Romanization of Greek

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 on whether the language written with Greek letters is Ancient Greek or Modern Greek and whether a phonetic transcription or a graphemic transliteration is intended.

Different systems of Romanization of Greek have been creating a good deal of confusion with rendering Greek personal and place names in English. For example, the word Άγιος ("Holy", "Saint"), common in many place names, may be variously rendered as Agios, Ayios, or Aghios (feminine forms: Agia, Ayia, or Aghia).^[1]

1 Transliteration tables
2 Diacritics
3 See also
4 References

Transliteration tables

The following tables list several transliteration schemes from the Greek alphabet to the Latin alphabet.

Greek	Ancient			Modern			Greeklish^{[note 1]}
Greek	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	ISO 843	BGN/ PCGN	UN/ ELOT	Greeklish^{[note 1]}
α	a	a, ā	A	a			a
β	b		B	v			v
γ	g		G	g	g / y^{[note 2]}	g	g/gh/y
δ	d		D	d	dh / d^{[note 3]}	d	d
ε	e		E	e			e
ζ	z		Z	z			z
η	e	ē	H	ī	i		h / i / e
θ	th		Q	th			th
ι	i	i, ī	I	i			i
κ	c	k	K	k			k / c
λ	l		L	l			l
μ	m		M	m			m
ν	n		N	n			n
ξ	x		C	x			ks / x
ο	o		O	o			o
π	p		P	p			p
ρ	r, rh^{[note 4]}		R	r			r
σ	s		S	s	s^{[note 5]}	s	s
τ	t		T	t			t
υ	y	u, ū	U	y	i	y	y
φ	ph		F	f			f / ph
χ	ch	kh	X	ch	kh	ch	x / ch / h
ψ	ps		Y	ps			ps
ω	o	ō	W	ō	o		o

^ The use of 'Greeklish' (here: writing Greek in the Latin alphabet) has risen enormously with the advent of SMS, email, online chatting, and other digital media, where Greek fonts are not always readily available. Examples:
- θέλω → thelo
- ξανά → ksana or xana
- ψυχή → psyhi etc
^ before αι, ε, ει, η, ι, οι, υ, υι.
^ between ν and ρ.
^ with rough breathing.
^ sometimes doubled between vowels (ex. Larissa).

Vowel digraphs^{[note 1]}
Greek	Ancient			Modern			Greeklish
Greek	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	ISO 843	BGN/ PCGN	UN/ ELOT	Greeklish
αι	ae	ai	AI	ai	e	ai	ai / e
αυ	au		AU	au	av	av,^{[note 2]} af^{[note 3]}	ay, au, af, av
ει	i / e	ei	EI	ei	i	ei	ei / i
ευ	eu		EU	eu	ev	ev,^{[note 2]} ef^{[note 3]}	ey, eu, ef, ev
ηυ	eu	ēu	HU	īy	iv	iv^{[note 2]} / if^{[note 3]}	hy / hu / if / iv
οι	oe	oi	OI	oi	i	oi	oi / i
ου	u / o	ou	OU	ou	u	ou	ou / u
υι	ui / yi	ui	UI	yi	i	yi	yi / gi / i

^ except when there is a diaeresis ( ¨ ) on the second vowel
^ ^a ^b ^c before β, γ, δ, ζ, λ, μ, ν, ρ and vowels.
^ ^a ^b ^c before θ, κ, ξ, π, σ, τ, φ, χ, ψ and at the end of a word.

Consonant digraphs
Greek	Ancient			Modern			Greeklish
Greek	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	ISO 843	BGN/ PCGN	UN/ ELOT	Greeklish
γγ	ng		GG	gg	ng		gg / gk / ng / nk
γξ	nx		GC	gx	nx		gks / gx / nks / nx
γκ	nc	nk	GK	gk	g,^{[note 1]} ng^{[note 2]}	gk	g, gk / nk
γχ	nch	nkh	GX	gch	nkh	nch	gx / gch / nx / nch
μπ	mp		MP	mp	b^{[note 1]} / mb^{[note 2]}	b,^{[note 1]} mp^{[note 2]}	b, mp / mb
ντ	nt		NT	nt	d,^{[note 1]} nd^{[note 2]}	nt	d, nt / nd

Modifiers (only in Ancient Greek)
Greek	Ancient			Name
Greek	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	Name
῾	h^{[note 3]}		(	rough breathing, δασεῖα
᾿	none		)	smooth breathing, ψιλή
ͺ	(i)		\|	iota subscript, ὑπογεγραμμένη^{[note 4]}

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d at the beginning of a word.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d in the middle of a word.
^ on vowel: h before the vowel; on ρ: rh.
^ under long vowels.

Archaic letters
Greek	Ancient
Greek	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code
ϝ	–	w	V	digamma
ϻ	–	ś	#711	san
ϙ	–	q	#3	qoppa
ϡ	–	š	#5	sampi

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.

References

^ "Rough Guide to the Dodecanese & East Aegean islands" by Marc Dubin, insert in p. vi

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.
Scientific transliteration is described in the Ancient and Medieval Greek transliteration chart of the Library of Congress

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Romanization of Greek

Contents

Transliteration tables

Diacritics

See also

References