However A is a letter AND a cow (turn it around and it is actually a cow with horns). It doesn't only look like one. Whoever invented the A actually drew a cow on purpose.
@@wordart_guian lol :P cute but actually the original 'alpha' was drawn differently...that is the official font version.. some people still write it differently by hand... like a loop, or a fish.. which is where the 'Jesus fish' comes from that some people have stuck on the backs of their cars or whatever (because it is said that Jesus said 'I am the alpha and the omega', meaning 'the beginning and the end')
Free Spirit actually the Jesus Fish comes From the Fact Ιχθύς (Fish) stands for Ιησούς Χριστός Θεού Υιός Σωτέρ (Jesus christ, son of god, saviour). Also the original-original Alpha looked like Α, the fish-like version appeared later. The antiquity capitals were brought Back during Renaissance. Original Α came from phoenician Aleph, from protosinaitic Alphu, "cow", which was a drawing of a cow.
It is not ‘butchered’ pronunciation at all, and that is the correct English pronunciation, as when one speaks English one must use the English pronunciation, which is what fits the English language - those are symbols with different sounds modified for English use in maths, and they were not meant to be pronounced as in Greek, as English is a different language with different pronunciation rules, and every time a language creator took symbols and letters and words from different previous languages he gave them new meanings and adapted the pronunciation to the new pronunciation rules from that language, so they are now a part of that language with new pronunciation rules, and the pronunciation they were given in that language shouldn’t be compared to the pronunciation they were given in the previous language or languages!
I used to wonder why Greek had two letters for 'o' until I looked at their names: o-micron means 'small o' and o-mega means 'big o'! And the sounds are indeed different.
In modern Greek, their sounds (not names) are identical. But, in ancient times ο μικρόν used to be a short high o sound, while ω μέγα used to be a long low o sound. (High and low are the positions of the tongue in the mouth to make the vowels.
This video is really helpful, I've just started self teaching myself greek about a month ago and I've been sort of flailing. This video helped more than you think.
I personally thought it was hilarious and a clear difference in culture, but I can also see that being an issue if you're quietly practicing Greek with people around and assuming it's a SFW video.
I was watching this with my parents after a serious conversation about Greek pronunciation. We were all listening very carefully. "I f**k" suddenly thrown in as a casual example, hilarious! We all felt like we'd learned something useful.
I grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, home of Ole Miss, a very "Greek" university. When I was about five years old I learned the Greek alphabet and impressed my parents by being able to read the names of all the fraternities and sororities on campus. Of course I learned the alphabet with the incorrect English pronunciations. I've lived in the Tampa Bay area now for 30 years and my best friends are Greek. I've had to unlearn everything I thought I knew and start from scratch. This video was a reminder of my journey. Very well done. Σας ευχαριστώ
Nope, in English one must pronounce symbols and letters and words with the English pronunciation rules, and, there is no such thing as ‘incorrect’ pronunciation when it comes to symbols and letters and words taken from other previous languages and adapted to the new pronunciation rules of that language, and, in fact, that is the correct English pronunciation, as when one speaks English one must use the English pronunciation, which is what fits the English language - those are basically symbols with different sounds modified for English use etc in maths, and they were not meant to be pronounced as in Greek, as English is a different language with different pronunciation rules, and every time a language creator took symbols and letters and words etc from different previous languages he gave them new meanings and adapted the pronunciation to the new pronunciation rules from that language, so they are now a part of that language with new pronunciation rules, and the pronunciation they were given in that language shouldn’t be compared to the pronunciation they were given in the previous language or languages!
@@FrozenMermaid666 I can't believe that my comment created so much angst in you that you felt the need to write a novel expressing YOUR OPINION on the topic. I CHOOSE to want to pronounce foreign words and letters the way they are pronounced by natives, when I'm speaking that language. You and others can choose a different path. I don't care.
It is a fact, not an opinion, and a loanword automatically becomes an English word once it is adapted to English spelling and pronunciation rules - when speaking English, the words must be pronounced with the English pronunciation rules, including the words modified from words from other languages, which are MOST of the English words, anyway! (Over 80% of the words used in English are a foreign word, mostly modified from Latin languages and some words from Greek and other languages, and they have all been adapted to English pronunciation rules and spelling rules, so they are now an English word, and it’s absurd to try to pronounce them with pronunciation rules that the root words had, and ppl that do such things when speaking English are clueless and against the natural course and evolution of languages, which includes taking words from other languages and adapting them to new spelling rules and new pronunciation rules, as it is in every language!)
Dutch speaker here, and totally shocked about how different the correct pronunciation is compared to what I've always thought was correct... Great vid, thanks.
I know Dutch and am still learning it, but, there is no such thing as ‘incorrect’ pronunciation when it comes to symbols and letters and words taken from other previous letters and adapted to the new pronunciation rules of that language, and, in fact, that is the correct Dutch pronunciation, as when one speaks Dutch one must use the Dutch pronunciation, which is what fits the Dutch language - those are basically symbols with different sounds modified for Dutch use / English use etc in maths, and they were not meant to be pronounced as in Greek, as both Dutch and English are different languages with different pronunciation rules, and every time a language creator took symbols and letters and words etc from different previous languages he gave them new meanings and adapted the pronunciation to the new pronunciation rules from that language, so they are now a part of that language with new pronunciation rules, and the pronunciation they were given in that language shouldn’t be compared to the pronunciation they were given in the previous language or languages! (For example, Dutch doesn’t have the eth sound ð / dh aka the soft d sound or the less obvious d sound that is pronounced in a faster and less obvious way, and it also doesn’t have the thorn sound þ / th aka the soft t sound or the less obvious t sound that is pronounced in a faster and less obvious way, so the eth sound ð / dhelta and the thorn sound þ / thita are pronounced like a normal d sound and normal t sound in Dutch, as that is the correct Dutch pronunciation, and even newer loanwords from English are usually pronounced with a Dutch accent or with the Dutch pronunciation rules, which is totally normal, as loanwords and loanletters and loansymbols are always adapted to the pronunciation rules of that language!)
Re the Greek letter gamma or jamma, isn’t gamma a j sound like the j in the French word je and like the sound in the English word treasure and like the j in the Portuguese word jeito, or, am I the only one who hears a j sound? Because, I don’t hear any w sound, as the w sound is like an u sound or between an u sound and an o sound like in the English word well, and I always hear a j sound when that letter is pronounced… Re the dhelta sound, it is technically en eth sound ð like in the Icelandic words ferð / með / verða etc, which is an approximant of D aka a softer or less obvious D sound that’s said faster and is only about 80% of a normal D sound, and it should be written as dh or ð when explaining the sound, not as th, because English uses th for both the thorn sound þ / Þ (in words like think / thick / thought etc) and the eth sound ð / Ð (in words like then / the / that etc) tho it was supposed to be a dh for the eth sound as it was spellt in East Norse, and, the thorn sound þ is an approximant of T and it is basically a less obvious T that is only about 80% of a normal T and it is said faster and in a less obvious way and can be considered a softer T sound! Also, iota and yota sound exactly the same, as i and y are the same sound, technically, so I was kinda confused by the i being replaced with y in the video - and it seems the H sound ita is also an i / y sound… But, doesn’t Greek have an u sound at all tho? So, it has thee letters for the y / i sound and two letters for the o sound, but no letter for u… Or does it have a combination of letters for the u sound?
I have to correct my previous comment about the gamma sound, because it is not a j sound like in the French word je, nor a w sound - I finally realized that the gamma sound is a type of ‘gargled’ g sound that’s like a back g sound, kinda similar to some of the Dutch g sounds, but not the same sound, and, I could hear it clearly in the video teaching the Greek alphabet from another yt that’s called ‘visit Sithonia’ or something like that, and, I don’t think I have ever heard that sound in any other language, so that’s why it wasn’t easy for me to figure it out at first, but I think I finally managed to produce that sound, but I must practice more to get it to sound better!
Many years ago (more decades than I care to admit) I learned Greek so I could read the New Testament, as it was originally written in Greek. The US "college Greek" is soooo far off that as I teach my spouse Greek for a visit to Greece, learning the correct Greek pronunciation IS important as we prepare for the trip. Thank you for this lesson. (Lol, before I learned Greek, I thought I knew the alphabet!!) Best Joe
I am trying to learn ancient/koine greek so that I can read the new testament too. I am doing it on my own and I am just starting, do you have any tips for how I should go about learning it?
@@jamescurley450 You don't need to learn how the Koine greek was spoken. You just need to learn how to read Greek. If you do a small research you are going to find out that nobody, I said nobody knows how the Koine Greek was spoken. Not even the Greeks. This is my two cents to you. Have a blessed day.
Being a Spanish speaker really brings advantages when learning how to pronounce in Greek. B, D, G are so equally pronounced in Spanish that I need to "unlearn" the sounds I adopted when I learned English 🤣
Yeah, they even say that Spaniards were Greeks who migrated to the Iberian peninsula some millenia ago. At least that's what the Asterix comic books say.
For the most part yes. However Greek has things like V and Z, and also hard B G and D occur in the middle of words because unlike Spanish, “delta” and “D” are distinguished and different from each other For example in Greek “δόντια” Pronounced “thoDia” (th as in “the”) Same with B and G, Greek distinguishes these from Beta and Gamma. Soft B and G are Β Γ, hard versions are “μπ” “γκ”
Es verdad jajaj suena copado lo mismo con el Ruso😁😂😂😎😎👍 pasa q el Español y Ruso se basan en el alfabeto Griego para la gente de habla Inglesa se les re complica jajaj ya q hay otra R en English. No es tan complicado para nosotros.
@@Ezequiel55vf Well, many Slavic languages are written using Cyrillic script which is derived from Greek alphabet. And Romance languages were all influenced by Greek. If we talk about Spanish and Russian in particular, they have a lot of shared vocabulary with words that came from Greek: cultura - культура (culture), biblioteca - библиотека (a library), problema - проблема (a problem) and so on, they even sound almost the same
Gary Rector Indeed wh doesn't help... And sadly no, y from yet won't help either... Because now that I try to imitate the y from yet sound and the Γά from Γάμμα sound. I see that the tip of my tongue at the y from "yet" sound hits my lower front teeth when I say "y" but when I say "Γάμμα" my tongue isn't hitting my lower front teeth but instead the tip isn't touching anything (is in mid air) and the tongue is curved with the upper curved part of my tongue touching my palate. myhealth.alberta.ca/health/_layouts/15/healthwise/media/medical/hw/hwkb17_073_003.jpg So... It is something that needs a little practice
CornerrecordZ I know what you mean. I guess the reason is that when you say the word "yet", or "year", the "y" seems to include a bit of "i" in its sound, instead of the dry, consonant sound we need for gamma. Indeed, "y" is the closest you can get to gamma, but you have to throw out that little "i" sound that accompanies the sound we need! The comment about your tongue position seems correct (although I'm not an expert on the subject) and it is precisely what's needed so that the air will not form the slight "i" sound usually acompanying "y"
Just some clarification for my benefit. It doesn't sound like he's pronouncing gamma as a "W' in English. But instead, if there are any Arabic speakers out there, it sounds almost exactly like a غ (Ghayn) in Arabic. Am I hearing this correctly? Thanks in advance.
You are quite correct! It's actually the same phoneme غ in Arabic and even the French r sound. Replacing the letter with a w to get the correct sound is one of the weirdest things I've ever heard!!
I feel like ghayn comes from the throat and gamma comes from the toungue, at least that's how this guy pronounced it. Ghayn is your throat rubbing against itself but gamma is the tongue against the palate. Edit: Now that I'm listening again I can see that he is making the gamma sound with his throat but it's much softer and a bit higher in the throat than ghayn is.
Tanner Short It is a known fact that Arabic, Farsi or Urdu speakers have an easier time learning languages like Greek, French or Spanish since they are already accustomed to guttaral sounds, rolling r,s and other inflections in speech.
Why English speaking sources keep insisting that 'gamma' (γ) sounds like 'w'? However much I try I fail to see any similarity. I think it sounds more like a breezy g (i.e. something between g and h, similar to glottal g in Ukrainian).
+Maria A yes the closest sound for this in English is gh or how the french people pronounce the r as well, it also exists in Arabic as the letter غ ( pronounced exactly like the r letter in french)
This is an excellent tutorial on the pronunciation of the alphabet in MODERN Greek. However, several of the "incorrect" pronunciations mentioned in the video reflect how the character was pronounced in Ancient Greek, which is the basis for how most of the letters are pronounced in English. So if you are studying Modern Greek, then definitely follow the pronunciations given in this video. But if you are discussing math or science in English, then you should use the conventional English pronunciations. For example, statistics uses μ and pronounced it "mu" or "myoo". This is not an 'incorrect' pronunciation. It is the closest English equivalent to the Ancient Greek pronunciation. No one pronounces it "mee" like in Modern Greek.
Actually, one can pronounce it as mee (Modern) or as mü (Ancient), but it was never pronounced as myoo. Thats because the letter Ypsilon was pronounced Ü in Antiquity, having gradually evolved to the I sound after the the classical period. And in fact, today all English words of Greek origin containing Ypsilon are pronounced as Y and never as U: psYchology, mYth, hYgiene, hYmn, hYpnosis, etYmology and so on....
Strikker900 The original upsilon sound, between "ee" and "oo", doesn't exist in English, and is best approximated by the composite syllable "yu", as in the words "pew" and "few". In none of the example English words you provided is the "y" pronounced as "ee"; rather, it is pronounced as either the dipthong "ai" (like the pronoun "I") or like a short i.
Jeremy Lavine According to the so-called reconstructed pronunciation of Ancient Greek, Y was pronounced as the French U (as in 'une') or perhaps the German Ü (as in über). A quick search online is all it takes to confirm this. Now, in most modern languages Y is pronounced as the ‘ee’ in ‘meet’, in Greek, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Dutch, Spanish, etc. In modern English is also often pronounced ‘ee’ in words such as lyrics, physics, myth, system, etc. Sometimes it can indeed be pronounced differently, but surely never as the French or German U.
Agreed, except for the qualification "so-called". I see no contradiction between this comment and my previous comment. However, even though Y is pronounced the same as I in modern languages, it's still the case that Y in ancient Latin and upsillon/ypsillon in ancient Greek were pronounced like the modern French u and German u-umlaut. The letter Y was introduced to the Latin alphabet specifically and uniquely for representing this sound in borrowed Greek words.
Thank you for the correct pronunciation. It is much appreciated, since that is the way I pronounce the Greek. I am constantly being challenged by people who give the language an anglosized pronunciation. So, this reaffirms my pronunciation. Thanks again.
Christopher V. Barredo In Greek getting married became a cussword. Big wow. In western world marriage has become to mean not much more than a relationship between an electrical outlet and a plug-in - for the joy and wiping of the tears of those who need to have the whole society partake in the celebration of their particular way of achieving orgasm. Way to subdue morality to the needs of one's almighty crotch. And now a big FO to me for being "political and religious" in a place where most snowflakes wanted to learn greek as a prerequisite to majoring in Underwater Basket Weaving with a minor in Queer Musicology. Oh, how very modern, enlightened, and sophisticated all of us edumaceted masses have become. Now, which way to the safe space?
Joanna LMAO you're a real riot! Are you alt right? You sure did find a weird place to express your "edgy" political views! By the way, some people just want to learn Greek for religious or personal reasons, it's not always for the sake of some bullshit piece of paper.
The English W doesn't sound *remotely* like the Greek gamma! W in English is a consonantal U (oo), the same way English Y is a consonantal I (ee). A Greek gamma is simply a voiced Xi, a sound which does not exist in English but is easy enough to pronounce correctly. Also, gamma is pronounced differently depending on which other letters come after it, for example in 'gyro' (year-o) it has a 'y' sound.
+Jack Wright The interesting thing is that i kept hearing whenever he would replace G with W, I would hear his pronunciation as gw. It reminds me of how the r in the Japanese Ryu is pronounced somewhat as a D making it sound like Dee-yu but with a hint of an r sound in it.
***** Only partly true, because you must know that there are *six* different ways to pronounce the English long 'ee' sound! Doesn't sound very efficient to me. Yes, you will know how to pronounce a word when you see it written, but you will not necessarily know how to spell it if you only hear it. Rather like French in that regard. I do like the reform of 1982 where the aspirant signs ( called the letter 'h' in other languages but somehow missing from Greek) were dropped and the stress is indicated on every word, something that Russian really should have fr both natives and foreigners.
Wrong. The accents play a important role of the meaning of the word in modern Greek. For example, μητηρ with a macron accent imparts the meaning of mother, but with an acute accent it means hemp, and with caron accent it means horse and with a grave accent it means scold. Otherwise why would you have polytonic accents if they are no longer pronounced in a modern language...think about it
You are incorrect, Greek is a special language that came to Earth thousands of years ago by Aliens and it has thus remained unchanged and absolutely resistant to all foreign influences which is why it is so special compared to the indigenous human languages around the world.
TheusZeusDeus I believe the meaning of polytonic you are referring to is not the official one. Polytonic in strictly linguistic terms means that the prosody of a word affects its meaning. This is not the case in modern greek, nor ancient greek, not even in indo-european (as far as we know, as illustrated by the fact that none of its daughter languages are polytonal). Could you explain what you mean by "polytonic"?
Γ is one of those letter I think you have to be raise with to get the pronunciation just right. I grew up with Ukrainian parents so the nuances between Г and Х were drilled in, since they both tend to sound like H in English. I both am and am not surprised these letters are the same given the history between the languages and their alphabet, but it's still striking to see them pronounced so similarly. To Russians, Γ becomes G (gut) in English, where as for Ukrainians it's a difference in voicing the same letter, which is what I hear in the video. Γ uses the vocal cords and lives in the back of the throat, which can smoothly transition into a G for those inexperienced with the language and want the new sound to live more comfortably in their mouth. Oddly enough, I also hear similarities to the French R with Greek Γ, which also resides in the same area, although most people switch it out with a full English W to make it flow easier. Χ is voiceless and is moreso in the middle of the mouth, also similar to Ukrainian. It's also difficult to differentiate when learning, essential if you want to say you're actually cold and not hungry in Ukrainian. Growing up in this bi(tri?does a mixed dialect between two languages counts as each mixed part seperate or a whole thing of its own?)lingual environment, I'm all too used to turning letters that look English into completely different letters. P = Russian and Ukrainian R (Greek as well) Russian H = English N Backwards English N (or Ukrainian И) = Greek Η Greek H = English EE E is generally the same throughout Я = German word for Yes (Ja) Λ = is what a Slavic L looks like in cursive
Yeah theres no english way to write it and as he wrote W in the video is misleading to english viewers, people tend to try make too much of a guttural sound in the throat whereas the correct way of pronouncing the letter Γ/γ and in words is so the back of the tongue comes up toward the back of the roof of the mouth instead of in the throat, so it isn't so guttural. try listen to someone pronouncing it is only way
So, in Ukrainian there is no normal g sound like in the English words game / gets / great etc, or can that Cyrillic letter Γ be pronounced like g sometimes, like in Russian? Because in Russian the letter Г can be pronounced like an h sound in certain words tho it is usually pronounced like a g sound… However, the gamma / jamma sound in Greek sounds like a j sound like in the French word je and in the Portuguese words janela / jantar / jeito, and, this sound also exists in English in certain words like genre (the g is pronounced j in this word) and like the forth sound in treasure, like, I definitely hear a j sound whenever one pronounces that Greek letter, so gamma in Greek is more like jamma, and Esperanto has a perfect letter for this sound, which is like a j with an extra roof on top or something like that, which is better for that letter, because j is usually pronounced like an i / y sound in most Norse / Germanic / Nordic languages and in Hungarian and in Slovene etc, while in English and in Celtic languages it is pronounced like a completely different sound that’s basically a ğ sound like the dg / dgi sound in the English word bridge, though it is normally a j sound like in the French word je! (By the way, the w sound in English is pronounced like an u sound or between an u sound and an o sound, depending on the word, and in Dutch and German the w is pronounced like a normal v sound, and in Welsh the w is considered a vowel and is pronounced u like the u / ú in the Spanish words único / unir / unas / unido / unos / uña etc!)
I must correct my previous comment, because the gamma sound isn’t a j sound either, so it isn’t like the j in the French word je - I finally realized that it is a type of ‘gargled’ g sound that’s like a back g sound, kinda similar to some of the Dutch g sounds, but not the same sound, and, I could hear it clearly in the video teaching the Greek alphabet from another yt that’s called ‘visit Sithonia’ or something like that, and, I don’t think I have ever heard that sound in any other language, so that’s why it wasn’t easy for me to figure it out at first, but I think I finally managed to produce that sound, but I must practice more to get it to sound better!
The pronunciation of gamma is a Voiced Velar Fricative, with a slight rounding of the lips, and W is a labialised velar approximant so the sounds are similar
The truth is that it sounds something between "G" and "H", I gave it with "G" cause it is a letter that all countries pronounce. "H" is silent in some other languages and "ha-mma" would sounded like "a-mma" and that would be a problem cause "amma" sounds like a completely different word and means "if". That is why i avoid it. But yes, your comment is very right. Thank you for your comment!!!
I cannot thank you enough. As children my yiaya taught us the basics of Greek, alphabet and numbers, basic nouns, greetings.... As a physics student, I never rectified the cognitive dissonance between yiaya's lessons and the use in mathematics. It is mii. Not moo. Lol
This is so helpful, I'm learning Greek from an actual Greek person but when I'm watching UA-cam videos they're pronouncing them different to what I've learned and it was confusing me - but this has reconfirmed that what I'm learning is the correct pronunciation so thank you! Or as I should say, ευχαριστώ !
Very interesting. Great video, and a great explanation, really liked this. Two things I want to say about this: 1) You say that "Gamma" uses the "w" sound, but it is actually (according to wiki AND how you say it) uses the /ɣ/ sound (it is a bit like the "g" in the spanish "agua", if anybody reading is curious), which happens to be called the "soft g" sound in my language (icelandic), so in our case Gamma would be correct(ish). You also probably knew this already, so I am sorry for being annoying. 2) I was curious so I checked what the Icelandic names of the greek letters were, and they were surprisingly more accurate (still a bit wrong). Here they are: "Alfa, Beta (should be Víta), Gamma, Delta (should be Ðelta), Epsilon, Zeta (should be Zíta), Eta (should be Íta), Þeta (should be Þíta), Jóta, Kappa, Lambda (should be Lamða), Mý, Ný, Ksí/Xí, Ómíkron, Pí, Hró, Sigma, Tá (should be Taf), Ypsilon, Fí, Khí/Kí, Psí, Ómega" As you can see, it is much more correct than the english one (taking into consideration of the icelandic pronunciation of "i/y", "Í/ý", "j" and "g"). I also learned Pi in math as, well, Pí (english: pee), and never knew that english pronounced it as pie. Extra fun fact: the letter "y" in icelandic is called "yffsilon/ypsilon i" (the Icelandic "ff" sound and "p" sound is very similar). Never knew what the "ypsilon" part meant until I saw the names for the greek letters for the first time. XD
Dear Icelander, the way you pronounce the names of Greek letters in Icelandic is not "wrong". It's just not how they are pronounced in MODERN Greek, but it's very close to how they were pronounced in ANCIENT Greek at some point in the history. In even older times, they were pronounced differently again, the pronunciation has evolved through centuries. For example, Delta was definitely Delta before it became Ðelta (to use your Icelandic spelling) in the modern times. Theta used to be Theta (with an aspirated T), then it became Þeta, and later Þíta. The letter "η" (Eta) used to be pronounced similar to "e" (in "bed", but longer and more open), it only changed to "ee" much later. And so on. So don't call your Icelandic way wrong only because it's different from Modern Greek - it's preserving (approximately) the way it was in Ancient Greek. For your comparison, these are the names of Greek letters in Czech: Alfa, Beta, Gama (single "m" because Czech doesn't really have geminated consonants), Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Éta, Théta, Jóta, Kapa, Lambda, Mí, Ní, Xí (ksí), Omikron, Pí, Ró, Sigma, Tau, Ypsilon, Fí, Chí ("ch" similar to German "ich"), Psí, Omega. So as you can see, it is only slightly different from the Icelandic way, because we also more or less preserved the Ancient Greek pronunciation. Extra fun fact: the word "ypsilon" meant "simple y" (just like "epsilon" meant "simple e"), so calling it "ypsilon i" is quite funnily redundant.
As a greek I can tell you that w in the words: win, wall,work,word, wallet sounds exactly as Γ in greek. But not in all cases, for example low, shallow . Mostly when it is the first letter.
amerese:it's a matter of how one pronounces the vowel y and i. The consonant p is the same as in english.(e.g.poor.perform etc), only in greek the air comes a little lighter between the lips (hold a candle in front of yourlips and try to pronunce it with the flame still on). The name of the greek letter pi sounds exactly as in pee (urinate) ,only with a much lighter p.
It is funny how native speakers of the English language change foreign words or terms to sound english but when the opposite is done seems foolish and wrong.
Thanks a bunch for this lesson. It makes sense now to me that the Greeks, and Old English used an I-i spelling out the Messiah name. In those days the i made the Ya sound. Then old english used the i for the ya sound, then in middle english the i by adding a loop to make a j, and the j made the Ya sound. Explains why Jesus name was then spelled with a J.
Why did you substitute Gamma with W? That doesn't make sense. It's more like a gargling G. You pronounce it right of course but the letter W i think is not the best way to explain it :)
Yep, W to an English speaker is not even close to the sound they make. In fact at this level of Greek pronunciation in these types of videos I don’t see a need to make a big deal of such tiny variations. gh or G or gg all sound close enough for this level of learning. W or Wha? Not even close.
I picked up a book last week that was written in Greek and was determined to learn the language. I began with children’s alphabet songs and common phrases. I understand the phrases and have a base understanding of the language from that, as I am naturally quite proficient with language structure. I like to play UA-cam videos with Greek people speaking, so that I am able to see the body language and hear their correct pronunciation. I’m really glad that I found your channel, thank you. I was trying so hard to find a video of the satisfied my want to know how to pronounce the letters correctly. Its not quite the same in the song, and I’m not happy with settling for Americans pronunciations. If you have any links that you think will help me, please let me know. And the book that I intend on reading I do believe is written in ancient Greek, and I understand that ancient and modern Greek differ, first things first.😉
I'm an engineering student, and we use greek alphabet in formulas. and I realized that we are all pronouncing these symbols wrong(almost all the symbol) ahahhhhahhaa
For french speakers "Γ/γ" is like "r", for arabic speakers its exactly like "غ" and for the rest...just do the sound you do when you wash ya teeth without any water.....or try to say *hhhhh" with your vocal cords.
do you realise that whenever you say replace g with w you are still pronouncing it with a g? It's rather confusing. Shouldn't you say add a w so that it is now pronounced gw?
Gamma -- Make a very "blurry" hard G. Gghh, sort of combined with a strong H sound. Instead of closing the sound entirely, let it be open and blurry, sort of gargling. It's the "voiced" equivalent of the KH/CH in German Buch, Scottish Loch (not K), and Spanish Reloj (Jota). -- The "w" may not be helpful for English speakers, but I see what he's getting at there. -- The B in bêta may be a "blurry B" with the lips not quite touching, more of a BH than an English V. (B/V as in Spanish use, vivir; BH = both lips almost touching, a blurry B, bilabial; V = lower lip touches tip of the upper incisor (front) teeth, labio-dental.)
This was so helpful, thank you (and I'm thrilled that my own bits of research were *generally* right. We never start words with actual "ps" or "ks" like in "psi" "ksi" as they can in Greek, so we *never* pronounce these remotely correctly. When it occurred to me how these should actually be pronounced, I went with it but was always a little unsure until now)! As some have stated, the "w" for "gamma" is a bit misleading, perhaps just to the English ear. For English speakers who are a little more familiar with some other languages, it seems that "gamma" is in Modern Greek pronounced more like a *gargle* as they sometimes call it. Similar to the sound of an R in modern French, or the "gh" you see transcribed for certain middle-eastern languages like Arabic. If you do a search for how "r" is pronounced in French or "gh" in Arabic, you'll find striking similarities.
@@bethhentges Hehe, when I say we didn't start works with "ps", I meant the sound, not the letters. That is - when we pronounce the word "psychology", we omit the "p" sound, unlike the Greeks.
I hear you! I spent many hours being told off by a friend who was laughing her head off every time I tried to pronounce the Greek GAMMA. We can only but try, dying saying it! =)
And the funny thing about it is that Γάμμα (gamma) is very similar with the word Γάμα (gama) which means "Fuck", or "to fuck" :P So if you try to imagine how hillarius would that be for a Greek to hear you saying fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck over and over :P [translate.google.gr/#el/en/%CE%93%CE%AC%CE%BC%CE%BC%CE%B1] [translate.google.gr/#el/en/%CE%93%CE%AC%CE%BC%CE%B1]
3:17 I don't know if I'm deaf, but when he says to pronounce sigma like "si-wma", i'm still hearing a "g" in there..is it like a soft g rather than a hard english-pronounced g?
I appreciate this but my main interest in the Greek alphabet regarded mythological greece and back them the pronunciation was more like the common spelling. (beta pronounced b, delta as d, etc.)
Wonderful tutorial! Great work. My only suggestions is that the G to W equivalent isn't quite on par with the English language. There really is no equivalent in english. Its more guttural, like a German G or CH.
First of all, congratulations to the uploader of this video for trying to explain the Modern Greek pronunciation. People are really confused with the Greek γ so here's what you need to remember. It's something I realised today and I hope that it will help you: When it's *before the vowels "ι" ("i" like in "history") and "ε" ("e" like in "elephant")*, it's just like the English letter "y" in the words "yellow", "yes", "you" etc For Finnish speakers, it's just like your "j". However, the letter "γ" can also be found *before the letters "α" ("a" like in "father") and "ο" ("o" like in "orange")*. In this case, "γ" sounds like a sound between "g" and "h". For French speakers, it's similar to your "r". Someone here mentioned that it sounds like "w" in the word "wounded" and I agree. "W" in "wounded" is different from "y" in "yes", do you see the difference? Try to separate these "w" and "y" from the English words. Doesn't "y" in "yellow" sound like "yee-ellow? (this "ee" is like in the word "see"). Now take the "w" from the word "wounded". We don't say "yee-ounded", do we? This "w" in "wounded" is this second "γ" that confuses so many people. For Greeks out there, doesn't "γέρος" sound a bit like "γιέρος"? Now think of the word "αγάπη", it's not "αγιάπη", is it? That's because the first "γ" is before "ε" (γέ-ρος) while the second one is before "α" (α-γά-πη). I am not a linguist but I really hope that I helped some people with my comment. EDIT: Arabic wāw sounds a bit like γ, right?
Yeah theres no English way to write it, have to heard a pronunciation and as he wrote W in the video is misleading to english viewers, people tend to try make too much of a guttural sound in the throat whereas the correct way of pronouncing the letter Γ/γ and in words is so the back of the tongue comes up toward the back of the roof of the mouth instead of in the throat, so it isn't so guttural. Its funny because if you can speak Greek Γ is one of the easiest to understand and pronounce. Its unfortunate its written online as γ (Γ) because it looks similar to the uppercase letter for υ which is Υ when properly γ (Γ) is supposed to written with a loop at the bottom instead of a straight Y like this ɣ: Correct way ɣ - Online keyboards γ
@@HKotolos I agree so much, I dislike the way "γ" looks like when we type. Nobody would write it like that and it looks extremely similar to "y" indeed
@@Autmies Its ridiculous now with something called Clean-tounge which is proper high-modern greek if you go study it at uni, and then theres standard modern greek which is spoken in greece, and now even on the greek news theres alot of slang words like in english someone learning english may struggle to understand and they've stopped using tonos accents on letters teaching greek, which even my greek born grandmothers cant understand some words now which degrades the language and makes it harder to understand and pronounce - Proper way to learn proper Greek is the modern greek/'clean-tounge' greek with tonos/accents (ίέόώ - ιεοω). also didnt expect you to respond after 7 years old comment haha
It is refreshing for someone to also demonstrate the modern/conversational Greek sounds; biblical students are learning a developed common sound structure which is helpful among themselves. Many of them surely must find out that it is not the same to native Greek speakers, such as when my Greek Bible student husband pronounced them to my Greek father! By the way, a tip for the Greek "r" (ro) sound is that it is a trilled "r" sound (which my daughter has a hard time making), such as used in the Spanish language, and the "g" (gamma) is from the throat (listen carefully), similar to the French "r" sound, maybe a little softer. Note that the "p" ("pee" as written in the video) is not as aspirated (air flow lessened) as with the usual English "p" - it may help to think of the English "b" for it to come out less aspirated. This could be part of the reason I rarely think of the English word "pee" when I say this Greek letter, but your chuckle reminded me :) Thank you!
Gamma sounds in no way like the English 'w'. Not even close. English does not have an equivalent sound. Gamma is like the sound of g (approximant) in Castillian Spanish as in words like 'pagar' etc.
Harshad Gado Practically the castillian g is inbetween the italian g and a bit softer than the greek γκ(before α or ο). Rather close to γ, as you proposed. Surely no connection to w in general.
That must be a similar principal used when the Romance languages imported W words from the Germanic languages: war = guerra, guerre ward/warden = guardia, garde, guard warranty = garanzia, garantía, garantie win = ganar, gagner, gain William/Wilhelm = Guglielmo, Guillermo, Guillaume Walter = Gualtiero, Gutierre, Gauthier
I see where you're coming for for sure, here's what helped me understand that...Put your tongue in-between your teeth like you do when saying th. Now start at that point, and then say thelta. That's what helps me understand it, good luck :)
Thanks for the video very informative. Can someone tell me if the right exchange of letters would be instead of g=gh like the letter غ if that makes sense to anyone. Because watching this video and judging it cant be "w" but instead i think its "gh".
***** No, I am saying that you are wrong. I think might mispronounce English. Γ = g in English. Listen to this linked sound. As a native speaker I hear "ga aga gha ghya". upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Voiced_velar_fricative.ogg
***** "The second sound is somewhere between the English hard ‘g’ (as in gum) and ‘y’ (as in year)." lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2006-September/040151.html
In math these letters are pronounced the way they used to be pronounced in Ancient Greek. We are not pronouncing letters incorrectly, we are pronouncing letters of another language (ancient Greek)
This is fantastic! Thank you so much! I just started learning Modern Greek and want to get the pronunciation from a native speaker from the get-go. I really appreciate your very clear enunciation. I don't think people commenting over whether it should be an r or a w understand that these are just an approximation to help them understand the pronunciation. Just close your eyes and listen over and over, then you will learn it. Don't focus on the spelling until you are comfortable with listening/hearing/speaking first.
Very helpful... Dies anyone know of a similar video for diphthongs and the correct pronunciation of upsilon after certain vowels? ... I guess 'gamma' could be be compared to the Dutch 'g' (as in Van Gogh)? Could it be called a "voiced velar fricative"? Also, very odd that he chose that word to demonstrate the pronunciation... Maybe they use that word in Greece as often as we use it America! Lol
I was unhappy that BBC recently posted a video about all sorts of pronunciations of OMICRON except the Greek version. Greek is a (classical) living language! There has to be fairer look at its existence outside narrow American and English versions. Is it arrogance? Is it just the absence of humility?🧐🧐Thank you for your great introduction to it.
"It's not a cow, it's a letter" This is my kind of humor
I prefer yellow bile and blood.
this is greek
not herbew
However A is a letter AND a cow (turn it around and it is actually a cow with horns). It doesn't only look like one. Whoever invented the A actually drew a cow on purpose.
@@wordart_guian lol :P cute
but actually the original 'alpha' was drawn differently...that is the official font version.. some people still write it differently by hand... like a loop, or a fish.. which is where the 'Jesus fish' comes from that some people have stuck on the backs of their cars or whatever (because it is said that Jesus said 'I am the alpha and the omega', meaning 'the beginning and the end')
Free Spirit actually the Jesus Fish comes From the Fact Ιχθύς (Fish) stands for Ιησούς Χριστός Θεού Υιός Σωτέρ (Jesus christ, son of god, saviour). Also the original-original Alpha looked like Α, the fish-like version appeared later. The antiquity capitals were brought Back during Renaissance.
Original Α came from phoenician Aleph, from protosinaitic Alphu, "cow", which was a drawing of a cow.
Alpha 0:56
Beta 1:03 1:11
Gamma 1:15 1:22
Delta 1:27 1:36
Epsilon 1:40
Zeta 1:47
Eta 1:51
Theta 1:57
Iota 2:02 2:12
Kappa 2:16
Lambda 2:21 2:29
Mu 2:34 2:39
Nu 2:43
Xi 2:49
Omicron 2:54
Pi 3:00
Rho 3:05
Sigma 3:10 3:17
Tau 3:21 3:27
Upsilon 3:30 3:37
Phi 3:42
Chi 3:47
Psi 3:52
Omega 3:57 4:06
Thank yoi
MVP
Underrated comentary
Thank you
ABGDEZETHIKLMNXOPRHSTUPHCPO
As a mathematician I was tired of butchering the pronunciation so thank you. Some sounds are actually quite close to french like the a in alpha.
It is not ‘butchered’ pronunciation at all, and that is the correct English pronunciation, as when one speaks English one must use the English pronunciation, which is what fits the English language - those are symbols with different sounds modified for English use in maths, and they were not meant to be pronounced as in Greek, as English is a different language with different pronunciation rules, and every time a language creator took symbols and letters and words from different previous languages he gave them new meanings and adapted the pronunciation to the new pronunciation rules from that language, so they are now a part of that language with new pronunciation rules, and the pronunciation they were given in that language shouldn’t be compared to the pronunciation they were given in the previous language or languages!
I used to wonder why Greek had two letters for 'o' until I looked at their names: o-micron means 'small o' and o-mega means 'big o'! And the sounds are indeed different.
In modern Greek, their sounds (not names) are identical. But, in ancient times ο μικρόν used to be a short high o sound, while ω μέγα used to be a long low o sound. (High and low are the positions of the tongue in the mouth to make the vowels.
It does have a difference in sound omicron make a continuous O sound while omega makes a instant O sound
@@tassoss13 the opposite exactly !!
wow man im a greek and i never noticed that
@@Michail_Chatziasemidis great explanation, ευχαριστώ !
This video is really helpful, I've just started self teaching myself greek about a month ago and I've been sort of flailing. This video helped more than you think.
How is it going w the Greek?
@@eleannamyrtsi2351 he post that 8 years ago
@@corbinwilson660 but he still has Greece written in his profile picture.
It's time to mess with the Math teacher =3
Hiro Mahtava yeah stop saying "pie" instead of "pee"
lol
To Herristophros Gewpyoulas,
I won't be eatting any of your apple pee.
summation will be fun with the “siwma”
Lol
I laughed so much at "it's not a cow, it's a letter" :') this video is awesome, thank you :)
:-) Thank you Emily !!!
Tic Tac Official where he says that
+Emily Stretton Moore SAME!!
+Umutt S THE M THEY SAY IN ANOTHER VIDEO MU SOUNDS LIKE MOOOOO AS THE COW LOL
Pls make some muuu-re videos
Was not expecting "I fuck." to just come out of nowhere...
same
Not a pleasant surprise
I personally thought it was hilarious and a clear difference in culture, but I can also see that being an issue if you're quietly practicing Greek with people around and assuming it's a SFW video.
I was preparing to watch it with my four children. Very thankful I watched it before hand.
I was watching this with my parents after a serious conversation about Greek pronunciation. We were all listening very carefully. "I f**k" suddenly thrown in as a casual example, hilarious! We all felt like we'd learned something useful.
It's not a cow, it's a letter.
I grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, home of Ole Miss, a very "Greek" university. When I was about five years old I learned the Greek alphabet and impressed my parents by being able to read the names of all the fraternities and sororities on campus. Of course I learned the alphabet with the incorrect English pronunciations. I've lived in the Tampa Bay area now for 30 years and my best friends are Greek. I've had to unlearn everything I thought I knew and start from scratch. This video was a reminder of my journey. Very well done. Σας ευχαριστώ
Did you just say "ghamao" means "fuck". Where I come from it is somebody's name!
Nope, in English one must pronounce symbols and letters and words with the English pronunciation rules, and, there is no such thing as ‘incorrect’ pronunciation when it comes to symbols and letters and words taken from other previous languages and adapted to the new pronunciation rules of that language, and, in fact, that is the correct English pronunciation, as when one speaks English one must use the English pronunciation, which is what fits the English language - those are basically symbols with different sounds modified for English use etc in maths, and they were not meant to be pronounced as in Greek, as English is a different language with different pronunciation rules, and every time a language creator took symbols and letters and words etc from different previous languages he gave them new meanings and adapted the pronunciation to the new pronunciation rules from that language, so they are now a part of that language with new pronunciation rules, and the pronunciation they were given in that language shouldn’t be compared to the pronunciation they were given in the previous language or languages!
@@FrozenMermaid666 I can't believe that my comment created so much angst in you that you felt the need to write a novel expressing YOUR OPINION on the topic. I CHOOSE to want to pronounce foreign words and letters the way they are pronounced by natives, when I'm speaking that language. You and others can choose a different path. I don't care.
It is a fact, not an opinion, and a loanword automatically becomes an English word once it is adapted to English spelling and pronunciation rules - when speaking English, the words must be pronounced with the English pronunciation rules, including the words modified from words from other languages, which are MOST of the English words, anyway! (Over 80% of the words used in English are a foreign word, mostly modified from Latin languages and some words from Greek and other languages, and they have all been adapted to English pronunciation rules and spelling rules, so they are now an English word, and it’s absurd to try to pronounce them with pronunciation rules that the root words had, and ppl that do such things when speaking English are clueless and against the natural course and evolution of languages, which includes taking words from other languages and adapting them to new spelling rules and new pronunciation rules, as it is in every language!)
@@FrozenMermaid666 BYE!
I have to π
WHY
OK, but don' t forget: Shake it only at a maximum of three times, because after that it is considered to be "μαλακία"(jerking off)...
LOL :-)
+Gdfserdy Fgregnm isnt it μαλακας?
tricky smith xD lol
STOP! MAKE IT STOP!
Dutch speaker here, and totally shocked about how different the correct pronunciation is compared to what I've always thought was correct...
Great vid, thanks.
I know Dutch and am still learning it, but, there is no such thing as ‘incorrect’ pronunciation when it comes to symbols and letters and words taken from other previous letters and adapted to the new pronunciation rules of that language, and, in fact, that is the correct Dutch pronunciation, as when one speaks Dutch one must use the Dutch pronunciation, which is what fits the Dutch language - those are basically symbols with different sounds modified for Dutch use / English use etc in maths, and they were not meant to be pronounced as in Greek, as both Dutch and English are different languages with different pronunciation rules, and every time a language creator took symbols and letters and words etc from different previous languages he gave them new meanings and adapted the pronunciation to the new pronunciation rules from that language, so they are now a part of that language with new pronunciation rules, and the pronunciation they were given in that language shouldn’t be compared to the pronunciation they were given in the previous language or languages! (For example, Dutch doesn’t have the eth sound ð / dh aka the soft d sound or the less obvious d sound that is pronounced in a faster and less obvious way, and it also doesn’t have the thorn sound þ / th aka the soft t sound or the less obvious t sound that is pronounced in a faster and less obvious way, so the eth sound ð / dhelta and the thorn sound þ / thita are pronounced like a normal d sound and normal t sound in Dutch, as that is the correct Dutch pronunciation, and even newer loanwords from English are usually pronounced with a Dutch accent or with the Dutch pronunciation rules, which is totally normal, as loanwords and loanletters and loansymbols are always adapted to the pronunciation rules of that language!)
Re the Greek letter gamma or jamma, isn’t gamma a j sound like the j in the French word je and like the sound in the English word treasure and like the j in the Portuguese word jeito, or, am I the only one who hears a j sound? Because, I don’t hear any w sound, as the w sound is like an u sound or between an u sound and an o sound like in the English word well, and I always hear a j sound when that letter is pronounced… Re the dhelta sound, it is technically en eth sound ð like in the Icelandic words ferð / með / verða etc, which is an approximant of D aka a softer or less obvious D sound that’s said faster and is only about 80% of a normal D sound, and it should be written as dh or ð when explaining the sound, not as th, because English uses th for both the thorn sound þ / Þ (in words like think / thick / thought etc) and the eth sound ð / Ð (in words like then / the / that etc) tho it was supposed to be a dh for the eth sound as it was spellt in East Norse, and, the thorn sound þ is an approximant of T and it is basically a less obvious T that is only about 80% of a normal T and it is said faster and in a less obvious way and can be considered a softer T sound! Also, iota and yota sound exactly the same, as i and y are the same sound, technically, so I was kinda confused by the i being replaced with y in the video - and it seems the H sound ita is also an i / y sound… But, doesn’t Greek have an u sound at all tho? So, it has thee letters for the y / i sound and two letters for the o sound, but no letter for u… Or does it have a combination of letters for the u sound?
I have to correct my previous comment about the gamma sound, because it is not a j sound like in the French word je, nor a w sound - I finally realized that the gamma sound is a type of ‘gargled’ g sound that’s like a back g sound, kinda similar to some of the Dutch g sounds, but not the same sound, and, I could hear it clearly in the video teaching the Greek alphabet from another yt that’s called ‘visit Sithonia’ or something like that, and, I don’t think I have ever heard that sound in any other language, so that’s why it wasn’t easy for me to figure it out at first, but I think I finally managed to produce that sound, but I must practice more to get it to sound better!
Many years ago (more decades than I care to admit) I learned Greek so I could read the New Testament, as it was originally written in Greek.
The US "college Greek" is soooo far off that as I teach my spouse Greek for a visit to Greece, learning the correct Greek pronunciation IS important as we prepare for the trip.
Thank you for this lesson.
(Lol, before I learned Greek, I thought I knew the alphabet!!)
Best
Joe
I am trying to learn ancient/koine greek so that I can read the new testament too. I am doing it on my own and I am just starting, do you have any tips for how I should go about learning it?
@@jamescurley450 You don't need to learn how the Koine greek was spoken. You just need to learn how to read Greek. If you do a small research you are going to find out that nobody, I said nobody knows how the Koine Greek was spoken. Not even the Greeks. This is my two cents to you. Have a blessed day.
@@melquesedekcastro7480nope it sounded exactly as we know (i am greek)
Gamma is pronounced as the voiced velar fricative, loads of languages use the letter(s) G / GH to represent this sound. Mine does too! (Belgian Dutch)
This is the correct pronunciation of Modern Greek, not of ancient dialects which is a whole different story.
Yes, its the pronunciation of Modern Greek
the pronounciation of letters in greek has been always the same,only some grammar has changed
they were guessing,like you,because in there minds,like in your mind there are no exceptions,and that makes you feel better
kori4580 it didn't and doesnt sound like d. it sounded and sounds like δ
kori4580 it is speed mistake,it is because it is between ν and ρ,and that gives δ more volume
Being a Spanish speaker really brings advantages when learning how to pronounce in Greek. B, D, G are so equally pronounced in Spanish that I need to "unlearn" the sounds I adopted when I learned English 🤣
Yeah, they even say that Spaniards were Greeks who migrated to the Iberian peninsula some millenia ago. At least that's what the Asterix comic books say.
For the most part yes. However Greek has things like V and Z, and also hard B G and D occur in the middle of words because unlike Spanish, “delta” and “D” are distinguished and different from each other
For example in Greek “δόντια” Pronounced “thoDia” (th as in “the”)
Same with B and G, Greek distinguishes these from Beta and Gamma. Soft B and G are Β Γ, hard versions are “μπ” “γκ”
Es verdad jajaj suena copado lo mismo con el Ruso😁😂😂😎😎👍 pasa q el Español y Ruso se basan en el alfabeto Griego para la gente de habla Inglesa se les re complica jajaj ya q hay otra R en English. No es tan complicado para nosotros.
Ψ Ξ Ζ Λ Θ Δ Γ Φ are the hardest to produce from the none Greeks
@@Ezequiel55vf Well, many Slavic languages are written using Cyrillic script which is derived from Greek alphabet. And Romance languages were all influenced by Greek. If we talk about Spanish and Russian in particular, they have a lot of shared vocabulary with words that came from Greek: cultura - культура (culture), biblioteca - библиотека (a library), problema - проблема (a problem) and so on, they even sound almost the same
you giggling at "pee" was really cute lmao
geez get a room already
*pi
As a native Spanish speaker Greek pronunciation feels so familiar.
It's all Chinese for me,
I have no idea why I started learning Greek... but this has been by far the best... thank you.
My tired joke: it's all Greek to me
Domingo Marmolejo the tired Greek joke: Μου είναι Κινέζικα (It's all Chinese to me)
εναι ολα ελληνικα για μενα
Wtf in Turkey:it’s all French to me.
Lol 😂 me too
In lebanese: 3am ye7ke bessine (he's talking in chinese or it's all Chinese to me)
It's good te hear a native speaker explain this, but gamma doesn't sound at all like a W.
"gamma" can be taken from the word why but just the "wh" (not ouai) part so its whamma :P or just Γάμμα :)
Gamma is a voiced velar fricative while "wh" is simply "h" followed by 'w." To an English speaker, gamma sounds nothing like "wh."
Gary Rector
I'd say that the sound of gamma is more similar to the "y" in the word "yet"
Gary Rector
Indeed wh doesn't help...
And sadly no, y from yet won't help either... Because now that I try to imitate the y from yet sound and the Γά from Γάμμα sound.
I see that the tip of my tongue at the y from "yet" sound hits my lower front teeth when I say "y" but when I say "Γάμμα" my tongue isn't hitting my lower front teeth but instead the tip isn't touching anything (is in mid air) and the tongue is curved with the upper curved part of my tongue touching my palate.
myhealth.alberta.ca/health/_layouts/15/healthwise/media/medical/hw/hwkb17_073_003.jpg
So... It is something that needs a little practice
CornerrecordZ I know what you mean. I guess the reason is that when you say the word "yet", or "year", the "y" seems to include a bit of "i" in its sound, instead of the dry, consonant sound we need for gamma. Indeed, "y" is the closest you can get to gamma, but you have to throw out that little "i" sound that accompanies the sound we need! The comment about your tongue position seems correct (although I'm not an expert on the subject) and it is precisely what's needed so that the air will not form the slight "i" sound usually acompanying "y"
Just some clarification for my benefit. It doesn't sound like he's pronouncing gamma as a "W' in English. But instead, if there are any Arabic speakers out there, it sounds almost exactly like a غ (Ghayn) in Arabic. Am I hearing this correctly? Thanks in advance.
You are quite correct! It's actually the same phoneme غ in Arabic and even the French r sound. Replacing the letter with a w to get the correct sound is one of the weirdest things I've ever heard!!
Yeah Gamma is absolutely same sound as Arabic Ghayn...So we must write it as Ghamma not Gamma...
Yes i think you are correct.
I feel like ghayn comes from the throat and gamma comes from the toungue, at least that's how this guy pronounced it. Ghayn is your throat rubbing against itself but gamma is the tongue against the palate.
Edit: Now that I'm listening again I can see that he is making the gamma sound with his throat but it's much softer and a bit higher in the throat than ghayn is.
Tanner Short It is a known fact that Arabic, Farsi or Urdu speakers have an easier time learning languages like Greek, French or Spanish since they are already accustomed to guttaral sounds, rolling r,s and other inflections in speech.
Thanks for making this video. It's a luxury to be able to find good Greek-language resources.
Little did we know back in 2013 is that this video would help us to pronounce variants of a deathly virus in 2020/2021 and yeah, 2022... and so on.
Why English speaking sources keep insisting that 'gamma' (γ) sounds like 'w'? However much I try I fail to see any similarity. I think it sounds more like a breezy g (i.e. something between g and h, similar to glottal g in Ukrainian).
+Maria A yes the closest sound for this in English is gh or how the french people pronounce the r as well, it also exists in Arabic as the letter غ ( pronounced exactly like the r letter in french)
I thought it sounded like the Spanish j
noo it is not
+Marina Nashaaat alright, but that's what it sounded like to me
+Maria A Same pronunciation as w in "wounded".
This is an excellent tutorial on the pronunciation of the alphabet in MODERN Greek. However, several of the "incorrect" pronunciations mentioned in the video reflect how the character was pronounced in Ancient Greek, which is the basis for how most of the letters are pronounced in English. So if you are studying Modern Greek, then definitely follow the pronunciations given in this video. But if you are discussing math or science in English, then you should use the conventional English pronunciations. For example, statistics uses μ and pronounced it "mu" or "myoo". This is not an 'incorrect' pronunciation. It is the closest English equivalent to the Ancient Greek pronunciation. No one pronounces it "mee" like in Modern Greek.
Actually, one can pronounce it as mee (Modern) or as mü (Ancient), but it was never pronounced as myoo. Thats because the letter Ypsilon was pronounced Ü in Antiquity, having gradually evolved to the I sound after the the classical period. And in fact, today all English words of Greek origin containing Ypsilon are pronounced as Y and never as U: psYchology, mYth, hYgiene, hYmn, hYpnosis, etYmology and so on....
Strikker900 The original upsilon sound, between "ee" and "oo", doesn't exist in English, and is best approximated by the composite syllable "yu", as in the words "pew" and "few". In none of the example English words you provided is the "y" pronounced as "ee"; rather, it is pronounced as either the dipthong "ai" (like the pronoun "I") or like a short i.
Jeremy Lavine
According to the so-called reconstructed pronunciation of Ancient Greek, Y was pronounced as the French U (as in 'une') or perhaps the German Ü (as in über). A quick search online is all it takes to confirm this. Now, in most modern languages Y is pronounced as the ‘ee’ in ‘meet’, in Greek, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Dutch, Spanish, etc. In modern English is also often pronounced ‘ee’ in words such as lyrics, physics, myth, system, etc. Sometimes it can indeed be pronounced differently, but surely never as the French or German U.
Agreed, except for the qualification "so-called". I see no contradiction between this comment and my previous comment. However, even though Y is pronounced the same as I in modern languages, it's still the case that Y in ancient Latin and upsillon/ypsillon in ancient Greek were pronounced like the modern French u and German u-umlaut. The letter Y was introduced to the Latin alphabet specifically and uniquely for representing this sound in borrowed Greek words.
And actually, I believe y is pronounced in German as ü rather than as I, at least in the word "der Typ".
Just came here to check the new covid variants
Thank you for the correct pronunciation. It is much appreciated, since that is the way I pronounce the Greek. I am constantly being challenged by people who give the language an anglosized pronunciation. So, this reaffirms my pronunciation. Thanks again.
Lol. Getting married became a cuss word. xD
Christopher V. Barredo
In Greek getting married became a cussword. Big wow. In western world marriage has become to mean not much more than a relationship between an electrical outlet and a plug-in - for the joy and wiping of the tears of those who need to have the whole society partake in the celebration of their particular way of achieving orgasm. Way to subdue morality to the needs of one's almighty crotch. And now a big FO to me for being "political and religious" in a place where most snowflakes wanted to learn greek as a prerequisite to majoring in Underwater Basket Weaving with a minor in Queer Musicology. Oh, how very modern, enlightened, and sophisticated all of us edumaceted masses have become. Now, which way to the safe space?
Joanna LMAO you're a real riot! Are you alt right? You sure did find a weird place to express your "edgy" political views!
By the way, some people just want to learn Greek for religious or personal reasons, it's not always for the sake of some bullshit piece of paper.
@@joannamiadavis9645 lmao I came here because I wanted to learn how to pronounce the letters because they're used a lot in STEM disciplines...
It had the meaning of "fuck" even in ancient times.
www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dgame%2Fw
@@joannamiadavis9645 chill bro
the giggle at 3:02 was cute 😭
The English W doesn't sound *remotely* like the Greek gamma! W in English is a consonantal U (oo), the same way English Y is a consonantal I (ee). A Greek gamma is simply a voiced Xi, a sound which does not exist in English but is easy enough to pronounce correctly. Also, gamma is pronounced differently depending on which other letters come after it, for example in 'gyro' (year-o) it has a 'y' sound.
+Jack Wright The interesting thing is that i kept hearing whenever he would replace G with W, I would hear his pronunciation as gw. It reminds me of how the r in the Japanese Ryu is pronounced somewhat as a D making it sound like Dee-yu but with a hint of an r sound in it.
***** Only partly true, because you must know that there are *six* different ways to pronounce the English long 'ee' sound! Doesn't sound very efficient to me. Yes, you will know how to pronounce a word when you see it written, but you will not necessarily know how to spell it if you only hear it. Rather like French in that regard.
I do like the reform of 1982 where the aspirant signs ( called the letter 'h' in other languages but somehow missing from Greek) were dropped and the stress is indicated on every word, something that Russian really should have fr both natives and foreigners.
Wrong. The accents play a important role of the meaning of the word in modern Greek. For example, μητηρ with a macron accent imparts the meaning of mother, but with an acute accent it means hemp, and with caron accent it means horse and with a grave accent it means scold. Otherwise why would you have polytonic accents if they are no longer pronounced in a modern language...think about it
You are incorrect, Greek is a special language that came to Earth thousands of years ago by Aliens and it has thus remained unchanged and absolutely resistant to all foreign influences which is why it is so special compared to the indigenous human languages around the world.
TheusZeusDeus I believe the meaning of polytonic you are referring to is not the official one. Polytonic in strictly linguistic terms means that the prosody of a word affects its meaning. This is not the case in modern greek, nor ancient greek, not even in indo-european (as far as we know, as illustrated by the fact that none of its daughter languages are polytonal). Could you explain what you mean by "polytonic"?
Γ is one of those letter I think you have to be raise with to get the pronunciation just right. I grew up with Ukrainian parents so the nuances between Г and Х were drilled in, since they both tend to sound like H in English. I both am and am not surprised these letters are the same given the history between the languages and their alphabet, but it's still striking to see them pronounced so similarly.
To Russians, Γ becomes G (gut) in English, where as for Ukrainians it's a difference in voicing the same letter, which is what I hear in the video.
Γ uses the vocal cords and lives in the back of the throat, which can smoothly transition into a G for those inexperienced with the language and want the new sound to live more comfortably in their mouth. Oddly enough, I also hear similarities to the French R with Greek Γ, which also resides in the same area, although most people switch it out with a full English W to make it flow easier.
Χ is voiceless and is moreso in the middle of the mouth, also similar to Ukrainian. It's also difficult to differentiate when learning, essential if you want to say you're actually cold and not hungry in Ukrainian.
Growing up in this bi(tri?does a mixed dialect between two languages counts as each mixed part seperate or a whole thing of its own?)lingual environment, I'm all too used to turning letters that look English into completely different letters.
P = Russian and Ukrainian R (Greek as well)
Russian H = English N
Backwards English N (or Ukrainian И) = Greek Η
Greek H = English EE
E is generally the same throughout
Я = German word for Yes (Ja)
Λ = is what a Slavic L looks like in cursive
Yeah theres no english way to write it and as he wrote W in the video is misleading to english viewers, people tend to try make too much of a guttural sound in the throat whereas the correct way of pronouncing the letter Γ/γ and in words is so the back of the tongue comes up toward the back of the roof of the mouth instead of in the throat, so it isn't so guttural. try listen to someone pronouncing it is only way
So, in Ukrainian there is no normal g sound like in the English words game / gets / great etc, or can that Cyrillic letter Γ be pronounced like g sometimes, like in Russian? Because in Russian the letter Г can be pronounced like an h sound in certain words tho it is usually pronounced like a g sound… However, the gamma / jamma sound in Greek sounds like a j sound like in the French word je and in the Portuguese words janela / jantar / jeito, and, this sound also exists in English in certain words like genre (the g is pronounced j in this word) and like the forth sound in treasure, like, I definitely hear a j sound whenever one pronounces that Greek letter, so gamma in Greek is more like jamma, and Esperanto has a perfect letter for this sound, which is like a j with an extra roof on top or something like that, which is better for that letter, because j is usually pronounced like an i / y sound in most Norse / Germanic / Nordic languages and in Hungarian and in Slovene etc, while in English and in Celtic languages it is pronounced like a completely different sound that’s basically a ğ sound like the dg / dgi sound in the English word bridge, though it is normally a j sound like in the French word je! (By the way, the w sound in English is pronounced like an u sound or between an u sound and an o sound, depending on the word, and in Dutch and German the w is pronounced like a normal v sound, and in Welsh the w is considered a vowel and is pronounced u like the u / ú in the Spanish words único / unir / unas / unido / unos / uña etc!)
I must correct my previous comment, because the gamma sound isn’t a j sound either, so it isn’t like the j in the French word je - I finally realized that it is a type of ‘gargled’ g sound that’s like a back g sound, kinda similar to some of the Dutch g sounds, but not the same sound, and, I could hear it clearly in the video teaching the Greek alphabet from another yt that’s called ‘visit Sithonia’ or something like that, and, I don’t think I have ever heard that sound in any other language, so that’s why it wasn’t easy for me to figure it out at first, but I think I finally managed to produce that sound, but I must practice more to get it to sound better!
This was extremely helpful! Taking a class on Greek, and I was a little confused about pronunciation. Not anymore!
I have a mad time understanding pronoucatation, but you are the first person I could actually understand and copy.
I do not understand why you replace the G like in gamma with w..
@@suicidesquad4464 no it doesnt
The pronunciation of gamma is a Voiced Velar Fricative, with a slight rounding of the lips, and W is a labialised velar approximant so the sounds are similar
@Ahmad Nasser yup, the ɣ or Voiced velar fricative
Because somewhere between ancient and modern Greece, someone had a speech impediment.
It sounds like "ng" to me.
3:02 I can imagine what that little giggle was about! (pee LOL)
Stella Deli yea i heard it too xD
I Like These Letters Κ And Ω
@Roller Coaster Tycoon Meme Λιφηρ ηφγε Α χζ Ω
@@mr.melomaniacnextdoor6840 Ηετα Δφγχ Ομεγα Δφγχ Ζετα Δφγχ Κάππα.
Upsilon epsilon iota phi chi chi phi beta
Anytime he says "pronounce it like 'w'" it sounds like "r" to me. As in, to me it sounded like he said "ramma" or "rhamma".
he pronounced it as english "v"..vamma
Ancurio sounds like some glottal g to me. Like soft arabic ayn + g sound
RUEL SILVANO no it's pronounced just how the french say "r".
Paul Orekhov oh no..i'm so confused now....
Ancurio w is pronounced like word, world, weather , what
Isn't it easier to replace G with H?
Hamao sounds like in Greek...
also, o-me-ha is betterr, as well as ha-mma.
The truth is that it sounds something between "G" and "H", I gave it with "G" cause it is a letter that all countries pronounce. "H" is silent in some other languages and "ha-mma" would sounded like "a-mma" and that would be a problem cause "amma" sounds like a completely different word and means "if". That is why i avoid it. But yes, your comment is very right. Thank you for your comment!!!
Tic Tac Official So, it IS like a 'heavy' H -or- like a 'GH' sound then, correct..?
Brittany Lumsden yes, GH !!!
Thx.
+Tic Tac Official Is it like CH in Deutsch? (Ich - dich etc)?
I cannot thank you enough. As children my yiaya taught us the basics of Greek, alphabet and numbers, basic nouns, greetings....
As a physics student, I never rectified the cognitive dissonance between yiaya's lessons and the use in mathematics.
It is mii. Not moo. Lol
This is so helpful, I'm learning Greek from an actual Greek person but when I'm watching UA-cam videos they're pronouncing them different to what I've learned and it was confusing me - but this has reconfirmed that what I'm learning is the correct pronunciation so thank you! Or as I should say, ευχαριστώ !
Very interesting. Great video, and a great explanation, really liked this. Two things I want to say about this:
1) You say that "Gamma" uses the "w" sound, but it is actually (according to wiki AND how you say it) uses the /ɣ/ sound (it is a bit like the "g" in the spanish "agua", if anybody reading is curious), which happens to be called the "soft g" sound in my language (icelandic), so in our case Gamma would be correct(ish). You also probably knew this already, so I am sorry for being annoying.
2) I was curious so I checked what the Icelandic names of the greek letters were, and they were surprisingly more accurate (still a bit wrong). Here they are:
"Alfa, Beta (should be Víta), Gamma, Delta (should be Ðelta), Epsilon, Zeta (should be Zíta), Eta (should be Íta), Þeta (should be Þíta), Jóta, Kappa, Lambda (should be Lamða), Mý, Ný, Ksí/Xí, Ómíkron, Pí, Hró, Sigma, Tá (should be Taf), Ypsilon, Fí, Khí/Kí, Psí, Ómega"
As you can see, it is much more correct than the english one (taking into consideration of the icelandic pronunciation of "i/y", "Í/ý", "j" and "g"). I also learned Pi in math as, well, Pí (english: pee), and never knew that english pronounced it as pie.
Extra fun fact: the letter "y" in icelandic is called "yffsilon/ypsilon i" (the Icelandic "ff" sound and "p" sound is very similar). Never knew what the "ypsilon" part meant until I saw the names for the greek letters for the first time. XD
Dear Icelander, the way you pronounce the names of Greek letters in Icelandic is not "wrong". It's just not how they are pronounced in MODERN Greek, but it's very close to how they were pronounced in ANCIENT Greek at some point in the history. In even older times, they were pronounced differently again, the pronunciation has evolved through centuries. For example, Delta was definitely Delta before it became Ðelta (to use your Icelandic spelling) in the modern times. Theta used to be Theta (with an aspirated T), then it became Þeta, and later Þíta. The letter "η" (Eta) used to be pronounced similar to "e" (in "bed", but longer and more open), it only changed to "ee" much later. And so on. So don't call your Icelandic way wrong only because it's different from Modern Greek - it's preserving (approximately) the way it was in Ancient Greek.
For your comparison, these are the names of Greek letters in Czech: Alfa, Beta, Gama (single "m" because Czech doesn't really have geminated consonants), Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Éta, Théta, Jóta, Kapa, Lambda, Mí, Ní, Xí (ksí), Omikron, Pí, Ró, Sigma, Tau, Ypsilon, Fí, Chí ("ch" similar to German "ich"), Psí, Omega. So as you can see, it is only slightly different from the Icelandic way, because we also more or less preserved the Ancient Greek pronunciation.
Extra fun fact: the word "ypsilon" meant "simple y" (just like "epsilon" meant "simple e"), so calling it "ypsilon i" is quite funnily redundant.
As a greek I can tell you that w in the words: win, wall,work,word, wallet sounds exactly as Γ in greek.
But not in all cases, for example low, shallow . Mostly when it is the first letter.
@@nickdsp8089 that's because greeks are actually mispronouncing the letter w in english. There is no γ sound in the english letter w.
yeah that's right, i was kinda annoyed bc americans say "pie" instead of "pi"
Isn't that just the maths term from the English pronunciation of Pythagoras? Pi is used as the symbol for py/pi? No?
amerese:it's a matter of how one pronounces the vowel y and i. The consonant p is the same as in english.(e.g.poor.perform etc), only in greek the air comes a little lighter between the lips (hold a candle in front of yourlips and try to pronunce it with the flame still on). The name of the greek letter pi sounds exactly as in pee (urinate) ,only with a much lighter p.
Oh right, i was thinking py as in python vs pi as in pin
Well, its the 2nd one nowadays as well as in Pythagoras's times (in whose name, "py" is also pronounced the same)...
It is funny how native speakers of the English language change foreign words or terms to sound english but when the opposite is done seems foolish and wrong.
youre good at teaching.
Wow.... Thank you!!!!
This just really helped me ~ first lesson at Greek School later this afternoon! You are my kind of teacher ~ thank you!
There is no English word "taugh" ............you were SO SO close to perfection in this video
Thanks a bunch for this lesson. It makes sense
now to me that the Greeks, and Old English used an I-i spelling out the Messiah name. In those days the i made the Ya sound. Then old english used the i for the ya sound, then in middle english the i by adding a loop to make a j, and the j made the Ya sound. Explains why Jesus name was then spelled with a J.
Why did you substitute Gamma with W? That doesn't make sense. It's more like a gargling G. You pronounce it right of course but the letter W i think is not the best way to explain it :)
Yep, W to an English speaker is not even close to the sound they make. In fact at this level of Greek pronunciation in these types of videos I don’t see a need to make a big deal of such tiny variations. gh or G or gg all sound close enough for this level of learning. W or Wha? Not even close.
He means replacing the "g" with the Arabic letter (غ) or the French (r) each roughly pronounced like "gh."
Ja it took me 2 years to say the ΑΒΓ
In IPA it sounds like gh and looks like ɣ
Thank you, I haven't taken any classes in years, prepi na diavasou,lol
I love learning Greek!!!
Voice, tone, annunciations and appropriate minimalist humor - this presentation was very good.
I picked up a book last week that was written in Greek and was determined to learn the language. I began with children’s alphabet songs and common phrases. I understand the phrases and have a base understanding of the language from that, as I am naturally quite proficient with language structure. I like to play UA-cam videos with Greek people speaking, so that I am able to see the body language and hear their correct pronunciation. I’m really glad that I found your channel, thank you. I was trying so hard to find a video of the satisfied my want to know how to pronounce the letters correctly. Its not quite the same in the song, and I’m not happy with settling for Americans pronunciations. If you have any links that you think will help me, please let me know. And the book that I intend on reading I do believe is written in ancient Greek, and I understand that ancient and modern Greek differ, first things first.😉
Were you ever able to continue this effort?? Four years later, haha
To think we’ve been pronouncing the names of all these COVID variants incorrectly
That's us for you
Great video! Very helpful, however there is a typo I want to let you know about: We spell Taugh like "tough".
I'm an engineering student, and we use greek alphabet in formulas. and I realized that we are all pronouncing these symbols wrong(almost all the symbol) ahahhhhahhaa
For french speakers "Γ/γ" is like "r", for arabic speakers its exactly like "غ" and for the rest...just do the sound you do when you wash ya teeth without any water.....or try to say *hhhhh" with your vocal cords.
do you realise that whenever you say replace g with w you are still pronouncing it with a g? It's rather confusing. Shouldn't you say add a w so that it is now pronounced gw?
he isnt it sounds like that to you
It's more like a ha or gha
voiced velar fricative
Wow :) thanks for taking the confusion out of the way. xD thanks for this video, it helped a lot!
:-) you welcome !!! Thank you very much for your comment!
Who's here for the omicron because well
2:54
Me haha
Government mandated me to come here to learn how to pronounce the names of the COVID variants.
This is Greek! NOT Chinese!!
Gamma -- Make a very "blurry" hard G. Gghh, sort of combined with a strong H sound. Instead of closing the sound entirely, let it be open and blurry, sort of gargling. It's the "voiced" equivalent of the KH/CH in German Buch, Scottish Loch (not K), and Spanish Reloj (Jota). -- The "w" may not be helpful for English speakers, but I see what he's getting at there. -- The B in bêta may be a "blurry B" with the lips not quite touching, more of a BH than an English V. (B/V as in Spanish use, vivir; BH = both lips almost touching, a blurry B, bilabial; V = lower lip touches tip of the upper incisor (front) teeth, labio-dental.)
🥱
Thank you for this great clarification!
This was so helpful, thank you (and I'm thrilled that my own bits of research were *generally* right. We never start words with actual "ps" or "ks" like in "psi" "ksi" as they can in Greek, so we *never* pronounce these remotely correctly. When it occurred to me how these should actually be pronounced, I went with it but was always a little unsure until now)!
As some have stated, the "w" for "gamma" is a bit misleading, perhaps just to the English ear. For English speakers who are a little more familiar with some other languages, it seems that "gamma" is in Modern Greek pronounced more like a *gargle* as they sometimes call it. Similar to the sound of an R in modern French, or the "gh" you see transcribed for certain middle-eastern languages like Arabic. If you do a search for how "r" is pronounced in French or "gh" in Arabic, you'll find striking similarities.
psychology
@@bethhentges Hehe, when I say we didn't start works with "ps", I meant the sound, not the letters. That is - when we pronounce the word "psychology", we omit the "p" sound, unlike the Greeks.
Trying to pronounce gamma will be the death of me.
it's like WHY...(γουάη - γάμμα)
I hear you! I spent many hours being told off by a friend who was laughing her head off every time I tried to pronounce the Greek GAMMA. We can only but try, dying saying it! =)
And the funny thing about it is that Γάμμα (gamma) is very similar with the word Γάμα (gama) which means "Fuck", or "to fuck" :P
So if you try to imagine how hillarius would that be for a Greek to hear you saying fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck over and over :P
[translate.google.gr/#el/en/%CE%93%CE%AC%CE%BC%CE%BC%CE%B1]
[translate.google.gr/#el/en/%CE%93%CE%AC%CE%BC%CE%B1]
αυτό είπα και εγώ ρε μάστορα ΧΔ
Pinky97534 its very easy for me. The ρ is hardest.
When you learned the Greek alphabet at Covid, and now rewinding.
Oh my god thank you so much honestly this is much more helpful than the "greek alphabet song" videos I've seen
That’s not how “W” sounds in English
I learned the main letters like: α, μ, τ, ι, κ, ο, π, ς, ψ, and η.
3:17 I don't know if I'm deaf, but when he says to pronounce sigma like "si-wma", i'm still hearing a "g" in there..is it like a soft g rather than a hard english-pronounced g?
Just trying to get ahead learning the Covid variants
I appreciate this but my main interest in the Greek alphabet regarded mythological greece and back them the pronunciation was more like the common spelling. (beta pronounced b, delta as d, etc.)
Μπραβο ρε φιλε καλη δουλεια...ειδικα οταν βλεπεις ακομα και καθηγητες πανεπιστημιου να ανεβαζουν βιντεο και να λενε μου και νου και ουπσιλον :p
Χαχαχααχχαχαχα.....καλαααα!!!!!
Wonderful tutorial! Great work. My only suggestions is that the G to W equivalent isn't quite on par with the English language. There really is no equivalent in english. Its more guttural, like a German G or CH.
Yeah the W he put is very wrong. way he wrote it is like wama
First of all, congratulations to the uploader of this video for trying to explain the Modern Greek pronunciation.
People are really confused with the Greek γ so here's what you need to remember. It's something I realised today and I hope that it will help you:
When it's *before the vowels "ι" ("i" like in "history") and "ε" ("e" like in "elephant")*, it's just like the English letter "y" in the words "yellow", "yes", "you" etc For Finnish speakers, it's just like your "j".
However, the letter "γ" can also be found *before the letters "α" ("a" like in "father") and "ο" ("o" like in "orange")*. In this case, "γ" sounds like a sound between "g" and "h". For French speakers, it's similar to your "r". Someone here mentioned that it sounds like "w" in the word "wounded" and I agree. "W" in "wounded" is different from "y" in "yes", do you see the difference? Try to separate these "w" and "y" from the English words. Doesn't "y" in "yellow" sound like "yee-ellow? (this "ee" is like in the word "see"). Now take the "w" from the word "wounded". We don't say "yee-ounded", do we? This "w" in "wounded" is this second "γ" that confuses so many people.
For Greeks out there, doesn't "γέρος" sound a bit like "γιέρος"? Now think of the word "αγάπη", it's not "αγιάπη", is it?
That's because the first "γ" is before "ε" (γέ-ρος) while the second one is before "α" (α-γά-πη).
I am not a linguist but I really hope that I helped some people with my comment.
EDIT: Arabic wāw sounds a bit like γ, right?
Yeah theres no English way to write it, have to heard a pronunciation and as he wrote W in the video is misleading to english viewers, people tend to try make too much of a guttural sound in the throat whereas the correct way of pronouncing the letter Γ/γ and in words is so the back of the tongue comes up toward the back of the roof of the mouth instead of in the throat, so it isn't so guttural. Its funny because if you can speak Greek Γ is one of the easiest to understand and pronounce. Its unfortunate its written online as γ (Γ) because it looks similar to the uppercase letter for υ which is Υ when properly γ (Γ) is supposed to written with a loop at the bottom instead of a straight Y like this ɣ: Correct way ɣ - Online keyboards γ
@@HKotolos I agree so much, I dislike the way "γ" looks like when we type. Nobody would write it like that and it looks extremely similar to "y" indeed
@@Autmies Its ridiculous now with something called Clean-tounge which is proper high-modern greek if you go study it at uni, and then theres standard modern greek which is spoken in greece, and now even on the greek news theres alot of slang words like in english someone learning english may struggle to understand and they've stopped using tonos accents on letters teaching greek, which even my greek born grandmothers cant understand some words now which degrades the language and makes it harder to understand and pronounce - Proper way to learn proper Greek is the modern greek/'clean-tounge' greek with tonos/accents (ίέόώ - ιεοω). also didnt expect you to respond after 7 years old comment haha
@@HKotolos haha yeah, I got a notification on my e-mail. I found it funny that someone replied to that comment of mine after 7 years!
It is refreshing for someone to also demonstrate the modern/conversational Greek sounds; biblical students are learning a developed common sound structure which is helpful among themselves. Many of them surely must find out that it is not the same to native Greek speakers, such as when my Greek Bible student husband pronounced them to my Greek father! By the way, a tip for the Greek "r" (ro) sound is that it is a trilled "r" sound (which my daughter has a hard time making), such as used in the Spanish language, and the "g" (gamma) is from the throat (listen carefully), similar to the French "r" sound, maybe a little softer. Note that the "p" ("pee" as written in the video) is not as aspirated (air flow lessened) as with the usual English "p" - it may help to think of the English "b" for it to come out less aspirated. This could be part of the reason I rarely think of the English word "pee" when I say this Greek letter, but your chuckle reminded me :) Thank you!
Wow, cyrillic makes so much more sense to me now
Gamma sounds in no way like the English 'w'. Not even close. English does not have an equivalent sound. Gamma is like the sound of g (approximant) in Castillian Spanish as in words like 'pagar' etc.
Hashad: the castillian g in "pagar" is much lighter than the greek γ; too hard for a greek to pronunce
I see. I don't know much about Greek pronunciation. Just that the gamma sounds much more like a Castillian g than an English w
Harshad Gado Practically the castillian g is inbetween the italian g and a bit softer than the greek γκ(before α or ο). Rather close to γ, as you proposed. Surely no connection to w in general.
Υπάρχουν όμως λέξεις με το w να προσφέρεται "γάμα"
Wolf=Γουλφ
Wall=Γουόλ
Waste=Γουειστ
War=Γουορ
That must be a similar principal used when the Romance languages imported W words from the Germanic languages:
war = guerra, guerre
ward/warden = guardia, garde, guard
warranty = garanzia, garantía, garantie
win = ganar, gagner, gain
William/Wilhelm = Guglielmo, Guillermo, Guillaume
Walter = Gualtiero, Gutierre, Gauthier
When he says "pee" he laughed. :)
so, on pi day you don't eat pie, you drink....
i drink pi everyday
Re File, is that the best example of Gamma you can think of. Se parakalo..
PS, i was using your video to teach my son the Greek alphabet.
Γ makes the sound of y in the word "yes". Simple as that
I had to take Greek this year as a sophomore... and this really helps..
you think it's a "w" WTF? it's closer to g tho, like غ in arabic
*Delta represents the letter D, and it's pronounced Thelta*
me: What the heck
I see where you're coming for for sure, here's what helped me understand that...Put your tongue in-between your teeth like you do when saying th. Now start at that point, and then say thelta. That's what helps me understand it, good luck :)
Being a math major, we basically learn the greek as a minor lmao.
Thank you. I am just now studying Biblical Greek, and this was very helpful.
This is modern greek
Thank you because I really need this one.
Thanks for the video very informative.
Can someone tell me if the right exchange of letters would be instead of g=gh like the letter غ if that makes sense to anyone.
Because watching this video and judging it cant be "w" but instead i think its "gh".
It honestly sounds like the W should be a GH, it sounds like he's trying to bring the sound from the back of his throat to say the letter
+Lucas Sebastião de Almeida Castro no! It is as gh AND y! I don't understand why he says w, nor do i hear it from him or have ever heard that.
+Lucas Sebastião de Almeida Castro the word εγο can kind of sound like ewo but i don't think that is correct Greek
Maya M the letter غ makes the exact same sound as Γ.
Where do you get the "w" from for gamma? How do you suppose that we pronounce "w"?
***** No, I am saying that you are wrong. I think might mispronounce English. Γ = g in English. Listen to this linked sound. As a native speaker I hear "ga aga gha ghya". upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Voiced_velar_fricative.ogg
***** "The second sound is somewhere between the English hard ‘g’ (as in gum) and ‘y’ (as in year)."
lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2006-September/040151.html
***** I can see "yellow" "year" "young" as gamma, but "woman" "wonderful" do not have a similar sound for us.
***** Email is not for youtube. Just lookup audio files for w words. You will see that it is not like gamma.
***** You are a native speaker of what? English? Greek and English?
to me the "w" sounds like a more throaty version of a g...
anyway nice video :>
That's because it is, it's a frictive. The sound in the international phonetic alphabet is /ɣ/.
Yeah cause it's a gh not a g or w!
@@warau.exe2 Ooh i see ty
great work, plz correct (with a label/annotation?) the spelling of "taugh" to "tough" at 03:28.
In math these letters are pronounced the way they used to be pronounced in Ancient Greek. We are not pronouncing letters incorrectly, we are pronouncing letters of another language (ancient Greek)
Is it me or does the Γ sound like the French R
Taugh is not a word - you mean tough.. Thank you for this, though!!
I think he meant the way we pronounce a word like "taugh" as in "laugh" but with a "t" instead of an "l". It certainly isn't "tough"
Omicron variant 2021-11-26
Best video I’ve ever seen teaching Greek!
This is fantastic! Thank you so much! I just started learning Modern Greek and want to get the pronunciation from a native speaker from the get-go. I really appreciate your very clear enunciation. I don't think people commenting over whether it should be an r or a w understand that these are just an approximation to help them understand the pronunciation. Just close your eyes and listen over and over, then you will learn it. Don't focus on the spelling until you are comfortable with listening/hearing/speaking first.
Thank God for this video cause the WRONG English pronunciation is killing me!!!!
"pie" lol
Very helpful... Dies anyone know of a similar video for diphthongs and the correct pronunciation of upsilon after certain vowels? ... I guess 'gamma' could be be compared to the Dutch 'g' (as in Van Gogh)? Could it be called a "voiced velar fricative"? Also, very odd that he chose that word to demonstrate the pronunciation... Maybe they use that word in Greece as often as we use it America! Lol
Gamma and kappa combined are “G” as in “go”
I was unhappy that BBC recently posted a video about all sorts of pronunciations of OMICRON except the Greek version. Greek is a (classical) living language! There has to be fairer look at its existence outside narrow American and English versions. Is it arrogance? Is it just the absence of humility?🧐🧐Thank you for your great introduction to it.
It's amazing how frequently the pronunciation of characters that people commonly use is mistaken.
very helpful, thank you