Description
Polytonic Greek uses many different diacritics in several categories. At the time of Ancient Greek, each of these marked a significant distinction in pronunciation.
Monotonic orthography for Modern Greek uses only the two diacritics, tonos and diaeresis (sometimes used in combination) that have significance in pronunciation. Initial /h/ is no longer pronounced, and so the rough and smooth breathings are no longer necessary. The unique pitch patterns of the three accents have disappeared, and only a stress accent remains. Iota subscript was a diacritic invented to mark an etymological vowel that was no longer pronounced, so it was dispensed with as well.
| acute | acute, diaeresis |
diaeresis |
|---|---|---|
| Άά Έέ Ήή Ίί Όό Ύύ Ώώ | ΐ ΰ | Ϊϊ Ϋϋ |
The transliteration of the Greek names follows Latin transliteration of Ancient Greek; modern transliteration is different, and does not distinguish many letters and digraphs that have merged by iotacism.
Read more about this topic: Greek Diacritics
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