Reading Greek (Lesson 1)

welcome to reading Greek we're going to learn how to read any word written in Greek let's start with just a quick intro to the Greek alphabet the Greek alphabet this is a question people often have was it the first alphabet well uh it started to appear around 800 BC but it wasn't quite the first it certainly wasn't the first writing system writing systems do what they record language language does what it records or somehow conveys ideas there were other ways to do this before the Greeks created their writing system there were hieroglyphs hieroglyphs are right pictures that can convey a scene an action an idea a thing there were syllabares so uh there were writing systems that would have one symbol and it would represent a syllable so it might have one symbol for the word ha the sound ha and then another symbol for the sound ho that's a syllabary one symbol per syllable and there were there were these other things called objads now these if you know uh ancient Hebrew for example uh was an abjad in the sense that it had consonants so the consonant sound of a language were recorded but the vowels were not so a Greek was not the first writing system but it was the first alphabet and that's why the word alphabet is actually what it's the first two letters as you learn of the Greek alphabet Alpha and Vita an alphabet does what it has consonants and vowels it has basically a symbol for every consonant sound in the language in any vowel and then you can take these and mix and match them so the next question is is it a good alphabet uh I ask this sometimes in a sense it is good it's great for reading and the reason is when you see a letter for example the Greek letter Epsilon looks like an e and it makes the sound e wherever you see that letter it's going to make an e sound except in there's very very few exceptions and we'll talk about those but for the most part what you see is what you get you see the letter Alpha a that looks like an a it will make an ah sound whereas English when we say an a we don't know what we're going to say ah or are we going to say a ah like in father or a like an eight or maybe a like an and so in English for example uh sometimes we see a letter and we're not sure what we're gonna get that's not the case in Greek so it is a good alphabet for reading for writing is it a good alphabet for writing it is okay it's an okay alphabet for writing and the reason for this is there are some sounds in Greek that are represented by more than one letter for example the long e sound e can be written with three different Greek letters and so if someone isn't educated hasn't seen or read a lot of Greek uh if you try to just spell a word based on how it sounds you're going to make mistakes because sometimes there's more than one option of letter you can put to represent a specific sound that's our intro to the alphabet of course we could go much further into it but we're not going to let's look at the letters let's meet the letters that's what we're going to do today so meeting the letters let's look at this there's 24 Greek letters okay a lot of them look like English letters let me just go through them and say them Alpha Vita Kama Delta Epsilon Zita Sita Yota Kappa lamda me see Omicron p Raw Sigma tough Epsilon fee he Omega those are the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet now let's notice something a lot of them look English this first one looks like an a then we have something that looks like a b this fourth one looks sort of like a d especially in the lower case now we have something looking like an e something looking a bit like a z something that looks like an H paired with something that looks like a lowercase n with the tail something like an i something like a k something like an M something like an N paired with a v something like an O something like an R something like an s something like a t something like a y paired with a u something like an X and then at the very end there something like a lowercase w so those letters all look English now here's the here's the trick some of them look English but they sound different that's the case there with the second letter of the Greek alphabet it looks like a b it actually makes a v sound V and then that second column the first letter in the second column the ITA looks like an H or a lowercase n but it's actually a vowel makes a long e sound then we have this thing that looks like an up with the uppercase and it does make an n Sound but the lowercase is a v so when you see this lowercase V looking letter you have to remember that's not a v sound the V sound we already saw the V sound is up here it's the Vita this lowercase V looking thing is actually a knee it's an n Sound then we have the thing that looks like a p exactly like a p actually is the r sound in Greek so Raw then we have this y looking thing uh paired with the lowercase U looking thing that's a long e sound that's a vowel called Epsilon then we have the X the X actually is more like an H in Greek it's called a he and then at the end that lowercase w is another vowel sound it's an all sound it's an o sound so we just have to be aware some of the letters we can trust our gut on looking at this page all the ones in yellow we can trust Our God on in all the ones in red we have to pause and think wait this isn't going to sound like it does in English and then of course there's some uniquely Greek letters this one is a rama you might have heard of gamma rays gamma this one is a Theta Theta we have the Lambda that's the L Sound in Greek we have uh the lowercase M me looks a bit different than anything we know in English then we have this very squiggly one that's a c it's an X sound then we have the one that looks like a math here that's a p and we call it Pi in math class then we have the fee the circle with the line through it then we have the one that looks like a trident like Poseidon's trident except C so let's oh and then finally yes we have omega there the capital at the end looking like a bit like an upside down horseshoe so let's look at all the letters now just one by one go through the sound they make which is more important than the names in fact uh let me make this point here I want you to learn to learn first to recognize a letter to look at a letter in Greek and know what sound it makes and then later you can learn its name and the order it goes in the alphabet those things are secondary the first thing is to be able to actually read it I'll tell you when I was learning Greek I didn't know the order of the alphabet probably until about two years after I was learning I probably should have learned it I could have learned it but I didn't because I I didn't need it I could read Greek that was the point to read to make the sound that I was seeing in front of me so anyway so up here in the front we have alpha alpha it looks like an A and it makes a long a sound ah like the word father so you might want to say this with me Alpha then we have Vita Vita looks like a b sounds like a V ITA like in the word violet then we have a Rama Rama can make two sounds it can make the sound of this G kind of caught in your throat there Rama like in Spanish it's a g but you're you really feel it in your throat Rama and then sometimes it makes a a y sound for example if you know how to say hello in Greek hello is yasu ya it sounds like a a y at the beginning of that word yasu that's when does it make this and when does it make this sound that has to do with what follows it and we'll first of all pick that up actually just by listening and I'll tell you about that some other day the fourth letter is a Delta the Delta makes a soft D sound so it's not a Delta it's a Zelda if you look uh closely at my mouth you'll notice when I make a hard D sound and you can try it yourself when you say d your tongue touches behind your teeth touches what's called your hard palate behind your teeth when you make this Velp sound your tongue actually touches the bottom of your top teeth Zelda so Delta is wrong is correct it's a soft D like in then Epsilon Epsilon this one here looking like an e always makes an e sound that makes a short e sound e it never makes an e sound of toys e Epsilon just like in the word elephant and then sticking with animals we have Zita Zeta looks like a z and it sounds like a z so just like a zebra zebra Zita then we have the H looking and the N looking thing again I mentioned it earlier this is actually a vowel this vowel makes a long e sound like the word in the word seem and it is called then we have Theta if the Delta appears a soft d uh like the word then well the Theta is the true th like when we say the word think and so the letter the name itself is pronounced next we have what looks like an i and it makes a long e sound as in seem just like what did we see Ita so this one also makes an e sound and it is called Yota then we have Kappa Kappa looks like a k and sounds like a k so Kappa like the word kind then we have Lambda this is the Greek version of L and it makes a Le sound like the word love Lambda then we have uh the me the me at least in the capital looks like an m and then it's somewhat unique in its lowercase but in both cases it makes the M sound me me next we have knee looks like a capital N sounds like an n and then the lower case looks like a V but still sounds like an ni just like in the word need then we have c c makes an X sound what's unique about Greek and you'll find out soon enough is that in Greek they will start words with an X sound for example the way that you say xylophone in Greek is when we say that in English though we spell xylophone with an X how do we say that X how do we pronounce it xylophone we pronounce it like a Z right so C uh looks squiggly and sounds like an X and you will find it at the beginning of the word of words next we have Omicron looks like an O and sounds like an o o micron this is a good time to make a note actually about the way that Greeks pronounce their vowels Greeks pronounce their vowels purely they have pure vowels what do I mean here I mean that when you say a vowel in Greek when you're saying a vowel your mouth never changes shape okay well does that happen in English it actually does if you think about the way that we say the word home uh speaking English if you say the word home the O in there you'll notice my lips start to close I'm saying home I close my lips oh before them sound home or own I own something I'm gonna loan you something my lips I'm exaggerating a bit but they're moving on the vowel that does not happen in Greek so though in English an English speaker will say the word open like this o bin their lips will move a Greek speaker would say that o just o pen o pen and you see I've automatically acquired a Greek accent by making that vowel pure instead of saying oh bin I said open open so Omicron is Omicron looks like you know and sounds like an o o p uh sounds like a p so we're gonna have to do a bit of switching in our head right here we have P looking like math making the P sound P just like in the word P.O and then right next to it what looks like a p is not a p sound that is an R sound and it's often rolled it is called The Raw if you can roll your r's great if not that's okay just uh try to remember I suppose that it's that when you say a rolled r your tongue touches the top of your mouth when you don't roll your R your tongue does not touch the top of your mouth uh that's something we can work on and talk about uh in the future but uh rolling your r's should not be your priority at this point next we have sikhma you'll notice there are three options here the first option is the capital the second option is the sigma that you will see at the beginning or the middle of the word and the third option is the sigma that's always at the end of a word it's called Sigma the final Sigma so this letter is a bit of an anomaly and that it has a two two lowercase versions and the final lowercase version the one that actually looks the most like an S that's used only at the end of words so Sigma speaking of makes an S sound C like the word c Sigma Sigma next we have Tav looks like a t and sounds like a t Teno easy enough then we have Epsilon Epsilon looks like an uppercase y a lowercase U and it is the third way that Greeks can make a long e sound we had ITA up here we had Yota up here we had Epsilon up here I'd spoken previously about the fact that sometimes Greeks uh if they're not educated make spelling mistakes well this is the reason if you're just you know that something is made with makes an e sound you don't know which letter to put you put Etha you put Yota you put Epsilon the next letter is the Greek F it's called a fee and it makes a an F sound just like in English feel fee and then we have he he is a bit like grama and that there are two versions there's the stuck in your throat version like in the word Bach and then there's the uh not stuck in your throat version which is going to be just like an H so the he sound either makes a or a and uh that will be easier to learn in context in the actual uh inside a word it'll be easier to learn how to make that sound C looks like Poseidon's trident and it makes a p s sound like at the end of the word tips C and then finally Omega the last letter of the alphabet is a vowel making an o sound so this is another way to say o we have omega and early we had Omicron Omicron means small o and omera means Big O because at one point in the Greek language omera was held for longer Omicron sounded like o and Omega used to sound like oh you held it longer that's no longer the case they both now just make an o sound moving on let's just do some reading practice and this will close out the day today here there's no tricks what do I mean I mean that if it looks like an English letter it probably sounds like it so number one we have something that looks like an A and that thing there after the a is the Delta looks a bit like a d so number one is pronounced that's how we would say that number two we would say Eva number three that thing that looks like an eye it's called a Yota that is Eve number four that is number five now we have the Delta that soft T at the beginning of the word we have some vowels and at the end of the word we have looking like a z and sounding like a z so number five is thus number six is number seven is these number eight is those now in the second column we're starting now with the z sound the Zita number one we have Zak number two zek number three Zeke remember it's it looks like an eye but it's a long e sound don't ever say zik zik there's actually not an e sound in Greek the Yota is always a long e Zeke number four zoc number five okay we have Kappa then we have some vowels and then what's at the end there that is the me me that's the M sound so number five we have come number six we have chem number seven we have team number eight we have com third column we're starting now with the me and we're ending with the sigma the final Sigma that goes at the end of the word number one we have Mas number two we have mess number three we have Mis number four we have Moss now for number five we have the sigma but this is the sigma that begins or is in the middle of a word so number five we have sat number six we have set number seven we have seat number eight we have sought and now we're going to read some real Greek words look day one or two depending on how you did it of reading Greek and you're already learning to read some words number one here means together and it is pronounced okay we have the me Alpha Zita Yota it's pronounced number two we have Sigma and Tav Omicron me Alpha it is pronounced Ma number three we have Sigma then a Tav silon Kappa Yota and it is pronounced number four that's a me at the beginning of the word me Epsilon Zita Epsilon Sigma messes number five what's that letter looking like a d mezeves number six we have Peak talk go to the clock number seven we have Cole um comma and number eight we have stadio the Greek word for what stadium and at least it's the word that stadium in English comes from stadio okay here's some reading practice with tricks what's that mean it means be careful because not everything is as it seems we have some of those caution letters in here for example in number one okay this word it looks like a b but what does the B sound like in Greek it's called the Vita it sounds like a V so we have number one vad number two Ved number three number four volv number five looks like a p is not a p it's a raw it sounds like a rolled R number five is Raz number six okay we have the raw in the beginning and then it ends in the thing that looks like a V but it's not a v that is a knee it's an n Sound so number six is Ren number seven is just re number eight is rat number one in the second column again starting with the knee looks like a V sounds like an N we have not number one then we have net number two then we have not number three number four okay we have this knee we know the knee what's in the middle there it looks like a u but it doesn't make a u sound it makes a long e sound it's called an Epsilon so number four we have Nina number five we have Veet Delta Epsilon tab vit number six we have Zeke number seven okay we have the knee at the beginning and end of the word in the middle the thing that looks like an n and as a tail we said is it's another long e vowel it's called ITA so number seven is nin to pronounce exactly like up here number four with the Epsilon and then number seven nin with ITA the Epsilon and the ITA make the same sound e number eight number one now in the third column we have Zeke number two okay it looks like an X but it is a he it's pronounced h k number three sorry number three is he number four this one's going to get caught in our throat is ha number five again it's going to get caught in our throat we have oh number six also if you look at five and six exact same sound Omicron is used in five and the Omega is used in six number seven aha aha I figured it out number eight this is how Greeks laugh in text messages we might write h a h a Greeks will write a ha ha okay number one of the real word column column four feet that word is number two that's a he heera number three means hand number four with the omera aura number five Zorro number six with the knee at the beginning that means water number seven Raw me Kappa Omicron KO from and then number eight Epsilon s taviota TI and then Alpha ah estia estia so here let's just look at uh a lot of words it's the alphabet basically with animals number one alpha a lojo number two Vita VI number three Akama number four velta Vel Le Fini number five number five you're not gonna do perfectly until you watch the next class because in the next class uh we'll talk about the combination letters the knee and the Tav together which when they're combined make it sort of D sound so anyway number five Epsilon E le fund us elephant number six Zita is a VRA zebra number seven foreign number eight Sita la Sia hello sea turtle okay column two number one making an e sound e po ta Moss Amos think you know what animal that is number two second column Kappa Ka me La Camila number three foreign [Music] [Music] are together so we have le mu and then the thing that looks like a p but is actually the raw the r sound a lemur number four Mota [Music] number five the knee looks like a V sounds like an n [Music] Val narwhal number six C remember this is the X sound in here we have it at the beginning of a word c fias number seven this one's not too bad if you remember that the P looking thing is actually an R orca number eight p stere o number one in the third column we have the Raw no que Ros Reno quieros number two Sigma SAR and then Delta Epsilon the la sardella number three Tigres number four Epsilon one of the long e options it's a kind of bug number five that's the Phi in F sound fee the Fifi number six we actually saw in this First Column uh at number eight number six just the he he Lona in this case it's the H version of the he Lona as opposed to let's say ha ha that would be the uh H caught in the throat here is just a cleaner h ke Lo na number seven the sea sari remember the C makes the p s sound sorry sorry fish in number eight makes an o sound so we have ottos ottos so that's a big accomplishment we went through the alphabet we learned the letters and we practiced some reading our next lesson what we're going to do is we're going to look at those few there there aren't that many few instances in which when two letters are brought together the sound changes slightly we already saw a couple examples we're going to look at those tomorrow then we're going to be able to read at that point really any word in Greek and we'll move on from there to learning some things about accent and then just practicing practicing and sing some real sentences and eventually even going through a little book together thank you for your hard work your attention and I'll see you tomorrow or whenever you do the next lesson

Channel: The Greek Academy

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Id: s1wR_ox4QoQ

Length: 38min 15sec (2295 seconds)

Published: Thu May 18 2023