Romanization of Greek

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Romanization of Greek is the representation of Greek language texts, that are usually written in the Greek alphabet, with the Latin alphabet, or a system for doing so. There are several methods for the romanization of Greek, especially depending whether the language written with Greek letters is Ancient Greek or Modern Greek and whether a phonetic transcription or a graphemic transliteration is intended.

Contents 1 Table 2 Diacritics 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References

[edit] Table

This table lists several transcription schemes from the Greek alphabet to the Latin alphabet.

Greek	Ancient			Modern
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	ISO	BGN/ PCGN	UN/ ELOT	Greeklish[note 1]
α	a	a	A	a	a	a	a
β	b	b	B	v	v	v	b, v
γ	g	g	G	g	g, y[note 2]	g	g, y
δ	d	d	D	d	dh, d[note 3]	d	d
ε	e	e	E	e	e	e	e
ζ	z	z, (dz)	Z	z	z	z	z
η	e	ē	H	ī	i	i	h, i
θ	th	th	Q	th	th	th	th, 8
ι	i	i	I	i	i	i	i
κ	c	k	K	k	k	k	k, c
λ	l	l	L	l	l	l	l
μ	m	m	M	m	m	m	m
ν	n	n	N	n	n	n	n, v
ξ	x	x	C	x	x	x	ks, x, 3
ο	o	o	O	o	o	o	o
π	p	p	P	p	p	p	p
ρ	r, rh[note 4]	r, (rh[note 4])	R	r	r	r	r
σ	s	s	S	s	s[note 5]	s	s
τ	t	t	T	t	t	t	t
υ	y	y, (u)	U	y	i	y	y
φ	ph	ph	F	f	f	f	f, ph
χ	ch	ch	X	ch	kh	ch	ch, x, h
ψ	ps	ps	Y	ps	ps	ps	ps
ω	o	ō	W	ō	o	o	w, o

Vowel digraphs[note 6]
Greek	Ancient			Modern
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	ISO	BGN/ PCGN	UN/ ELOT	Greeklish[note 1]
αι	ae, e	ai	AI	ai	e	ai	ai, e
αυ	au	au	AU	au	av	av[note 7], af[note 8]	ay, au, af, av
ει	i	ei	EI	ei	i	ei	ei, i
ευ	eu	eu	EU	eu	ev	ev[note 7], ef[note 8]	ey, eu, ef, ev
ηυ	eu	ēu	HU	īy	iv	iv[note 7], if[note 8]	hy, hu, if, iv
οι	oe, e	oi	OI	oi	i	oi	oi, i
ου	u	ou	OU	ou	u	ou	ou, u, oy
υι	ui	ui	UI	yi	i	yi	yi, gi, i

Consonant digraphs
Greek	Ancient			Modern
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	ISO	BGN/ PCGN	UN/ ELOT	Greeklish[note 1]
γγ	ng	ng	GG	gg	ng	ng	gg, gk, ng
γξ	nx	nx	GC	gx	nx	nx	gks, gx
γκ	nc	nk	GK	gk	g[note 9], ng[note 10]	gk	gk
γχ	nch	nch	GX	gch	nkh	nch	nx, nch
μπ	mp	mp	MP	mp	b[note 9], mb[note 10]	b[note 9], mp[note 10]	mp, b, mb
ντ	nt	nt	NT	nt	d[note 9], nd[note 10]	nt	nt, d, nd

Modifiers (only classical Greek)
Greek	Ancient
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code
῾	h[note 11]	h[note 11]	(	(spiritus asper, δασεῖα)
᾿	none	none	)	(spiritus lenis, ψιλή)
ͺ	i?	i?	|	(iota subscript, ὑπογεγραμμένη)[note 12]

Archaic letters
Greek	Ancient
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code
ϝ	w		V	(digamma)
ϛ	st		#2	(stigma)
ͱ	h[note 11]		h[note 11]	(heta)
ϻ	s, ś		#711	(san)
ϸ	sh			(sho)
ϟ	q		#3	(qoppa)
ϡ	ss		#5	(sampi)

Special letter
Greek	Ancient
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code
ȷ	j			(yot)

[edit] Diacritics

The traditional polytonic orthography of Greek uses several distinct diacritic signs to render what was originally the pitch accent of Ancient Greek, and the presence or absence of word-initial h. In 1982, monotonic orthography was officially introduced for modern Greek. The only diacritics that remain are the acute accent (indicating stress) and the diaeresis (indicating that two consecutive vowels should not be combined). The acute accent and the diaeresis are kept in both the BGN/PCGN and the UN/ELOT romanization systems. There is one exception: in the vowel combinations αυ, ευ and ηυ the accent moves from the υ (that becomes v or f) to the preceding vowel.

[edit] See also

• Beta code
• Classical compound
• English words of Greek origin
• List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names for help with Greek-derived scientific names of organisms
• List of Greek words with English derivatives
• Scientific transliteration

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts, a collection of writing systems and transliteration tables, by Thomas T. Pedersen. Includes PDF reference charts for many languages’ transliteration systems.
• The Working Group on Romanization Systems of the United Nations.
• Transliteration chart of the Library of Congress.