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Χαίρετε! I'm not sure when I'll release this publicly (maybe this week), but for now I thought it could be useful if you're starting to learn Ancient Greek. Enjoy!

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How to write Greek letters | Tutorial in Ancient Greek! | Πῶς γράφεται τὰ Ἑλληνικὰ γράμματα

In this tutorial, taught in Ancient Greek spoken in the Classical Attic Pronunciation, I show you how to write all 24 letters of the Greek alphabet, including their ancient names (which occasionally differ a lot from their modern names), along with some tips for pronunciation. If you're new to Greek, don't worry if you don't understand everything I say; pay attention to how the letters are written, and and learn the letters' names in alphabetical order. If you're interested in taking one of my classes, you'll find them listed here: https://lukeranieri.com/classes/ 🇬🇷 Γεια σε όλους τους Έλληνες φίλους μου! Η προφορά των αρχαίων ελληνικών διαφέρει σημαντικά από αυτήν των νέων ελληνικών, ειδικά από αυτήν των κλασικών αττικών. Να θυμάστε: αυτό που ακούτε σε αυτό το βίντεο *δεν* είναι η «Ερασμική» προφορά (η οποία δεν είναι ο ήχος των αρχαίων ελληνικών, αλλά είναι μια σύμβαση που χρησιμοποιείται στις δυτικοευρωπαϊκές χώρες), είναι η κλασική αττική προφορά. Μάθετε την κλασική αττική προφορά των αρχαίων ελληνικών σε αυτό το βιβλίο, γραμμένο στα νέα ελληνικά: https://ins.web.auth.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=690:vox-graeca-the-pronunciation-of-classical-greek&catid=93&Itemid=270&lang=en 🦂 Support my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LukeRanieri 📚 Luke Ranieri Audiobooks: https://luke-ranieri.myshopify.com 🤠 Take my course LATIN UNCOVERED on StoryLearning, including my original Latin adventure novella "Vir Petasātus" https://learn.storylearning.com/lu-promo?affiliate_id=3932873 🦂 Sign up for my Latin Pronunciation & Conversation series on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/54058196 🏛 Ancient Greek in Action · Free Greek Lessons: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU1WuLg45SixsonRdfNNv-CPNq8xUwgam ☕️ Support my work with PayPal: https://paypal.me/lukeranieri 📚 Luke Ranieri Audiobooks: https://luke-ranieri.myshopify.com Join the channel to support it: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRllohBcHec7YUgW6HfltLA/join 🌅 ScorpioMartianus apud Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lukeranieri/ 🦁 Legio XIII Latin Language Podcast: https://youtube.com/LegioXIII 🎙 Hundres of hours of Latin & Greek audio: https://lukeranieri.com/audio 👕 Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/scorpiomartianus 🦂 https://www.ScorpioMartianus.com 🦅 https://www.LukeRanieri.com

Comments

Scott Freeman

Ἄριστα! Ἡμῖν τοῖς ἀρχομένοις δεῖ ἁπλῶν λόγῶν καὶ πολλῆς ἀναλήψεως.

Scott Freeman

Χρήσιμος δ’ ἂν εἴη καὶ κατάλογος πολλάκις φαινομένων λόγων.

Jacob Wilson

Χρήστατα! Ἐυχαριστῶ! I do have one (minor) constructive criticism. When you were illustrating the differences in pronunciation of the plosives, you often had nasal introduction to the voiced consonant. At 14:49 you do this with Ββ but you also did it with Δδ and Γγ. I wouldn't critique this except for the fact that you are specifically trying to demonstrate the pronunciation. If you can't tell this is a little bit of a pet peeve of mine. I go to the Traditional Latin Mass and I'm so used to hearing the priest chant "nnnnnnDominus vobiscum"!!!

Jacob Wilson

Sorry that was delta at 14:49!

Luke Amadeus Ranieri

Right! That was quitedeliberate, because this is exactly what's happening in the real phonology of the Attic plosives, but slowed down (and thus exaggerated). The phenomenon at work is called Voice Onset Time (VOT). https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Ffigure%2FTypes-of-voice-onset-time-VOT_fig1_317958353&psig=AOvVaw25lHy5DhRUATtq2v0lUSIi&ust=1749691274427000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBcQjhxqFwoTCNizk4ua6I0DFQAAAAAdAAAAABAT https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236159022_A_historical_study_of_Voice_Onset_Time_in_Received_Pronunciation/figures?lo=1 What we think of as "aspiration" and "voice" are really just when the vocal chords engage. Let's take the labials (β π φ). In the Positive Voice Onset Time labial stop, +VOT, the lips open, air starts to pass from the lungs through the vocal tract, without the vocal chords engaged, for several milliseconds, until the vocal chords finally do engage. Because the /h/ sound is nothing more than rough noise of air passing unarticulated through the glottis, we perceive positive voice onset time as "aspiration," hence φ [pʰ]. In Zero Voice Onset Time, 0VOT, the lips open at the exact same time as the vocal chords engage, giving us π [p]. In Negative Voice Onset Time, -VOT, the vocal chords are already vibrating *before* the lips open, giving us the pre-voiced bilabial stop β [b]. In English, as a rule we reduce the prevoicing of initial voice stops like /b/ until they sound like [p], such as "bin," phonemically /bɪn/, but phonetically [pɪn] at the beginning of a phrase. This is contrasted with initial English voiceless stops, which are aspirated, such as "pin" /pin/ which must sound like [pʰɪn]. Thus, while very unusual for English, prevoicing voiced initial stops (which is the definition of a voiced stop) is mandatory for languages like Italian, Spanish, French, Modern Greek, Latin, Ancient Greek, and many others. So, what is this prevoicing? It is placing the speech producing elements of the stop in the position of articulation — the lips closed, not yet open — and exhaling with the vocal chords engaged. But if the lips are closed, where does the air escape? Through the nose. This is also called a nasal consonant sound. That's what you're hearing, and your hearing correctly: all true voiced initial stops must have a brief 'n' or 'm' sound in front of them. When not exaggerated, it only lasts a few milliseconds, and is not perceived as a true nasal consonant. The exaggeration was necessary to help English speakers understand what they have to do through listening alone. Thus, if you are hearing "nnnDominus" in mass, that's great! That's *correct*, for without the prevoicing, then "Dominus" becomes [tominus] ! This is how virtually every English (and German) speaker renders this word — that is to say, incorrectly. (Me too, for many years!) Thanks for the question, as this is very important for everyone studying not only Ancient Greek and Latin, but Italian, French, Spanish, Modern Greek, and more.

Scott Freeman

Δεῖ ἁπλῶν λόγῶν ὡς ἐνταῦθα!

Jacob Wilson

This is wonderful. Thank you. It's something I've noticed mainly in singing--as you say it's more prominent in exaggerated speech, so that makes perfect sense. But I will watch out for it now when I'm listening to spoken Spanish. I just did a makeshift test with myself and tried to say, "Bob's going home" as naturally and relaxed as possible in isolation. The initial consonant came out as [p]. Wow, mind blowing. Thank you for the detailed response. I'd heard the term "onset" before in phonetics, but hadn't really processed it, or maybe I just hadn't specially been informed about voice onset time.

Luke Amadeus Ranieri

That's great if you can already hear the [p]! I couldn't. I needed to record myself in Audacity to actually see the sound waves. Now *that's* mind blowing! I'm going to be making a video about this later in the summer.

Scott Freeman

OK then I guess that didn’t work! The essence: A list of some of some of the often used words in the video would (of course!) also be useful. A simple transcript would be just as useful, but perhaps not so easy to generate automatically. All just “nice to have” stuff.

Luke Amadeus Ranieri

Ἆ! μανθάνω. Ἴσως δ’ οὕτως γραπτέον: "Χρήσιμόν τι ἂν εἴη, εἰ σοὶ δοκεῖ, σκευάσαι ἡμῖν κατάλογον ἐν ὧι γράψηις ἂν τὰ̄ς λέξεις ἃ̄ς πλειστάκις ἐν τῆι ταινίᾱι εἴρηκας." Ἴσως κἂ̄ν σοὶ χρήσομαι συμβούλωι! Χάριν σοι ἔχω.

Maria-Elena Pickett

Funny, I thought this video was intended for beginners, but all the comments seem to me fairly advanced! As I am a true beginner, I just want to say thank you!

Luke Amadeus Ranieri

Thanks, Marina-Elena! You’re right, it’s definitely intended for beginners. I’m glad though it’s interesting for more advanced learners too.