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:
“Almanacked, their names live; they
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Or gallop for what must be joy,”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1985)
“In one instance, we understood that a woman was the post- mistress, and they said that she made the best one on the road; but we suspected that the letters must be subjected to a very close scrutiny there.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)