Greek orthography
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The orthography of the Greek language ultimately has its roots in the adoption of the Greek alphabet in the 9th century BC.
Early Greek writing was phonetic, and different in each dialect. Since the adoption of the Ionic variant for Attic in 403 BC, however, Greek orthography has been largely conservative and historical. Given the phonetic development of Greek, especially in the Hellenistic period, certain modern vowel phonemes have multiple orthographic realizations:
- /i/ is realized by η, ι, υ, ει, οι and υι (cf. Iotacism)
- /e/ is realized by both ε and αι
- /o/ is realized by both ο and ω
This affects not only lexical items but also inflectional affixes, so correct orthography requires mastery of formal grammar (as in French), e.g. η καλή /i kaˈli/ 'the good one (fem. sing.)' vs. οι καλοί /i kaˈli/ 'the good ones (masc. pl.)'; καλώ /kalˈo/ 'I call' vs. καλό /kalˈo/ 'good (neut. sing.)'.
[edit] Accents and breathings
Polytonic orthography (as well as lowercase letters) were introduced in Byzantine Greek. The orthography of Modern Greek, both Katharevousa and Dhimotiki, used the polytonic system until 1982, when monotonic orthography was introduced. In some conservative contexts, such as the church, polytonic is still used.
[edit] See also
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