Introductory Ancient Greek Language/Lesson 2

Breathing Marks Explained

Every Greek word that begins with a vowel (α,ε,η,ι,ο,υ, and ω) will have something called a breathing mark. These look like apostrophes and can be either rough or smooth.

Rough Breathings

If the breathing is rough then it is an apostrophe curved in the opposite direction (ἑ,ἁ,ἡ, etc...) If a breathing is rough then the word is pronounced as if there were an /h/ in front of it. Thus, the Greek word for 'sleep' ὕπνος will be pronounced as [hupnos].

Smooth Breathings

If the breathing mark is smooth (ἀ,ἐ,ὀ, etc...) then it is shaped exactly like an apostrophe and comes either slightly before the vowel or directly above. Smooth breathing marks simply mean there is no /h/ pronounciation.

Exception

These are present only when vowels are the first letter of the word except in the case of the letter rho (ρ). If rho is the first letter of the word then it always has a rough breathing mark. This is why most English derived words such as rhinoceros, rheumatism, and rhododendron have the /rh/ in front.

Accent Marks

You may notice the second mark after the breathing mark in the word ὕπνος. They are imporant for distinguishing the difference between words. There are three different typs of accents in ancient greek. The acute, the circumflex, and the agrave. Ancient Greek was originally a tonal language - this meant that the pitch of a word made a difference to its meaning. The acute accent used to indicate a higher pitch, the agrave a lower pitch, and the circumflex a hidher then immediately lower pitch. later they simply indicated on which syllable the emphasis landed.

There are various rules concerning where an accent mark will fall:

Acute:

• It can be placed on both long and short vowels on any of the final three syllables.
• If the last syllable is long, it can only be placed on the final two syllables.
• If the penult is long and the ultima is short, it cannot go on the penult.

Circumflex:

• It can only be placed on long vowels.
• It can only be placed on the last two syllables.
• It can only go on the penult if the ultima is short.

Agrave:

• Only ever exists when replacing an acute accent on the ultima when another word follows immediately without any intervening punctuation.

Antepenult= third last syllable of a word

Penult = second last syllable of a word

Ultima = last syllable of a word

NB: accents on words DO change to obey these rules, eg. ἄνθρωπος becomes ἀνθρώπου when it goes from nominative to genitive, and οἶκος becomes οἴκου when it goes from nominative to genitive.