Romanization of Greek

Romanization of Greek is the representation of Greek language texts, that are usually written in the Greek alphabet, with the Latin alphabet, or a system for doing so. There are several methods for the romanization of Greek, especially depending on whether the language written with Greek letters is Ancient Greek or Modern Greek and whether a phonetic transcription or a graphemic transliteration is intended.

The conventional rendering of classical Greek names in English originates in the way Latin represented Greek loanwords in antiquity. The ⟨κ⟩ is replaced with ⟨c⟩, the diphthongs ⟨αι⟩ and ⟨οι⟩ are rendered as ⟨ae⟩ and ⟨oe⟩ (or ⟨æ, œ⟩); and ⟨ει⟩ and ⟨ου⟩ are simplified to ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩. In modern scholarly transliteration of Ancient Greek, ⟨κ⟩ will instead be rendered as ⟨k⟩, and the vowel combinations ⟨αι, οι, ει, ου⟩ as ⟨ai, oi, ei, ou⟩ respectively. The letters ⟨θ⟩ and ⟨φ⟩ are generally rendered as ⟨th⟩ and ⟨ph⟩; ⟨χ⟩ as either ⟨ch⟩ or ⟨kh⟩; and word-initial ⟨ρ⟩ as ⟨rh⟩.

For Modern Greek, there are multiple different transcription conventions. They differ widely, depending on their purpose, on how close they stay to the conventional letter correspondences of Ancient Greek–based transcription systems, and to what degree they attempt either an exact letter-by-letter transliteration or rather a phonetically based transcription. Standardized formal transcription systems have been defined by the International Organization for Standardization (as ISO 843), by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, by the Library of Congress, and others.

The different systems can create confusion. For example, the word Άγιος or in polytonic script Ἅγιος ("Holy", "Saint"), common inter alia in many place names, may be variously rendered as Agios, Ayios, or Aghios, or Hagiοs (feminine forms: Agia, Ayia, or Aghia, or Hagia).

Transliteration tables

The following tables list several transliteration schemes from the Greek alphabet to the Latin alphabet.

Greek	Ancient			Modern			Greeklish
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	ISO 843	BGN/ PCGN	UN/ ELOT
α	a	a, ā	A	a			a
β	b		B	v			v / b
γ	g		G	g	g / y	g	g/gh/y
δ	d		D	d	dh / d	d	d
ε	e		E	e			e
ζ	z		Z	z			z
η	e	ē	H	ī	i		h / i / e
θ	th		Q	th			th / 8
ι	i	i, ī	I	i			i
κ	c	k	K	k			k / c
λ	l		L	l			l
μ	m		M	m			m
ν	n		N	n			n
ξ	x		C	x			ks / x
ο	o		O	o			o
π	p		P	p			p
ρ	r, rh		R	r			r
σ	s		S	s	s	s	s
τ	t		T	t			t
υ	y	u, ū	U	y	i	y	y /u / i
φ	ph		F	f			f / ph
χ	ch	kh	X	ch	kh	ch	x / ch / h
ψ	ps		Y	ps			ps / y
ω	o	ō	W	ō	o		o / w

Vowel digraphs

Greek	Ancient			Modern			Greeklish
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	ISO 843	BGN/ PCGN	UN/ ELOT
αι	ae	ai	AI	ai	e	ai	ai / e
αυ	au		AU	au	av	av, af	ay, au, af, av
ει	i / e	ei	EI	ei	i	ei	ei / i
ευ	eu		EU	eu	ev	ev, ef	ey, eu, ef, ev
ηυ	eu	ēu	HU	īy	iv	iv / if	hy / hu / if / iv
οι	oe	oi	OI	oi	i	oi	oi / i
ου	u / o	ou	OU	ou	u	ou	ou / u
υι	ui / yi	ui	UI	yi	i	yi	yi / gi / i

Consonant digraphs

Greek	Ancient			Modern			Greeklish
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	ISO 843	BGN/ PCGN	UN/ ELOT
γγ	ng		GG	gg	ng		gg / gk / ng / nk
γξ	nx		GC	gx	nx		gks / gx / nks / nx
γκ	nc	nk	GK	gk	g, ng	gk	g, gk / nk
γχ	nch	nkh	GX	gch	nkh	nch	gx / gch / nx / nch
μπ	mp		MP	mp	b / mb	b, mp	b, mp / mb
ντ	nt		NT	nt	d, nd	nt	d, nt / nd

Modifiers (only in Ancient Greek)

Greek	Ancient			Name
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code
῾	h		(	rough breathing, δασεῖα
᾿	none		)	smooth breathing, ψιλή
ͺ	(i)		|	iota subscript, ὑπογεγραμμένη

Archaic letters

Greek	Ancient
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code
ϝ	–	w	V	digamma
ϻ	–	ś	#711	san
ϙ	–	q	#3	qoppa
ϡ	–	š	#5	sampi

Diacritics

The traditional polytonic orthography of Greek uses several distinct diacritic signs to render what was originally the pitch accent of Ancient Greek, and the presence or absence of word-initial h. In 1982, monotonic orthography was officially introduced for modern Greek. The only diacritics that remain are the acute accent (indicating stress) and the diaeresis (indicating that two consecutive vowels should not be combined). The acute accent and the diaeresis are kept in both the BGN/PCGN and the UN/ELOT romanization systems. There is one exception: in the vowel combinations αυ, ευ and ηυ the accent moves from the υ (that becomes v or f) to the preceding vowel.

See also

• Beta code
• Classical compound
• Cyrillization of Greek
• English words of Greek origin
• List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names for help with Greek-derived scientific names of organisms
• List of Greek words with English derivatives
• Scientific transliteration
• ISO 843

References

• Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts, a collection of writing systems and transliteration tables, by Thomas T. Pedersen. Includes PDF reference charts for many languages’ transliteration systems.
• The Working Group on Romanization Systems of the United Nations.
• Transliteration chart of the Library of Congress.
• Scientific transliteration is described in the Ancient and Medieval Greek transliteration chart of the Library of Congress