Breathing marks and accents

Breathing marks

The first time you see a Greek word, the little commas and dots above the letters can be alarming. Look at ὁ and Ἐν in John 1:1. Both start with a vowel, and the mark on each is different.

Every Greek word that begins with a vowel (or a diphthong) carries a breathing mark on that first vowel. There are two. The rough breathing (῾) adds an "h" sound before the vowel. The smooth breathing (᾿) adds nothing; you simply do not say it. So ὁ is "ho" and ἐν is "en". On small letters the mark sits above the vowel, and on a capital it goes in front of it, at the upper left.

The panel's Latin spelling shows the difference too: ὁ is ho, ἐν is en. A rough breathing is simply an "h" at the start of the transliteration.

A few more rules. If the word begins with a diphthong, the mark goes on the second vowel: οἱ ("hoi") has a rough breathing, and οὐρανῷ ("ouranō") a smooth one. A word beginning with υ always takes a rough breathing, like υἱὸν ("huion") and ὑμῖν ("humin"). So does a word beginning with ρ, which is written ῥ and printed "rh" in the panel, as in ῥήματα ("rhēmata").

These marks help with vocabulary too. ἁμαρτίαν ("hamartian") is from ἁμαρτία, "sin", which occurs 173 times. ἅγιον ("hagion") is "holy", as in the Holy Spirit, from ἅγιος, about 160 times. υἱός, "son", appears about 380 times, and ἡμέρᾳ ("hēmera") is from ἡμέρα, "day", about 390 times. All four begin with a rough breathing.

Accents and stress

There are three accent marks: the acute (´) as in λόγος, the grave (`) as in καὶ and θεὸς, and the circumflex (῀) as in ἀρχῇ. In ancient times they may have marked pitch. In the Erasmian pronunciation used in this course, you treat all three the same way: the marked syllable is the stressed one, and you say it a little louder and clearer.

So λόγος is "LO-gos", with the accent on the first syllable, and ἀρχῇ is "ar-CHĒ", with it on the last. That is all you need to do with accents. A few facts may help your eye: an accent falls on one of the last three syllables, a circumflex appears only on a long vowel or diphthong, and a grave is usually an acute that changed because another word follows. Many small words, such as ὁ and ἐν, have no accent, because they lean on the next word. We will not study accent rules in this course.

An accent can also tell two words apart. In John 1:19 the delegation asks John, "Who are you?" The "who" is τίς, an interrogative pronoun with an accent. In John 3:3 the word τις means "someone" and has none; it is an indefinite pronoun. In these two verses the letters are the same and the meaning differs.

Syllables and other marks

Every vowel or diphthong makes one syllable, so counting them tells you how many syllables a word has. A single consonant between two vowels goes with the second one (λό-γος). Two consonants are usually split (ἀρ-χῇ). Diphthongs stay whole, but two vowels that are not a diphthong count separately: in ἅγιον the ι and ο do not form one, so it is ἅ-γι-ον, three syllables, while καὶ is one syllable because αι is a diphthong.

A tiny ι under η, ω or α is called an iota subscript. The ῇ of ἀρχῇ has one. It is not pronounced, so ἀρχῇ is "archē". The panel happens to spell ῃ as "ēa", so it shows ἀρχῇ as "archēa" (ᾳ and ῳ are spelled just a and ō). That is only the panel's spelling convention; it changes nothing in the sound. Why the iota is there will make sense once you meet cases.

You will also see an apostrophe at the end of some words, as in δι᾽. When the next word starts with a vowel, a short word may drop its last vowel. In δι᾽ αὐτοῦ, δι᾽ is διά shortened, and ἀλλ᾽ is ἀλλά shortened. Read it as written.

Punctuation is mostly familiar. The comma and period are the same. A raised dot (·) is a colon or semicolon, as at the end of αὐτόν·. And the semicolon-shaped mark (;) is a question mark. εἶ; ends the question "Who are you?"

Summary

A word that begins with a vowel has a breathing mark: rough (῾) means "h", smooth (᾿) means nothing, and words starting with υ or ρ always take the rough one. The three accents mean "stress this syllable" for our purposes. A syllable is one vowel or diphthong. The iota subscript is silent, an apostrophe marks a shortened word, and ; is a question mark.

Words in this lesson

• ἡμέραhēmeraday389 times in the NT
• υἱόςhuiosson377 times in the NT
• ἅγιοςhagiosholy160 times in the NT
• ἁμαρτίαhamartiasin173 times in the NT

Practice