Learning Greek One Step At A Time: #3 Pronunciation

20 Jul

This week’s part 3 of the series is, I feel, the least explored of all. You’ll see articles and articles being written about how to learn Vocabulary and Grammar, but how about Pronunciation?

Learning Greek One Step At A Time: #3 Pronunciation

Pronunciation is not something you can easily explain in writing, this is why I’ve included a bonus recording at the end of the article.

In today’s post you’ll find out a few ideas and tips about the Greek pronunciation, which will hopefully make your language learning a bit easier and more interesting.

Greek Alphabet sounds

First of all, how do we pronounce the Greek vowels and consonants of the Greek alphabet?

To reply to this, we need a tool such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), to help us read the sounds. We also need examples of how each letter is being used; also the different sound or sounds each letter produces e.g. when there’s a specific letter/sound next to it.

The following list of such examples is by no means extensive. To explore all the sounds of the Greek language in detail, we would need much more than a blog post.

Therefore, we focus on the foundation - the Α to Ω ; the Alphabet.

Let’s take a closer look:

Greek Alphabet Vowels

α [a] as in ακόμα

ε [e] as in έλα

η, ι, υ [i] as in μήλο, σπίτι, ύφεση

ο, ω [o] as in όταν, ώρα

Greek Alphabet Consonants

β [v] as in βήμα

γ [γ] as in γάτα, [j] as in γη, γένος

δ [δ] as in δέμα

ζ [z] as in ζωή

θ [θ] as in θέλω

κ [k] as in κάνω, [c] as in κιλό, κενό

λ [l] as in λάθος, [ʎ] as in λιώνω

μ [m] as in μήλο

ν [n] as in να, [ɲ] as in νιώθω

ξ [ks] as in ξανά

π [p] as in ποτέ

ρ [r] as in ροή

σ [s] as in εσένα (but written as ς at the end of a word e.g. άλλος)

τ [t] as in τότε

φ [f] as in φέρνω

χ [χ] as in χάνω, [ç] as in αρχή, χελώνα

ψ [ps] as in ψήνω

Learning how to pronounce

As you can see above, in most of the cases there are hardly any surprises;

There are only a few sounds which, when combined with some vowels, they produce a slightly different variation; for example κ /k/ when combined with the sounds [i] and [e] gives [c] as in κιλό, κενό.

Practice

1. Listening to the sounds and then repeating them is the usual pronunciation learning practice (and you can do this with the recording at the end of this article).

2. A great activity found in most course books and beginner lessons is to hear or read and then say aloud each consonant sound in a syllable: e.g. βα, βε, βι, βο, βου, γα, γε, γι, γο, γου and so on, with more vowels and vowel combinations.

This way, you learn first the syllables; when for example you see the word βάση, the syllable βα will pop into your mind. Another benefit is that by practicing the different combinations, you get to practice again and again the sound you’re focusing on each time.

And here’s me reading the Greek alphabet with the pronunciation examples from above: