Greece Handwriting

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Greece Handwriting

The Greek Alphabet

Greek Letter       Αα         Ββ         Γγ         Δδ         Εε           Ζζ         Ηη         Θθ         Ιι          Κκ         Λλ         Μμ

Ancient Sound   a            b            g          d             e              z          e         th            i          k               l         m

Modern Sound   (a)           (v)          (γ)        (δ)           (e)           (z)        (i)        (Θ)         (ι)        (κ)           (l)        (m)

Greek Letter       Nν           Ξξ           Οο        Ππ         Ρρ          Σσς        Ττ          Υυ         Φφ        Χχ          Ψψ       Ωω

Ancient Sound    n          ks, x           o         p           r, rh            s          t          u, y      ph       kh, ch     ps         o

Modern Sound   (n)         (ks)           (o)        (p)          (r)          (s, z)      (t)          (i)       (f)         (x)         (ps)      (o)

You will need to know the alphabet well before you look at the Greek films.

Sounds you should know:  μπ sounds like "B"

                                        β sounds like "B"

                                        ντ sounds like "D"

                                        γγ sounds like "NG"

The Handwriting

Handwriting varies from one person to another.; Greek handwriting is no exception. The chart below shows standard schoolbook handwriting. The handwriting of your relatives or of 19th-century officials will vary somewhat.

Greek Alphabet Conversion Applications

There are several Greek typing applications that will allow you to type a word in English as it converts your text to the Greek alphabet. An example of one is Type Greek Letters. It shows the keyboard in Greek, so you can compare it to your keyboard as you type. As you type the text will appear in Greek letters. In this illustration, the name Ioannis Georgios Kallikakis now appears in Greek, and we can look for his name in Greek records more easily.

Transliterating Greek Text

Transliteration Chart

Computer Transliteration

There are also Greek transliterating applications that allow you to type or paste text written in Greek letters and convert it to Latin letters. Here I have pasted a term I found in a file description in the Greek National Archives. After I paste it, clicking the Latin button (the letters we normally use are the Latin alphabet), will transliterate the text (change the letters without translating the word into English):

• Greek Translit

Before

After

Translating Greek

Finally, I can then paste my new Greek-turned-into-Latin text into Google Translate.