το ὀρθογραφία και το φωνολογία
Orthography & Phonology

In the version before the September 2010 Revision, ΤΑΚΕ had been written in the monotonic fashion of post-1982 modern Greek. Although some justification was made in the now discarded RHATL scenario, it must be admitted that it was just a convenience so that a modern Greek key-board could be used. It is hardly in keeping with the aim of ancient Greek without inflexions; the diacritics did not denote inflexions.
 

1. The alphabet

ΤΑΚΕ uses the 24 letters (or 25 if one counts the grapheme Γ as two letters, gamma and agma) of the Ionian alphabet which Athens officially adopted in 403 BC. Because of the prestigious position of Athens in the Greek speaking world, by the Hellenistic period this alphabet had become the Greek alphabet and has remained so until the present day.

The ΤΑΚΕ names are those used in classical Attic Greek. The names used in English and other modern languages are based on the Byzantine names which were not always the same as the ancient names; these names are post-classical and the innovations make sense only in the light of the Byzantine pronunciation where certain sounds were no longer distinguished; for example, both ο and ω had become pronounced the same so the Byzantines distinguished between ὂ μικρόν (little o) and ὦ μέγα (big o), referring to the respective size of the two letters in uncial or 'lower case' form.

For 'Latino sine flexione' Giuseppe Peano advocated a pronunciation based on the reconstructed pronunciation of Classical Latin. But there were a few modifications, e.g. the distinction between long and short vowels is dropped. Likewise, I shall adopt a pronunciation based on that of Classical Greek. In this case, however, there are matters on which we have insufficient evidence, e.g. as regards the pitch accent of ancient Greek; therefore, some modifications will necessarily be made. But those familiar with modern Greek should notice that several of the letters are pronounce quite differently in ΤΑΚΕ.

The table below give the letters with their ΤΑΚΕ names and an indication of the pronunciation:

Upper case	Lower case	English Name	ΤΑΚΕ Name	Basic sound (For more detailed explanation see the sections below)
Α	α	alpha	ἄλφα	[a]
Β	β	beta	βῆτα	[b]
Γ	γ	gamma	γάμμα	[g]
		agma	ἄγμα	[ŋ]
Δ	δ	delta	δέλτα	[d]
Ε	ε	epsilon	εἶ	[ɛ]
Ζ	ζ	zeta	ζῆτα	[z]
Η	η	eta	ἦτα	[e]
Θ	θ	theta	θῆτα	[θ]
Ι	ι	iota	ἰῶτα	[i] (See below for [j] and diphthongs)
Κ	κ	kappa	κάππα	[k]
Λ	λ	lambda	λάβδα	[l]
Μ	μ	mu	μῦ	[m]
Ν	ν	nu	νῦ	[n]
Ξ	ξ	xi	ξεῖ	[ks]
Ο	ο	omicron	οὖ	[ɔ] (but ου = [u])
Π	π	pi	πεῖ	[p]
Ρ	ρ	rho	ρῶ	[r]
Σ	ς (word final), σ (elsewhere)	sigma	σίγμα	[s]
Τ	τ	tau	ταῦ	[t]
Υ	υ	upsilon	ὗ	[y] (but ου = [u] also see below for use in diphthongs)
Φ	φ	phi	φεῖ	[f]
Χ	χ	chi	χεῖ	[x]
Ψ	ψ	psi	ψεῖ	[ps]
Ω	ω	omega	ὦ	[o]

 

2. Vowels & Dipthongs

2.1 Vowels

In the archaic Greek and western Greek alphabets there were five vowel symbols - Α Ε Ι Ο Υ. In the case of the low vowel Α /a/ and the two high vowels Ι /i/ and Υ /y/ (← /u/), the vowel could be either long or short. But the situation with Ε and Ο was rather more complicated; in Athens before 403 BC these two symbols represented three sounds each: Ε represented short /e/, long raised /e̝:/ and long lowered /e̞:/; similarly, Ο represented short /o/, long raised /o̝:/ and long lowered /o̞:/.

In eastern Ionia, where /h/ had fallen silent, the symbol Η had come to be used for the long low /e̞:/, i.e. [ɛ:] and new symbol Ω developed to represent /o̞:/, i.e. [ɔ:] - there were also differences in the representation of [kʰ], [ks], [pʰ] and [ps] between the three sets of alphabets, but these do not concern us. Also the combination ΕΙ was used to denote /e̝:/ since the inherited diphthong /ej/ had become pronounced [e:]; likewise the combination ΟΥ was used to denote /o̝:/ because the inherited diphthong /ow/ had become pronounced [o:].

It was clearly because of the more efficient representation of the mid vowels that in 403 BC, the Athenians ditched their version of the western alphabet, which they had been using, and adopted the eastern Ionian alphabet. Because of the prestige that Athens came to achieve, this alphabet gradually spread among the Greeks and has become and remains till today the Greek alphabet.

It will thus be seen that, even without considering diphthongs, the ancient Greek vocalic system was a rich one. I shall, however, follow Giuseppe Peano's example and drop the distinction between long and short vowels, especially as they were not specifically marked with the vowels Α Ι Υ /a i y/. The mid vowels, however, present some problems and I will consider the back and front vowels separately:

Mid back vowels

Originally Υ was pronounced [u(:)] and remained so in the Doric dialects. This meant that the back vowels were /u(:)/, /o̝:/, /o/ and /o̞:/. At an early date, however, among the Ionians, including the Athenians, [u(:)] shifted to [y(:)] which allowed /o̝:/ to shift in pronunciation to [u:]. These shifts seem to have begun before the 5th century BC and to have been completed by the mid 4th century and were retained in the Koine. In ΤΑΚΕ υ and ου retain these ancient values of [y] and [u] respectively.

It is possible that as /o̝:/ shifted to [u:], so /o̞:/ became raised to [o:] and the fact that ancient ω does sometimes appear as ου [u] in dialect, especially Tzakonian, may well reflect its upward shift. Certainly in the Roman period Latin "long o" was rendered ω ο, and "short o" rendered ο. It would seem that in Vulgar Latin at least these were pronounced much the same the modern German "long o" /o/ and "short o" /ɔ/; also it would seem perverse not to render German "long o" and "short o" by ω and ο respectively. Therefore, in ΤΑΚΕ ω = /o/ and ο = /ɔ/.

Mid front vowels

The ancient front vowels were /i(:)/, /e̝:/, /e/ and /e̞:/. But there was no shifting of /i(:)/ parallel to that of /u(:)/ and the four back vowels did not entirely develop in a parallel manner to the original four back vowels. However, we do have clear evidence that /e̞:/ was raised to [e:] and eventually to [i:] and has retained the value /i/ from the Byzantine period till the present day.

At the time of the Koine, however, it had only reached [e:] and η is the regular representation of the Latin "long e", while ε represents Latin "short e". Therefore, for similar reasons to the ω and ο above, in proper names German Latin "long e" will be in ΤΑΚΕ rendered as η, and "short e" by ε; thus η = /e/ and ε = /ɛ/.

As for ει, although this eventually shifted to [i:] it did not do this till well after the 5th century BC. Sidney Allen has shown that while it retained its original sound [e:] in Classical Attic it still retained an early diphthongal pronunciation before vowels (see W. Sidney Allen, "Vox Graeca," London & New York, 1968, page 79]; becoming [e:] in the Roman period (cf. the different treatments of Greek ει in the names Posīdōnius ← Ποσειδώνιος and Aenēas ← Αἰνείας). Clearly it would not be satisfactory to have ει being /i/ before consonants and /e/ before vowels; and to avoid confusion with either ι or η, I shall, therefore, retain this as a diphthong [ɛj] in ΤΑΚΕ.

Thus ΤΑΚΕ has three unrounded front vowels /i/, /e/ and /ɛ/, one high rounded front vowel /y/, one low unrounded central vowel (/a/) and three rounded back vowels (/u/, /o/ /ɔ/), giving us eight simple vowel sounds. This may seem a lot, but devising an 'Ancient Greek without inflexions' was never going to be easy. The eight vowels are expressed by the seven vowel simpler symbols and one digraphs as shown in the table below:
 

Α α	As French, Italian or Spanish a; IPA [a]
Ε ε	As in ê in French bête, German e in Bett or British English e in bet; IPA [ɛ]
Η η	As French é in été;, or German ee in See; IPA [e]
Ι ι	As French, Italian or Spanish i; IPA [i] (But see below for its use in diphthongs and as a consonant when initial before a vowel or intervocalic.) Those who are familiar with modern Greek should note that in ΤΑΚΕ, there is only one of spelling [i].
Ο ο	As French o in bonne, or German o in Gott; IPA [ɔ] (This is similar to, but not the same as, the usual British pronunciation of o in got, but quite different from the American pronunciation.)
ΟΥ ου	As French ou in coup. IPA [u]
Υ υ	As French u in lune; IPA [y] (But see below for its use in diphthongs.)
Ω ω	As iFrench o in mot, or German o in so; IPA [o]

2.2 Diphthongs

The diphthongs of classical Attic Greek were αι, οι, υι, αυ and ευ and which, with the exception of υι, retained their diphthongal pronunciation well into the Roman period. Also, as I noted above, there is evidence that ει retained a diphthongal pronunciation throughout the Classical period and it keeps this pronunciation in all environments in ΤΑΚΕ. The diphthongs are thus:

ΑΙ αι	Like the i in standard English mine, or ei in German mein; IPA [aj]	In prevocalic positions, the semi-vowel [j] was doubled. ΤΑΚΕ adopts this pronunciation also; for example, ποῖο (What sort of ...?) is pronounced ['pɔjjɔ]; υἱό (son) is pronounced [hyj'jɔ].
ΕΙ ει	Like the Italian ei in lei; IPA [ɛj]
ΟΙ οι	Like the oi in standard English join; IPA [ɔj]
ΥΙ υι	Not like French hui in huit, nor like any sound in English. It is found only before vowels and is υ [y] (see vowels above) followed by a prolonged, i.e. geminate, [j];  IPA [yjj]
ΑΥ αυ	Like the ou in standard English house, or the au in German haus; IPA [aw]	In prevocalic positions, the semi-vowel [w] was doubled. ΤΑΚΕ adopts this pronunciation also; for example, εὐαγγέλιο (Gospel) is pronounced [ɛwwaŋ'gɛliɔ].
ΕΥ ευ	Not like any sound of standard English; like Welsh ew in llew; IPA [ɛw]

As for the so-called 'long diphthongs' of ancient Greek:

• The second element of ᾱι, ηι and ωι appears to have become silent sometime during the Koine. The Byzantine practice, still often followed in printing modern texts, is to write the iota subscript, thus ᾳ ῃ and ῳ. These diphthongs occurred mainly in grammatical endings and these, of course, do not exist in ΤΑΚΕ. In the few words where the diphthong does occur, ΤΑΚΕ writes them in the pre-Byzantine manner (which is becoming more common for writing ancient Greek). If the original diphthong was ᾱι, we pronounce it just like αι above (cf. ᾱυ below); if it is ηι or ωι, we pronounce each vowel separately, e.g. κωμωιδία /komoi'dia/ "comedy", cf. Latin 'comoedia'.
• Those whose second element is υ are rare. The uncommon ᾱυ is treated exactly the same as αυ in ΤΑΚΕ; ηυ occurs almost exclusively as the 'augmented' form of αυ- and ευ- and, as ΤΑΚΕ verbs will not be augmented, ηυ will not occur. The diphthong ωυ was uncommon and restricted to certain dialects; it occurs in ΤΑΚΕ only in the proper name Μωυσῆ /moy'se/ "Moses" where, following later Greek practice will pronounce this as three syllables, giving both ω and υ there separate sounds.

 

3. Consonants

3.1 Plosives & Fricatives (excluding sibilants)

The main question is whether ΤΑΚΕ should distinguish between aspirated and unaspirated voiceless plosives as classical Greek did, or whether to shift the aspirated plosives to fricatives as in the Byzantine and modern pronunciations. For many, and not just English, speakers to distinguish between aspirated and unaspirated plosives is not easy; certainly the fricative series is more distinctive. There is some evidence that this change was beginning as early as the 2nd century BC and graffiti found at Pompeii certainly shows clear evidence of the change in popular speech. From the 2nd century AD representation of Greek φ by Latin f becomes common. ΤΑΚΕ therefore adopts the fricative pronunciation also.

The ancient voiced plosives have also shifted to fricatives in the modern language; but there is no clear evidence that this change happened so early. Although it was established by the Byzantine period, there is no cogent reason for ΤΑΚΕ to adopt this pronunciation; therefore ΤΑΚΕ retains the ancient voiceless plosive pronunciation.

• Voiceless plosives

  Π π	As French p in page, similar to English p in page. IPA [p].	The preferred pronunciation is as voiceless unaspirated plosives as in French; but as there is no contrast with aspirated forms, the aspirated forms of modern English may be used. Those familiar with modern Greek should note that in ΤΑΚΕ these consonants are NOT voiced after nasals.
  Τ τ	As French t in tout, similar to English t in two. IPA [t].
  Κ κ	As French c in car, similar to English c in car. IPA [k].

• Voiceless fricatives

  Φ φ	As English f in fought. IPA [f].
  Θ θ	As English th in thought. IPA [θ].
  Χ χ	As Welsh ch in chwaer or German ch in Bach. Some English speakers use this sound when pronouncing loch. IPA [x] or [χ]. Note: unlike modern Greek, in ΤΑΚΕ the sound is not palatalized to [ç] before front vowels.

• Voiced plosives
  

  Β β	As English b in bought. IPA [b].
  Δ δ	As English d in dent or French d in dent. IPA [d].
  Γ γ	As English g in goat. IPA [ɡ] For the use of γ as a nasal consonant before other nasals and before velars, see below under 'Nasals'.

3.2 Sibilants

Σ σ *	As English z when followed by a voiced consonant (i.e. β, δ, γ, λ, μ, ν, ρ); In all other positions always as English s in so. IPA [s].
Ζ ζ	As English z in zoo. IPA [z]. (When intervocalic the consonant was normally geminate, i.e. [zz], see below under 'gemination').
Ξ ξ	As English x in fox. IPA [ks]. It should never be given the [gz] sound of 'exam' nor, of course, the [z] sound of 'xylophone'.
Ψ ψ	As English ps in lapse. IPA [ps]. It retains this sound even when initial; it should never be like the 'ps' in 'psychology'.

* Word final lower case Σ is always written ς.

3.3 Nasals

ΤΑΚΕ has retains the three nasal consonants of ancient Greek, thus:

Μ μ	Like the English m in mime IPA /m/.
Ν ν	Like the English n in nine IPA /n/.
Γ γ	This letter is used as the velar nasal before the nasals <μ and ν> and before the velars <κ, χ, γ and ξ>, when it is like the English n in sink IPA /ŋ/. The velar nasal can be regarded as an allophone of /g/ before the nasals, and of /n/ before the velars. The Greeks, however, clearly felt it to be a separate sound as they used the same letter to denote the sound in whatever position it occurred. When used to denote [ŋ] it was in ancient Greek and is in ΤΑΚΕ called ἄγμα ['aŋma], whereas when it denotes the voiced plosive it is (and was) γάμμα ['gamma]. There is no ambiguity in this usage since [ɡɡ] is not a permitted combination and, therefore, γγ unambiguously denotes [ŋg].

Those familiar with Modern Greek should note that in ΤΑΚΕ the combinations μπ, ντ and γκ denote [mp], [nt] and [ŋk] respectively; there is no voicing of the plosive.

3.4 Liquids

Λ λ	As the English l in leaf. IPA [l]. The preferred pronunciation is the "clear l" as in German hell (bright);english speakers should avoid the "dark l" of English hell.
Ρ ρ	An apical trill as in the Italian r in caro. IPA [r].

3.5 The Semi-vowels [w] and [j]

In early Greek [w] existed as an independent phoneme and was represented by the letter ϝ (ϝαῦ 'wau' - later called δίγαμμα 'digamma' because of its shape). It was, however, lost in Attic Greek at an early date, surviving only as the second element of diphthongs where it was an allophone of υ /u/ and so written; it continued to be written this way even after the full vowel υ had shifted to [y].

On the other hand, although [j] may have existed as an independent phoneme in Mycenaean Greek, it was not in any post-Mycenaean dialects. It occurred only as an allophone of /i/ in diphthongs. However, we find initial [j] of names of foreign origin written ἰ, e.g. Ἰωσήφ Joseph, Ἰησοῦς Jesus. In ΤΑΚΕ we pronounce this initial ἰ as [j] in such names, i.e. Ἰωσήφ [jo'sef], Ἰησοῦ [je'su]. Optionally, this pronunciation may be used in native Greek words also, e.g. ἰατρό "physician, doctor" [ia'trɔ] or [ja'trɔ].

Occasionally, ι will be found between vowels in words of non-Greek origin; here we pronounce it just like ι as the second element of a diphthong before another vowel, i.e. as [jj], e.g. ἀλληλούια "alleluia, hallelujah" [alle'lujja].

Those familiar with Modern Greek should note that in ΤΑΚΕ:

• ι is pronounced [j] only in the circumstances given above; it does not become [j] before a vowel in all positions.
• Only ι is ever pronounced [j].

3.6 Gemination

Gemination of consonants is a feature of some languages, e.g. Italian and Finnish; it was also a feature of ancient Greek and, indeed, has persisted until the present day in some Greek dialects, e.g. Cypriot Greek, although it has now gone from standard modern Greek (though spelling still retains double consonants, e.g. θάλασσα "sea"). As ΤΑΚΕ is ancient Greek without inflexions, consonants which are doubled in the spelling are geminate and should be pronounced double; also, as in Koine Greek, medial ζ is geminate [zz].

It will be found that, as in the ancient language, the following consonants only may be geminate:

• The the voiceless plosives: -ππ- /pp/, -ττ- /tt/ and -κκ- /kk/.
• Of the sibilants, only -σσ- /ss/ and -ζ- /zz/.
• The liquids and nasal (except /ŋ/): -λλ- /ll/, -μμ- /mm/, -νν- /nn/ and -ρρ- /rr/.
  (also we find [jj] and [ww] when diphthongs are followed by a vowel).

In the ancient language when we would expect gemination of aspirated voiceless plosive, we find that aspiration affects only the second one, i.e. instead of -θθ- we have -τθ- [ttʰ]. As ΤΑΚΕ has adopted a fricative pronunciation for the ancient aspirated plosives, it means that in ΤΑΚΕ fricatives are never geminate but rather an affricate is used instead, thus:

• the three affricates are: -πφ- /pf/, -τθ- /tθ/ and -κχ- /kx/.

Just as in classical Attic and early Koine Greek, the three voiced plosives are never geminate. Remember that -γγ- is not a double gamma, it is agma followed by a gamma and is, therefore, pronounced /ŋg/. Also, fairly obviously, the double consonants ψ /ps/ and ξ /ks/ cannot be geminated and, therefore, are never doubled in writing.

Exceptions to the last rule are occasionally found in words of foreign origin, most noticeably the Koine Σάββατον (Sabbath, Saturday) from Hebrew. However, we find the [bb] of the prophet Habbakuk is rendered as [mb] in the Ἀμβακούμ. It is also fairly clear that in popular Greek the word for 'Sabbath' was Σάμβατον; similarly in literary Latin we always find sabbatum, but in popular speech sambatu(m) also occurred, cf. French 'samedi' ← *'sambati die' and Romanian 'sîmbătă'). I guess I should bow to tradition and use Σάββατο in ΤΑΚΕ, despite the double β; nevettheless, I will allow Σάμβατο as an alternative.

 

4. Diacritics

The diacritics which are normally printed on ancient Greek texts were, according to tradition, the invention of Aristophanes of Byzantion; certainly they were the work of Alexandrian grammarians, of which Aristophanes was one, during the 3rd century BC. They were devised originally to aid with the correct pronunciation of Homer, but as Greek became more widespread among peoples whose first language was not Greek, the diacritics became more widely used to indicate correct pronunciation. There are three types of diacritic:

1. the two 'breathings' to show whether an initial vowel is preceded by [h] or not;
2. the three accents to indicate word accent (pitch in ancient Greek - stress in modern Greek);
3. The diaeresis.

The 'iota subscript' is sometimes included among the diacritics. Strictly speaking it is not. It originates from the Byzantine practice of writing an iota, which had become silent by the Byzantine period, underneath the preceding vowel. This is discussed under diphthongs above.

4.1 Breathings

Even in ancient Greece some dialects had 'dropped their aitches', namely East Ionic, Lesbian, Elean, Cyprian and Cretan. These dialects are known as psilotic and the process of dropping the [h] sound is known as psilosis. During the Hellenistic period, psilosis became more widespread (a similar process was also going on in spoken Latin) until by the Byzantine period Greek as a whole was psilotic and remains so to the present day.

I had originally thought of making ΤΑΚΕ psilotic also. But on consideration I have decided against it for the following reasons:

• neither classical Attic nor early Koine were psilotic;
• in words borrowed from Greek by other languages, the initial h- is written (the notable exception to this practice is Italian), e.g. hippopotamus, hyacinth, hygiene etc.;
• the breathings were retained in Katharevousa and, indeed, in written Greek generally until the 1982 reforms.

As ΤΑΚΕ uses only classical & Koine Greek and, if modern terms are needed, Katharevousa, it is more logically to retain the breathings. Of course in ΤΑΚΕ the /h/ will be pronounced [h] and not dropped. Therefore, all initial vowels must have either:

• The rough breathing ῾ to denote [h], e.g. ἁ [ha], ἑ [hɛ] etc.
• The smooth breathing ᾿ to denote the absence of [h], e.g. ἀ [a], ἐ [ɛ] etc.

Note:

• The breathing is placed over the second element of a diphthong or digraph, including υι [yjj] e.g. υἱό [hyj'jɔ] "son", οὐρανό [ura'nɔ] "sky, heaven".
• ΤΑΚΕ, however, does not follow the practice of writing every initial rho as ῥ nor of writing geminate rho as ῤῥ.

4.2 Accents

4.2.1 Word Accent: General Considerations

In ancient Greek the word accent was one of pitch, not of stress as in English and modern Greek. The vowel that received the higher pitch was marked by an acute accent, thus ά; the vowels that were pronounced on normal pitch were at first marked with the grave accent, thus ὰ. Clearly, this use of the grave accent was redundant and inelegant, and was eventually replaced by the system still used for printing ancient Greek, i.e. where a high pitch vowel in a final syllable was modified so that it either lost its pitch and became normal or was modified in some other way (several details about how pitch accent actually worked remain unclear).

Besides the acute and grave accents, the Alexandrians also used a circumflex, ᾶ, which was originally written as it still is in French spelling and was a combination of acute and grave. It was used on vowels which began on the higher pitch and then sank to the normal pitch and, therefore, was used only on long vowels and on diphthongs.

Before the end of the 4th century AD, however, the pitch accent had given way to stress accentuation which Greek retains to the present day. Nevertheless, modern Greek continued to use the ancient Alexandrian accents to mark the stressed vowel until the 1982 reform, except that the use of the grave to denote a 'modified acute' had generally been dropped, the acute being used in all contexts. As ΤΑΚΕ is based on Classical Greek and early Koine, it seems more appropriate that ΤΑΚΕ use the pre-1982 polytonic system of accents.
Therefore:

• ΤΑΚΕ will use the conventional accent marking of ancient Greek with the following three modifications:
  1. The grave accent will not be used; therefore, final acutes will not be changed to grave at all.¹
  2. The number of proclitics (which bear no accent) is extended; this is explained below.
  3. The rules for enclitics will be modified; this also is explained below.
• It will, however, follow post 4th century AD Greek in pronouncing the accented vowel (or diphthong) with greater stress and will not attempt to restore the ancient pitch accent since there are, in my opinion, too many points on which there is insufficient knowledge.

¹The rule was that an acute on vowel of a final syllable was changed to a grave before other words in the same sentence, except if that word were an enclitic. Also the interrogatives τίς and τί always retained their acute accent. The acute accent was also retained if the word were followed by a full-stop (period) or a colon (see 'Punctuation' below); before a comma, however, practice varied between writer and writer, and between printer and printer.

4.2.2 Word accent: How it works in ΤΑΚΕ

First, however, it will be necessary to know the ancient system was conditioned by the length of vowels (not, it should be noted, by the quantity of the syllable itself as in the Latin stress system). In classical Attic and in early Koine we find that:

• All diphthongs, the digraph ου, and the two vowels η and ω were long;
• The two vowels ε and ο were always short;
• The vowels α, ι and υ could be either long or short.

We should also note that it was only in one of the last three syllables of a word that an accented vowel could occur, and that, just as with the breathings, the actual mark for the accent was placed over the second element of a diphthong or digraph. In what is discussed below, I shall speak of 'stress', since that is how the accent will be realized in ΤΑΚΕ.

Stress on the third from last (antepenultimate) syllable

This is always denoted by the acute accent (it will be seen also that the vowel in the final syllable was 'short' in the ancient language, e.g.
θάλασσα /'θalassa/ "sea"; ἄνθρωπο /'anθropɔ/ "person, human being"

Stress on the next to last (penultimate) syllable

If the vowel in the penultimate was long in the ancient language and vowel in the final syllable was short, then the accent is a circumflex, e.g.
ἐκεῖνο /e'kɛjnɔ/ "that"; τοῦτο /'tutɔ/ "he, she, him, her, it";
otherwise the acute is used, e.g.
τόδε /'tɔdɛ/ "this"; εἰρήνη /ɛj'rene/ "peace".
Unfortunately as ancient α, ι and υ could be long or short, there are some apparent oddities (but a dictionary will give the correct form), e.g.
χώρα /'χora/ "land", μοῖρα /'mɔjra/ "degree" [in geometry]

Stress on the last syllable

The accent is usually an acute, e.g.μητρό /me'trɔ/ "mother"; βασιλεύ /basi'lɛw/ "king";
a circumflex, however, is used if the vowel resulted from an earlier contraction of vowels where the first one originally carried the accent, e.g.
Ἑρμῆ (← Ἑρμέα- ) /hɛr'me/ "Hermes".

Specific rules for placing the accent on nouns, adjectives and verbs will be given on the pages which explain how the words are derived from ancient Greek.

4.2.3 Proclitics in ΤΑΚΕ

These are monosyllabic words that are closely attached to the following word and are atonic (i.e. bear no accent). In the ancient language these fell into four categories and still do so in ΤΑΚΕ, namely:

1. In the ancient language the nominative masc. & fem., both singular & plural, were atonic, but the other forms of the article were accented. In ΤΑΚΕ the invariable το has no accent.
2. The prepositions εἰς (into), ἐκ/ἐξ (out of) and ἐν (in) were atonic in ancient Greek; the other monosyllabic prepositions are normally written with a grave accent. ΤΑΚΕ treats all monosyllabic prepositions as proclitics, i.e. none of them have a written accent.
3. The conjunctions εἰ (if) and ὡς (as) were atonic, but other monosyllabic conjunctions are normally written with a grave accent. ΤΑΚΕ treats all monosyllabic conjunctions as as proclitics, i.e. none of them have a written accent.
4. The negative οὐ (οὐκ, οὐχ) was normally atonic. It received an acute accent, however, if it came last in a sentence, e.g. πῶς γὰρ οὔ; For why not?; it also received the acute when it stood alone as Οὔ No. ΤΑΚΕ treats οὐ the same way. They negative μὴ, however, was normally written with a grave or, under similar circumstances as οὐ, with an acute. ΤΑΚΕ treats μη as normally proclitic, i.e. with no accent, but uses the acute under the same circumstances as οὔ.

4.2.4 Enclitics in ΤΑΚΕ

While the numbers of proclitics is increased in ΤΑΚΕ, it has fewer enclitics than the ancient language. In ancient Greek there were enclitic forms of the oblique cases of the singular personal pronouns. ΤΑΚΕ does not have cases and has just a single, invariable form for all personal pronouns without the added complication of alternative enclitic (or proclitic) forms. Nor does ΤΑΚΕ treat the present tense of "to be" (εἶναι) or "to say" (φάναι) as enclitics.

The ancient particles γέ, τέ, τοί and πέρ were enclitic. If any of these remain as separate words in ΤΑΚΕ, they will also be treated as enclitics. The set of enclitics which ΤΑΚΕ certainly retains are only the indefinite adverbs πώς (anyhow, somehow), ποτέ (anytime, sometime) and πού (anywhere, somewhere).

As far as accentuation rules with enclitics is concerned, the important thing to remember is that:

1. An enclitic forms part of a single phonological word with the written word preceding it.
2. In a phonological word, there must not be more than two unstressed syllables following a stressed one.

This means that:

1. If the preceding word is accented on the antepenultimate syllable, the enclitic 'throws its accent' back onto the last syllable of the preceding word; for example:
   κάθιζε + πού → κάθιζέ που (sit anywhere)
   ὕποσχε + ποτέ → ὕποσχέ ποτε (promise sometime)
2. If the preceding word is accented on the penultimate syllable, the enclitic retains an acute on its second syllable, if it has one; For example:
   φάγε + πού → φάγε που (eat anywhere)
   ἔρχε + ποτέ → ἔρχε ποτέ (come sometime)
3. If the preceding word is accented on the last syllable the enclitic has no accent; for example:
   βῆ + ποτέ → βῆ ποτε (go sometime)
   ἀπό + πού → ἀπό που (away from anywhere).
4. If the preceding word is atonic, the enclitic 'throws its accent' back onto the preceding word; for example:
   προς + πού → πρός που (to any place)

Those who are familiar with ancient Greek will see that rules (i), (iii) and (iv) are the same Alexandrian & Byzantine rules; but (ii) is slightly different. It agrees with the rules for ancient Greek if the penultimate accent was acute (high pitch), but not if the penultimate accent was circumflex (high+low); the latter did allow another high pitch on the final vowel. In ΤΑΚΕ, however, the circumflex is just an alternative way of marking stress and hence, as far as rule (ii) is concerned, it is treated the same as an acute.)

4.3 Diaeresis

The trema is placed over ϊ or ϋ after a preceding vowel if these letters are to retain their full vocalic value and do not form a diphthong with the preceding vowel or are not part of a digraph; e.g.
προϊστορικό /prɔ.istɔri'kɔ/ (prehistoric); προϋπόστη /prɔ.y'pɔste/ (to presuppose).

 

5. Punctuation

The hyphen (-) is used much as in English and other European languages. Also the apostrophe (᾽) is used, as in many languages, to indicate the elision of a vowel, e.g. ἀπ᾽ ἐκεῖνο "from that" (← ἀπό + ἐκεῖνο); note, however, the apostrophe marks only the elided vowel - the space between the words is still retained. This also applies when the apostrophe marks aphaeresis, i.e. the dropping of an initial vowel, e.g. ἐκεῖνο ᾽ς "that's" (← ἐκεῖνο ἔς).

ΤΑΚΕ uses the comma (,) and full-stop or period (.) in much the same way as in English and other European languages. Just as in Greek, however, the ΤΑΚΕ question mark is like our semicolon (;) and the middle dot (·) serves as both a colon and semicolon. There is no special exclamation mark.

Various brackets, e.g ( ) [ ] < > { }, are used to denote parenthesis or to enclose blocks for special reasons very much as we do in English. The round brackets, (), are the ones normally used for parenthesis.

Speech is indicated in dialogue by a leading dash as, for example, is commonly done in French (and Greek, of course), e.g.
―καλ᾽ ἡμέρα, Μάρκο.  ("Good day, Mark")
―καλ᾽ ἡμέρα, Ἄννα.   ("Good day, Anna")

Quoted speech is shown with guillemets, thus: Μάρκο λέγε «καλ᾽ ἡμέρα, Ἄννα.» (Mark said "Good day, Anna").