Greek Words

Greek words

are made up of both letters and symbols. The Greek alphabet consists of only 24 letters and symbols and they represent not only letters but vowels and consonants. Early Greek writing or script consisted of what is called Linear B script and was used for writing Mycenaean words. The Linear B script was used before the Greek alphabet was written. The age when the Linear B script was used was known as the Dark Ages. Linear B is the oldest known surviving Greek dialect on record. The script was discovered by Sir Arthur Evans who was an archeologist in the early early part of the 20th century when there were excavations going on in Crete and also on the Greek mainland. The full deciphering of the script was not known until 1953. Michael Ventris and John Chadwick figured the script out. The script consisted of logograms and syllabic signs. The script was taken from clay tablets which turned out to be lists of materials and goods from merchants.

The Greek alphabet was used first in the late 9th or early 8th century B.C.. It was the first known alphabet to use a separate symbol for each vowel and consonant. It is also the oldest alphabet to be still in use today. The alphabet is from the Phoenician alphabet. The re have been many other countries in Europe and the Middle East, and even Latin, that have written their alphabet from the Greek alphabet. Some of the symbols from the Greek alphabet are being used even today for science and math symbols, to name stars, names in physics, for naming sororities and fraternities, naming cyclones, and other uses.

The first signs of the Greek alphabet, used today, came during the downfall of Mycenae (around 1200 B.C. and the beginning of the Ancient Greece., which can be seen in the epics of Homer (around 800 B.C.). The Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet at this time.

The Greek alphabet

consists of: Alpha (a), Beta (v), Gamma (gh), Delta (th), Epsilon (e), Zeta (z), Eta (I), Theta (th), Iota (I), Kappa (Kk), Lambda (l), Mu (m), Nu (n), Ksi (ks), Omicron (o), Pi (p), Rho (rh), Sigma (s), Tau (t), Upsilon (yu), Phi (circle with line down through it), Chi (Xx), Psi (u with line down through it), and Omega (horseshoe shape with line through it). This alphabet is one of just a few that have not been changed through the ages. There have been several dictionaries and encyclopedias (some in several volumes) written with the Greek alphabet and Greek words. These books have different authors so some of them may vary in some entries. It has taken years to decipher the Greek language because it was so difficult and this is why some of the names and myths are different depending on the ones who translated the stories.