" differ for the same reasons. The omega is a long o (oo), it always enters the endings
of the verbs and the endings of the plural of all things or gernes e.g. (των ανθρώπων-of men, των παιδιών-
of the children, των πόλεων-of the cities, των σκύλων-of the dogs, etc).
The "ο=circle" in everything that bothers us and is related to property, energy, etc. (κόσμος-cosmos-world,
πόλεμος-polemos-war, τόπος-topos-place, δρόμος-thromos-road, έξοδος-exodos-exit and so much more).
In closing, I will repeat that every letter and especially the many "ee" have to do with the root of each
word, so that we can understand what we are talking about to the one who reads us.
Good Explanation
Thanks your words very helpful and your teaching skills are very nice. love From Pakistan
How do you pronounce the goddess "Cybele"? Does it sound phonetically like KEY-VAY-LEE?
Keevelee stress at the middle e (Κυβέλη / Keevέlee)
Hello, dear Marialena! My only interest in the Greek alphabet and language is based on my desire to read the texts of the Greek writings of the Bible. In your video, you bring out the "modern pronunciation" of some alphabets. That's why I have a question for you: How were these alphabets pronounced 2000 years ago? At that time, did the Greek language also have other alphabets than the current ones?
Clearly NO. Especially the meanings of the words, our church keeps the traditional pronunciation for 2000 years. Thus, we know that the ancient Greek language is almost the same to modern and if you know modern Greek, you can understand the ancient texts with a little effort and a dictionary.
@@ΑπόλλωνΘηρευτής How about these 7 letters:
Ϝ ϝ digamma
Ϛ ϛ stigma
Ͱ ͱ heeta
Ϻ ϻ san
Ϙ Ϟ ϙ ϟ koppa
Ͳ Ϡ ͳ ϡ sampii
Ϸ ϸ shoo
@@ΑπόλλωνΘηρευτής "Especially the meanings of the words, our church keeps the traditional pronunciation for 2000 years."
What is "our church"?
Thanks
Very helpful!
Basileia (or) Vasileis .. which one is right
Keep up the good work!
So how do you pronounce the Bee 🐝 sound? Or you don't have it in your language?
Thank you
P definitely confuses me with the p sound. I see the P and immediately think it is 'pa'.
I’m English and I’m trying to learn some Greek, but I really struggle with gamma and rho. I hear the W, R, G and Y sound, depending on who is saying it, and what word they are saying! And as for rolling my Rs..... well where do I start? It’s just impossible.
It's not impossible! My English pronunciation is also not like the one of a native speaker. Don't give up :)
you are an amazing teacher : )
So δ is the long "th" sound and θ is the shorter one? For the English word comparison, it does sound shorter.
Δ-δ as in "th-e" and Θ-θ as in th-under
Calculus brought me here
Blessings to you! 😊😊😊
As someone invested in mathematics - I now sometimes take a light joke out of how bad the American English pronunciation of variable symbols can be.
I think I've got it now: δ you use vocal chord (φωνητική χορδή te and θ with tongue and teeth.
I'm really confused with the letter Δ,δ. Many people say it's the same with letter D in Latin, you pronounce it like "th" in the word there and when I try text to speech in translate, the female voice pronounce it like "v" like the v in the word venomous.
I can assure you it is pronounced as "th".
Please, do you have a video pronouncing the anciant greek alphabet?
Best regards.
Hi Paulo! I don't have a video on the ancient Greek alphabet. However, in Greece, we pronounce ancient Greek the same way we pronounce modern Greek :)
7:47 "don't want to confuse you in van further" IN VAN...???
I only had to learn the 3rd letter. All the others was very easy because I am not English!!
I am studying koine (New Testament) Greek. I have been taught other sounds.
I need it for the math.
Is Molon Labe pronounced labe in ancient Greek?
Idk but in modern greek its lave
okay; that cleared that up.
like socrates once said, 'im back to square -5'. not really
i blame those uncontientious romans for interpreting greek letters and ideas superficially
Don't worry, it's just the oronunciation that needs to be readjusted
Interestingly, the "confusion" between B and V appears also in other languages like Hebrew. I think it's called betacism.
Spanish too
Castilian Spanish has many of the same sounds!
Alpha = A
Beta = non-word-initial B or V
Gamma = non-word-initial G, consonant Y, LL (yeismo only), N
Delta = non-word-initial D
Epsilon = E
Zeta = (no equivalent, Spanish has no /z/ sound)
Eta = I, vowel Y
Theta = soft C, Z (distincion and ceceo only)
Iota = I, vowel Y
Kappa = C, K, QU, word-initial G
Lambda = L, LL (lleismo only)
Mu = M
Nu = N, Ñ
Xi = X
Omicron = O
Pi = P, word-initial B or V
Rho = non-word-initial single R (tapped R)
Sigma = S, soft C, Z (seseo only)
Tau = T, word-initial D
Upsilon = I, vowel Y
Phi = F
Chi = soft G, J
Psi = PS
Omega = O
A more phonetic transcription:
Α /a/
Β /v/
Γ [ɣ] / [ʝ]
Δ /ð/
Ε /e/
Ζ /z/
Η /i/
Θ /θ/
Ι /i/
Κ /k/
Λ /l/
Μ /m/
Ν /n/
Ξ /ks/
Ο /o/
Π /p/
Ρ /ɾ/
Σ /s/
Τ /t/
Υ /i/
Φ /f/
Χ [x] / [ç]
Ψ /ps/
Ω /o/
It's nice to see a distinction between delta and theta, like eth and thorn (ð, đ) in old english.
Also it's kind of fascinating that y becomes i in practically every country south of germany. instead of ü.
When did these modern pronunciations develop? How long have these been the most fashionable ways to speak these letters? I presume the vulgarisation of Greek has been a very long process, and this won't be how it sounded 500 years ago.
Come and teach us our language and traditions with your barbaric herasmian pronunciation.
@@ΑπόλλωνΘηρευτής barbarians can't be taught 😘
@@ΑπόλλωνΘηρευτής and tell me, true Greek, why are you not watching the Olympic Closing Ceremony right now ? 😆
Such a shame the Greek alphabet doesn’t correspond with modern phonetics of modern Latin alphabet. She explained it all beautifully though. Growing up on the west coast of Turkey I used to watch a lot of Greek television as a child in 70s. Politics and history aside we have great fondness to and similarities with our Greek neighbours. Wouldn’t it be great if two countries were allies politically and just got in really well? So upsetting 😢 hopefully one day we will achieve that. Greetings to all our Greek neighbours 🇬🇷 ❤🇹🇷
🤍
I feel so bad, we non-Greeks like to use your letters and words quite often especially in the field of science and yet we botch the pronunciation.
I wonder how you Greeks pronounce the words "photography" and "gymnastics" for example considering that they have their origins from the Greek words φῶς (phōs), and γραφή (graphé) for "photography" and γυμνός (gymnós) for the "gym" part of "gymnastics".
The most letter l have a problem with is Psi Ψ ! l find it very difficult !
👌
Gamma g is like gargling water
I'm Brazilian, but I can't correctly pronounce the letter gamma
Γαία (earth) is pronounced like "yeah"
Γυναίκα - γυν -》 pronounced just like yin from yin and yang
Hope this helps :)
@@helinika thanks a lot!
❤
This Greek letter η is pronounced like a i
So Pythagoras is Peetagoras, not Paytagoras. Thats what I thought.
It is Peethaghoras, "th" like in "think" and "gh" is the gamma explained in the video.
Memorising Schrodinger's equation is just a piece of cake for greeks. 🐈
Schrööööööödinger 😑
@@Der.Kleine.General 🤣🤣 sorry, Schrödinger
I know I have 7.5% Greek DNA...but this is all Greek to me! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤔🤔🤔🙄🙄🙄
Are you sure you don't have 7 Dwarfs?😀
Sei Efharisto polli
Ατμοσφαιρα λικε δε ουορλδ καλλεδ ατμοσφερ κομε φρομ δε γρηέικ ουορλδ καλλεδ ατμόσφαιρα
All I know about Greek was the line “This is Sparta!!!” Yelled by a Scottish actor before kicking a black guy into a pit.
Σ’ ευχαριστώ!