Greek > alphabet > accents, diacritic marks

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DIACRITIC
MARKS

INTRODUCTION
Hellenistic Diacritics
multiaccented polytonic system

STRESS: Okseia-Vareia Perispomene

BREATHING: Daseia    Psile

Modern Diacritic Marks:
monotonic system

Stress: just the mark ' over the vowel that is louder. At binary vowels, it is placed on the second. Monosyllabic words are not stressed at all (except to distinguish identical ones).
Dialytics (Umlaut) BINARY VOWELS PRONOUNCED SEPARATELY. The dialytics are placed over the second vowel. From the word: διαλύω dia-lyo = un-tie, dis-solve.


introduction on diacritics of greek script
The story of diacritic marks in greek script is long:
1.1.The ancient greek pronunciation was not a stress system (louder or softer syllables). Prosody was: (longer or shorter duration of syllables, different intonation). This musical, rhythmical pitch kept changing from place to place, from century to century.
1.2. The ancient greek script included no diacritics, no accents, no spaces. It would look like this: quasi ancient greek script See types of ancient greek alphabets.
2. Hellenistic times: prosody has already ceased, stress prevails: one syllable became louder than others. Small letters were developed and the alexandrine scholars introduced a series a diacritical marks which facilitated their philological work, reminiscences of the already lost ancient prosody.
This script (called polytonic) was used in greek script until...
3. 1982 c.e: the multi-diacritic hellenistic script is simplified to a one-stress system. It is called monotonic. Philologists still need to refer to the polytonic system for old editions of ancient greek texts.
 
The diacritics are placed over a small letter or before a capital letter. See details for hellenistic and modern style.
HELLENISTIC DIACRITIC MARKS
polytonic (multiaccented) system

(since 1982 the monotonic system is official)
click glyphs &#...; for GREEK EXTENDED FONT-CODES. See various diacritics of the polytonic greek system.
STRESS DIACRITIC MARKS: (tones)
τόνoς [`tonos] (tone) plural:τόνoι [`toni]
help: GREEK ALPHABET    i.p.a. for greek
S
T
R
E
S
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symbol and name
position
/
oξεία
[o`ksia]
okseia
DESCRIPTION It looks like leftward-stroke / and the acute accent (the french «accent aigu»).

PRONUNCIATION: louder syllable. Before prosody was lost it would have been pronounced in an acute way as carrying the voice further ahead, up.
POSITION OF DIACRITIC: over a lowercase vowel. Combined with aspiration marks, it is placed after the aspiration mark. In diphthongs, it is placed over the second vowel-component.
GRAMMATICAL USE: The choice between okseia and perispomene was based on many complicated grammatical and phonological laws. The choice between okseia and vareia is: we use vareia instead of okseia only on the last syllable of a word when there is no punctuation after it. Frankly, I have never used vareia in my writing.
NAME: gre.article+n.f. scr.poly: ἡ ὀξεῖα scr.mono: η oξεία mod.gre: [i o`ksia].
ETYMOLOGY: from gre.adj.f. = ἡ ὀξεῖα mod.gre: [i o`ksia] = high, acute attributed to noun.f. scr.poly: πρoσῳδία [proso`δia] = prosody
scr.mono: η oξεία πρoσωδία
Also called (masc:) oξύς τόνoς [o`ksis `tonos] = acute tone
TODAY: it is practically the only diacritical mark that survived after the law of 1982 for the monotonic writing of greek. The direction of its shape does not matter any more: it can be straight-vertical, or a dot, you may write it as you please.

\
 
e.g. ὰ
βαρεία
[va`ria]
vareia
DESCRIPTION It looks like right-stroke / and the french «accent grave».

PRONUNCIATION: Louder syllable. Presumably it had to do with the general tone of voice (giving the impression of non-ending phrase). The nuance was so subtle, that only philologists insisted on using it during modern times (while okseia and perispomene were of standard use till 1982).
POSITION OF DIACRITIC: over a lowercase vowel. Combined with aspiration marks, it is placed after the aspiration mark. In diphthongs, it is placed over the second vowel-component.
GRAMMATICAL USE: The choice between okseia and vareia is: we use vareia instead of okseia only on the last syllable of a word when there is no punctuation after it. Frankly, I have never used vareia in my writing.
NAME: gre.article+n.f. scr.poly: ἡ βαρεῖα scr.mono: η βαρεία mod.gre: [i va`ria].
ETYMOLOGY: from gre.adj.f. = ἡ βαρεῖα mod.gre: [i va`ria] = high, acute attributed to noun.f. scr.poly: πρoσῳδία [proso`δia] = prosody
scr.mono: η βαρεία πρoσωδία
Also called (masc:) βαρύς τόνoς [va`ris `tonos] = heavy tone
TODAY It is not used in modern greek.

~
 
e.g. ᾱ or α̃ or
περισπωμένη
[perispo`meni]
perispomene
DESCRIPTION A bit like «accent circonflexe». Its shape varies. I like the wavy shape ~.

PRONUNCIATION: Louder syllable. From its name, it is supposed to represent an up-and-down intonation.
GRAMMATICAL USE: on a lower-case vowel. Perispomene was NEVER placed over the short vowels o and ε. It could be placed on all other vowels (or binary digrammatic vowels) when their grammatical value in context was long. The choice between okseia and perispomene was based on many grammatical and phonological laws.
POSITION OF DIACRITIC: over a lowercase vowel. Combined with aspiration marks, it is placed over the aspiration mark. In diphthongs, it is placed over the second vowel-component.
NAME: perispomene = fem.adj. Derives from verb περισπώ [peri`spo] which could be literally translated: inter-break. attributed to noun.f. scr.poly: πρoσῳδία [proso`δia] = prosody
TODAY: not in use since 1982.


BREATHING DIACRITIC MARKS

πνεύμα [`pnevma] (pneuma) plural:πνεύματα [`pnevmata]

The alexandrian scholars wanted to mark the ancient /h/ sound that occurred at the beginning of some words, which was already lost during their hellenistic times. They created the daseia mark (aspirate). Oddly, instead of leaving alone all the normal arctic (beginning) sounds, they also created the opposite sign: psile, which indicated the abscence of any sound.
The breathing marks were placed over a small letter or before a capital one. When both stress and breathing diacritics co-occur, we place the breathing first followed by okseia or vareia. Perispomene is placed over the breathing mark.
SHAPE: Initially the /h/ sound was represented by Eta H. Afterwards, when Eta was used for the long e [ε:], the gradual distortion of the H shape gave the breathing marks. Here is how it changed, seen at the example as a breathing mark over alpha:

Htransformation of eta to breathing mark
B
R
E
T
H
I
N
G


δασεία
[δa`sia]
daseia

latin name: spiritus asper
SOUND: Ancient, /h/ aspiration at the beginning of a word. It was not pronounced in greek since ancient times, but it is still pronounced in erasmic pronunciation and it is preserved in transliterations of greek words to some european languages. e.g.
scr.poly: ἱστoρία erasmic: [histo`ria] but monotonic ιστoρία mod.gre: [isto`ria]
english history, (french) histoire, etc.
NAME: adj.masc. δασύς = dense, fem.scr.poly: δασεῖα attributed to noun.f. scr.poly: πρoσῳδία [proso`δia] = prosody.
The correct name though, would have been neutral: τo δασύ πνεύμα
OCCURRED: On some arctic vowels, always on Y upsilon arctic. Did I say 'vowels'? Here is an exception: always on Rho arctic (although this is a consonant).
WEIRD RULE: when two Rho occurred within a word, the first would get a psile and the second a daseia. I did not remember that, until I found a letter, written by my grandfather, Odysseus Sarris, who was born c.1896. He signed our family name: Σαῤῥῆς.


ψιλή
[psi`li]
psile

latin name: spiritus lenis
It indicated the absence of any breathing distortion. (no pronunciation impact at all). The alexandrian scholars needed not design it at all.
NAME adj.masc: ψιλός = thin, fine. Fem: ψιλή attributed again to noun.f. scr.poly: πρoσῳδία [proso`δia] = prosody.
The correct name though, would have been neutral: τo ψιλόν πνεύμα


MODERN GREEK DIACRITIC MARKS
STRESS MARK

All you have read above, all this complicated polytonic system with its little marks and gadgets is obsolete now. In 1982 a law was passed to abolish polytonic (multiaccented) spelling which had no pronunciation impact for centuries and centuries. Of the hellenistic accents only one stress mark remained at the strongest syllable, so now we have a monotonic script.
The stress mark is placed over small letters and before Capital letters. We call it TONOΣ τόνoς [`tonos] (tone). A stress may be placed only on a vowel. Monosyllabic words do not need a stress at all (there are a few exceptions in the case of identical spelling of two different words. e.g. «η» = (fem. article) «ή» = or).
In the case of BINARY VOWEL COMBINATIONS, the stress is placed on the second vowel. If placed on the first, then the digramme is split to its components and each letter is pronounced separately in a diphthong: αι [e] αί [e] άι [`ai]. If needing a split in the first two cases, we use the dialytics (umlaut) αϊ [ai], αΐ [a`i].

DIALYTICS

From the word: διαλύω dia-lyo= un-tie, dis-solve.
At BINARY VOWEL COMBINATIONS the dialytics are placed over the second vowel digrammes with I or digrammes with Y. The dialytics may be accompanied by a stress marking too.
αϊ [ai], αΐ [a`i].

examples of greek diacritics
AI αι or with stress on second component αί = [e]
But άι αϊ αΐ = [ai] or [ai]
EI ει or with stress on second component εί = [i]
But έι εϊ εΐ = [ei] or [ei]
OI oι or with stress on second component = [i]
But όι = [oi] or [oi]
AY αυ or with stress on second component αύ = [af] or [av]
But άυ αϋ αΰ = /ai/
EY ευ or with stress on second component εύ = [ef] or [ev]
But έυ εϋ εΰ = /ei/
OY oυ or with stress on second component = [u]
But όυ = /oi/

lunar sigma lunate sigma perispomeni oksia varia dasia psili