If we were to follow the little girl’s innovating way of praying in Greek, we would need all the Greek letters (vowels and consonants) since these are the ones which constitute whole words. As seen from the previous issue, Greek vowels are not as demanding as initially thought (the so-called myth of Seneca as reported there).

The truth with all languages lies in the actual expectations. What do you want to achieve via the language you are learning? Reaching native level is most times an unrealistic and unnecessary aim. What is important is that you reach a level to communicate effectively and this is what we are trying to achieve in this magazine. In this very issue, you will learn how to approximately pronounce all Greek consonants and in this respect by the end of this article (in combination with the previous issue on vowels), you will be able to pronounce whole words and sentences! Remember that this is how realistically you can learn any language you want, no matter how ‘difficult’ that is (can you recall what we said last time about ‘it’s all Greek to me’?)

The Greek language has 17 consonants. These are: β. γ, δ, ζ, θ, κ, λ, μ, ν, ξ, π, ρ, σ, τ, φ, χ & ψ. More analytically:

• B and β as in ‘victor’, in Greek: [βάζο], i.e. ‘vase’.

• Γ and γ as in Spanish ‘ghalo’, in Greek: [γάλα], i.e. ‘milk’.

• Δ and δ as in ‘this’, in Greek: [δώρο], i.e. ‘gift’.

• Z and ζ as in ‘zebra’, in Greek: [ζέβρα], same meaning in Greek!

• Θ and θ as in ‘theatre’, in Greek: [θέατρο], same meaning in Greek!

• K and κ as in ‘kilo’, in Greek: [κιλό], same meaning in Greek!

• Λ and λ as in ‘lime’, in Greek: [λεμόνι], similar meaning in Greek!

• M and μ as in ‘mother’, in Greek: [μαμά], same meaning in Greek!

• N and ν as in ‘nanny’, in Greek: [νουνά], i.e. ‘godmother’.

• Ξ and ξ as in ‘xerox’, in Greek: [ξέρω], i.e. ‘know’.

• Π and π as in ‘Peter’, in Greek: [Πέτρος], same meaning in Greek!

• Ρ and ρ as in ‘radio’, in Greek: [ράδιο], same meaning in Greek!

• Σ and σ as in ‘soda’, in Greek: [σόδα], same meaning in Greek!

• T and τ as in ‘Tommy’, in Greek: [τώρα], i.e. ‘now’.

• Φ and φ as in ‘father’, in Greek: [φανάρι], i.e. ‘lantern’ and ‘traffic light’

• X and x as in ‘human’, in Greek: [χορός], i.e. ‘dance’, the noun.

• Ψ and ψ as in ‘pseudonym’, in Greek: [ψάρι], ‘fish’, the noun.

Please be aware of the following false consonant friends in Greek for English speakers:

• Greek miniscule ‘v’ behaves like an ‘n’ and not like an English ‘v’, the English ‘v’ is a ‘β’ in Greek (please review the previous examples carefully to avoid making this easy pronunciation error).

• Greek capital ‘Ρ’ and miniscule ‘ρ’ behave as ‘R’ and ‘r’ respectively in English and not as the English ‘P’ and ‘p’. The English ‘P’ and ‘p’ are the respective ‘Π’ and ‘π’ in Greek (once more refer to the aforementioned examples).

• Greek capital ‘X’ and miniscule ‘χ’ behave the way ‘h’ is pronounced in ‘human’. They are not pronounced as ‘X’ and ‘x’ in English, these are given in Greek by ‘Ξ’ and ‘ξ’ respectively (again, see examples above).

• Lastly in addition to Greek ‘Σ’ and ‘σ’, there is another version of Greek miniscule ‘σ’, that of ‘ς’. The major difference here is found in the morphology of this letter, this is like a light ‘σ’ (’s’) which replaces ‘σ’ at the end of Greek words (as in ‘καπνός’). Ιn other words, no Greek word takes ‘σ’ as a last letter in a word but its near equivalent ‘ς’.

You have to admit that was not as difficult as claimed by Shakespearean literature. It should all be Greek to you now, meaning you should be able to approximately pronounce Greek words with full vowels and single consonants. In the following issue, we will look at combinations of consonants and will clarify any exceptions which may occur in the pronunciation of Greek words.

As an exercise, it would be a good idea now to try and memorize the sounds which you have been taught so far (both consonants and vowels) and attempt to read as many Greek words as you can. You may even challenge some of your native Greek family and friends to present you with any Greek words. But please try and remind them to be fair and include only single and not double consonants, not just yet!

Ω

References

• Brown, D.(2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. San Francisco: Longman.
• Papaeftymiou-Lytra, S. (2001).Greek Speakers. In: Smith, B & M.Swan (2nd ed.) Learner English. Cambridge: CUP.
• Mackridge, P. (1990). The Modern Greek Language. Athens: Pataki.