page in greek ελληνικά
A proposed system of transliteration
of greek alphabet characters to latin
for computer use
katerina sarri, athens, 2000.
PRINCIPLES:
I took under consideration the older system of transliteration in latin language (romanization), the anglicization transliterations, as well as the currently used 'greeklish' ('greenglish') transliterations used at the internet. (LINKS).
It is recommended that the latin character's shape or use resemble the greek.
Do not confuse the phonetic transcription and script transliterations. For phonetic transcription, just use I.P.A. (International Phonetic Alphabet) (greek i.p.a. and transliteration of i.p.a. for greek language for computer use).
RULES
Ignore capital letters (the system must not be 'case-sensitive').
Ignore he greek final sigma <ς> and transliterate it as normal sigma.
One greek letter must be transliterated with one, never two, latin characters.
e.g. <φ> should not be transliterated to <ph>. This is the historical romanization, applicable to texts, not computer use.
On the other hand, the double-sounded letters Ksi <Ξ> and Psi <Ψ> can be transliterated with <ks> and <ps> resptectively.
Ignore the stress-accent (the greek 'tonos'), unless it distinguishes two different utterances of a word spelt in the same way. If the accent is absolutely needed, mark it with <‑> after the vowel.
<ρίγα> = ri‑ga
<ριγά> = riga‑
Ignore greek 'dialytics' (diaeresis, Umlaut) <¨>.
GREEK CHARACTERS
capital.small
 latin transliteration
Α α
 a
Β β
 b
Γ γ
 g
Δ δ
 d
Ε ε
 e
Ζ ζ
 z
Η η
 h
Θ θ
 8
Ι ι
 i
Κ κ
 k
Λ λ
 l
Μ μ
 m
GREEK CHARACTERS
capital.small
 latin transliteration
Ν ν
 n
Ξ ξ
 ks
Ο ο
 o
Π π
 p
Ρ ρ
 r
Σ σ ς
 s
Τ τ
 t
Υ υ
 u
Φ φ
 f
Χ χ
 x
Ψ ψ
 ps
Ω ω
 w
NOTES:
The proposed system, uses one digit: <8> for theta <Θ>.
From the latin alphabet, only the characters <a.b.d.e.f.g.h.i.k.l.m.n.o.p.r.s.t.u.w.x.z.> are used.
The characters <c.j.q.v.y.> are vacant, but I did not like any of them to represent theta.
NOTE: I use the phonetic transcription with i.p.a. for my multilingual 'glossary' and this 'grammatical' transcription for my greek dictionary.