Romanization of Greek is the representation of Greek language

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 texts, that are usually written in the Greek alphabet

Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...

, with the Latin alphabet

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

, or a system for doing so. There are several methods for the romanization of Greek, especially depending on whether the language written with Greek letters is Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 or Modern Greek

Modern Greek

Modern Greek refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic...

 and whether a phonetic transcription

Transcription (linguistics)

Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of language in written form. The source can either be utterances or preexisting text in another writing system, although some linguists only consider the former as transcription.Transcription should not be confused with...

 or a graphemic transliteration

Transliteration

Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...

 is intended.

Different systems of Romanization of Greek have been creating a good deal of confusion with rendering Greek personal and place names in English. For example, the word Άγιος ("Holy", "Saint"), common in many place names, may be variously rendered as Agios, Ayios, or Aghios (feminine forms: Agia, Ayia, or Aghia).

Transliteration tables

The following tables list several transliteration

Transliteration

Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...

 schemes from the Greek alphabet to the Latin alphabet.

Greek	Ancient			Modern			Greeklish Greeklish Greeklish, a portmanteau of the words Greek and English, also known as Grenglish, Latinoellinika/Λατινοελληνικά or ASCII Greek, is the Greek language written using the Latin alphabet... The use of 'Greeklish Greeklish Greeklish, a portmanteau of the words Greek and English, also known as Grenglish, Latinoellinika/Λατινοελληνικά or ASCII Greek, is the Greek language written using the Latin alphabet... ' (here: writing Greek in the Latin alphabet) has risen enormously with the advent of SMS, email, online chatting, and other digital media, where Greek fonts are not always readily available. Examples: θέλω → thelo ξανά → ksana or xana ψυχή → psyhi etc
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code Beta code Beta Code is a method of representing, using only ASCII characters, characters and formatting found in ancient Greek texts . Its aim is to be not merely a romanization of the Greek alphabet, but to represent faithfully a wide variety of source texts – including formatting as well as rare or...	ISO 843 ISO 843 ISO 843 is a system for the transliteration of Greek characters into Latin characters.- 1997 edition :Exceptions:*double vowels are transliterated as au*double vowels are transliterated as eu*double vowels are transliterated as ou- See also :...	BGN United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names is a United States federal body whose purpose is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the U.S. government.-Overview:... / PCGN	UN/ ELOT
α	a	a, ā	A	a			a
β	b		B	v			v
γ	g		G	g	g / ybefore αι, ε, ει, η, ι, οι, υ, υι.	g	g / y
δ	d		D	d	dh / dbetween ν and ρ.	d	d
ε	e		E	e			e
ζ	z		Z	z			z
η	e	ē	H	ī	i		h / i / e
θ	th		Q	th			th
ι	i	i, ī	I	i			i
κ	c	k	K	k			k / c
λ	l		L	l			l
μ	m		M	m			m
ν	n		N	n			n
ξ	x		C	x			ks / x
ο	o		O	o			o
π	p		P	p			p
ρ	r, rhwith rough breathing.		R	r			r
σ	s		S	s	ssometimes doubled between vowels (ex. Larissa).	s	s
τ	t		T	t			t
υ	y	u, ū	U	y	i	y	y
φ	ph		F	f			f / ph
χ	ch	kh	X	ch	kh	ch	x / ch / h
ψ	ps		Y	ps			ps
ω	o	ō	W	ō	o		o

Vowel digraphsexcept when there is a diaeresis ( ¨ ) on the second vowel

Greek	Ancient			Modern			Greeklish
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code Beta code Beta Code is a method of representing, using only ASCII characters, characters and formatting found in ancient Greek texts . Its aim is to be not merely a romanization of the Greek alphabet, but to represent faithfully a wide variety of source texts – including formatting as well as rare or...	ISO 843 ISO 843 ISO 843 is a system for the transliteration of Greek characters into Latin characters.- 1997 edition :Exceptions:*double vowels are transliterated as au*double vowels are transliterated as eu*double vowels are transliterated as ou- See also :...	BGN United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names is a United States federal body whose purpose is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the U.S. government.-Overview:... / PCGN	UN/ ELOT
αι	ae	ai	AI	ai	e	ai	ai / e
αυ	au		AU	au	av	av,before β, γ, δ, ζ, λ, μ, ν, ρ and vowels. afbefore θ, κ, ξ, π, σ, τ, φ, χ, ψ and at the end of a word.	ay, au, af, av
ει	i / e	ei	EI	ei	i	ei	ei / i
ευ	eu		EU	eu	ev	ev, ef	ey, eu, ef, ev
ηυ	eu	ēu	HU	īy	iv	iv / if	hy / hu / if / iv
οι	oe	oi	OI	oi	i	oi	oi / i
ου	u / o	ou	OU	ou	u	ou	ou / u
υι	ui / yi	ui	UI	yi	i	yi	yi / gi / i

Consonant digraphs

Greek	Ancient			Modern			Greeklish
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code Beta code Beta Code is a method of representing, using only ASCII characters, characters and formatting found in ancient Greek texts . Its aim is to be not merely a romanization of the Greek alphabet, but to represent faithfully a wide variety of source texts – including formatting as well as rare or...	ISO 843 ISO 843 ISO 843 is a system for the transliteration of Greek characters into Latin characters.- 1997 edition :Exceptions:*double vowels are transliterated as au*double vowels are transliterated as eu*double vowels are transliterated as ou- See also :...	BGN United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names is a United States federal body whose purpose is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the U.S. government.-Overview:... / PCGN	UN/ ELOT
γγ	ng		GG	gg	ng		gg / gk / ng / nk
γξ	nx		GC	gx	nx		gks / gx / nks / nx
γκ	nc	nk	GK	gk	g,at the beginning of a word. ngin the middle of a word.	gk	g, gk / nk
γχ	nch	nkh	GX	gch	nkh	nch	gx / gch / nx / nch
μπ	mp		MP	mp	b / mb	b, mp	b, mp / mb
ντ	nt		NT	nt	d, nd	nt	d, nt / nd

Modifiers (only in Ancient Greek)

Greek	Ancient			Name
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code Beta code Beta Code is a method of representing, using only ASCII characters, characters and formatting found in ancient Greek texts . Its aim is to be not merely a romanization of the Greek alphabet, but to represent faithfully a wide variety of source texts – including formatting as well as rare or...
	hon vowel: h before the vowel; on ρ: rh.		(	rough breathing,
	none		)	smooth breathing,
	(i)		|	iota subscript Iota subscript Iota subscript in Greek polytonic orthography is a way of writing the letter iota as a small vertical stroke beneath a vowel. It was used in the so-called "long diphthongs" in Ancient Greek, that is, diphthongs the first part of which is a long vowel: and... , under long vowels.

Archaic letters

Greek	Ancient
	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code Beta code Beta Code is a method of representing, using only ASCII characters, characters and formatting found in ancient Greek texts . Its aim is to be not merely a romanization of the Greek alphabet, but to represent faithfully a wide variety of source texts – including formatting as well as rare or...
	–	w	V	digamma Digamma Digamma is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet which originally stood for the sound /w/ and later remained in use only as a numeral symbol for the number "6"...
	–	ś	#711	san San (letter) San was an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet. Its shape was similar to modern M, or to a modern Greek Sigma turned sideways, and it was used as an alternative to Sigma to denote the sound . Unlike Sigma, whose position in the alphabet is between Rho and Tau, San appeared between Pi and Qoppa...
	–	q	#3	qoppa Qoppa Koppa or Qoppa is a letter that was used in early forms of the Greek alphabet, derived from Phoenician qoph. It was originally used to denote the /k/ sound, but dropped out of use as an alphabetic character in favour of Kappa . It has remained in use as a numeral symbol in the system of Greek...
	–	š	#5	sampi Sampi Sampi is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet. It was used in addition to the classical 24 letters of the alphabet to denote some type of a sibilant sound, probably or , in some eastern Ionic dialects of ancient Greek in the 6th and 5th centuries BC...

Diacritics

The traditional polytonic orthography

Orthography

The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...

 of Greek uses several distinct diacritic

Diacritic

A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...

 signs to render what was originally the pitch accent

Pitch accent

Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words...

 of Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

, and the presence or absence of word-initial h. In 1982, monotonic orthography was officially introduced for modern Greek

Modern Greek

Modern Greek refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic...

. The only diacritics that remain are the acute accent

Acute accent

The acute accent is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts.-Apex:An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels.-Greek:...

 (indicating stress) and the diaeresis (indicating that two consecutive vowels should not be combined). The acute accent and the diaeresis are kept in both the BGN/PCGN and the UN/ELOT romanization systems. There is one exception: in the vowel

Vowel

In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...

 combinations αυ, ευ and ηυ the accent moves from the υ (that becomes v or f) to the preceding vowel.

See also

• Beta code
  Beta code
  Beta Code is a method of representing, using only ASCII characters, characters and formatting found in ancient Greek texts . Its aim is to be not merely a romanization of the Greek alphabet, but to represent faithfully a wide variety of source texts – including formatting as well as rare or...
  
  
• Classical compound
  Classical compound
  Classical compounds are compound words composed from Latin or Ancient Greek root words. A large portion of the technical and scientific lexicon of English and other Western European languages consists of classical compounds. For example, bio- combines with -graphy to form biography...
  
  
• English words of Greek origin
  English words of Greek origin
  The Greek language has contributed to the English vocabulary in three ways:#directly as an immediate donor,#indirectly through other intermediate language, as an original donor , and#modern coinages using Greek roots....
  
  
• List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names for help with Greek-derived scientific names of organisms
• List of Greek words with English derivatives
• Scientific transliteration
  Scientific transliteration
  Scientific transliteration, variously called academic, linguistic, or scholarly transliteration, is an international system for transliteration of text from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet...
  
  
• ISO 843
  ISO 843
  ISO 843 is a system for the transliteration of Greek characters into Latin characters.- 1997 edition :Exceptions:*double vowels are transliterated as au*double vowels are transliterated as eu*double vowels are transliterated as ou- See also :...