The Names of The Letters
The names of some letters were changed in order to distinguish them from certain digraphs which had become homophonous, as follows:
| Letter | Original name | Later name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ε | ei | epsilon | "plain " as opposed to <αι> (they had merged in the 3rd-1st centuries BC) |
| Ο | o or ou | omicron | "small " as opposed to <ω> (merged with the loss of vocal length/pitch from 3rd BC to 3rd AD) |
| Υ | u | upsilon | "plain " as opposed to <οι> (which had gone from to and in/by 1st AD merged with <υ>) |
| Ω | ō | omega | "large " as opposed to <ο> (as above) |
The letter F was probably originally called wau, but in classical times was called digamma, reflecting its shape rather than its sound. Similarly the name sampi means "like pi", suggesting that its phonetic use had been forgotten.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Greek Alphabet
Famous quotes containing the words names and/or letters:
“Nor youth, nor strength, nor wisdom spring again,
Nor habitations long their names retain,
But in oblivion to the final day remain.”
—Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612–1672)
“Harvey: About this Voltaire.
Helene: What about him?
Harvey: How’d he ever get time to do all he did?
Helene: He lived to be old.
Harvey: Even so, how many letters did he write?
Helene: Oh, I don’t know exactly. Thousands.
Harvey: I can’t remember when I even wrote one.
Helene: You should try.
Harvey: It’s too late. I wouldn’t know where to send it.”
—Tom Waldman (d. 1985)