Polytonic orthography

Polytonic orthography for Greek uses a variety of diacritics (πολύ = many + τόνος = accent) to represent aspects of Ancient Greek pronunciation. It was the standard orthography for all varieties of Greek from Hellenistic times until 1982, although the distinctions it represented had disappeared from the spoken language early in the Christian era. In 1982, the Greek Parliament adopted monotonic orthography. Polytonic is still sometimes used by traditionalists, who consider monotonic an unfortunate break with a continuous tradition.

Polytonic Greek utilizes a set of diacritics on certain letters, illustrated below using the letter α:

the accents (tónoi, τόνοι), on the vowel of the accented syllable of a word and indicating different tone patterns in Ancient Greek:
- Oxeía , the acute accent
- Bareía (βαρεία), the grave accent
- Perispoménē (περισπωμένη), the circumflex, sometimes printed in the form of a tilde, macron, or inverted breve.
the breathings, written on the first syllable of a word starting with a vowel:
- Daseía (δασεία), or rough breathing (spiritus asper), indicating an in Ancient Greek. Also used on words starting with rho (ρ) transliterated as rh.
- Psilé (ψιλή), or smooth breathing (spiritus lenis), indicating the absence of an .
the iota subscript under certain vowels, sometimes written adjacent to capitals instead (in which case it is called an iota adscript).

All of these diacritics are important in Classical Greek (and the breathings in particular are relevant to the etymology of words in other languages), but have no significance in the modern language. (Note that the transliteration of the names of the diacritics into the Roman alphabet varies, chiefly depending on whether they are considered words from Classical or Modern Greek.)

There have been problems in representing polytonic Greek on computers, and in displaying polytonic Greek on computer screens and printouts, but these have largely been overcome by the advent of Unicode and appropriate fonts.

While the tonos of monotonic orthography looks similar to the oxia of polytonic orthography in most fonts, Unicode has separate symbols for letters with these diacritics. For example, the monotonic "Greek small letter alpha with tonos" is at U+03AC, while the polytonic "Greek small letter alpha with oxia" is at U+1F71.

History

The rough and smooth breathings were introduced in classical times in order to represent the presence or absence of in Attic Greek, which had adopted a form of the alphabet in which the H sign was no longer available for this purpose as it had been used (as Eta) for the long e. The various accents were introduced during the Hellenistic period and they were widely adopted at around 850 A.D. In the later development of the language, the ancient tones were replaced by a stress accent making the different accents superfluous, and the [h sound became silent. Some textbooks of Ancient Greek for foreigners have retained the breathings, but dropped all the accents, simplifying the task for the learner, but breaking the link with the modern language. Following the final adoption of the Demotic (Dhimotiki) form of the language in the late 20th century, the monotonic orthography has been officially adopted, which uses only the acute accent (or sometimes a vertical bar intentionally distinct from any of the traditional accents) and omits the breathings.

Sample Greek text

Πάτερ ημών ο εν τοις ουρανοίς αγιασθήτω το όνομά σου·
ελθέτω η βασιλεία σου· γενηθήτω το θέλημά σου, ως εν ουρανώ και επί της γης·
τον άρτον ημών τον επιούσιον δος ημίν σήμερον·
και άφες ημίν τα οφειλήματα ημών, ως και ημείς αφίεμεν τοις οφειλέταις ημών·
και μη εισενέγκης ημάς εις πειρασμόν, αλλά ρύσαι ημάς από του πονηρού.
αμήν.

**The Lord's Prayer**
Monotonic	Polytonic

Examples of polytonic characters

The following tables list some of the characters required in polytonic Greek.

Upper case

Note that depending on the font used in your browser, the upper-case letters with iota subscript may display with a separate (adscript) iota.

	Basic vowels							Vowels with iota subscript			Rho
	Alpha	Epsilon	Eta	Iota	Omicron	Upsilon	Omega	Alpha	Eta	Omega	Rho
Basic letter	Α	Ε	Η	Ι	Ο	Υ	Ω	ᾼ	ῌ	ῼ	Ρ
With acute	Ά	Έ	Ή	Ί	Ό	Ύ	Ώ
With grave	Ὰ	Ὲ	Ὴ	Ὶ	Ὸ	Ὺ	Ὼ
With circumflex
Smooth breathing	Ἀ	Ἐ	Ἠ	Ἰ	Ὀ		Ὠ	ᾈ	ᾘ	ᾨ
Rough breathing	Ἁ	Ἑ	Ἡ	Ἱ	Ὁ	Ὑ	Ὡ	ᾉ	ᾙ	ᾩ	Ῥ
Smooth and acute	Ἄ	Ἔ	Ἤ	Ἴ	Ὄ		Ὤ	ᾌ	ᾜ	ᾬ
Smooth and grave	Ἂ	Ἒ	Ἢ	Ἲ	Ὂ		Ὢ	ᾊ	ᾚ	ᾪ
Smooth and circumflex	Ἆ		Ἦ	Ἶ			Ὦ	ᾎ	ᾞ	ᾮ
Rough and acute	Ἅ	Ἕ	Ἥ	Ἵ	Ὅ	Ὕ	Ὥ	ᾍ	ᾝ	ᾭ
Rough and grave	Ἃ	Ἓ	Ἣ	Ἳ	Ὃ	Ὓ	Ὣ	ᾋ	ᾛ	ᾫ
Rough and circumflex	Ἇ		Ἧ	Ἷ		Ὗ	Ὧ	ᾏ	ᾟ	ᾯ

Lower case

	Basic vowels							Vowels with iota subscript			Rho
	Alpha	Epsilon	Eta	Iota	Omicron	Upsilon	Omega	Alpha	Eta	Omega	Rho
Basic letter	α	ε	η	ι	ο	υ	ω	ᾳ	ῃ	ῳ	ρ
With acute	ά	έ	ή	ί	ό	ύ	ώ	ᾴ	ῄ	ῴ
With grave	ὰ	ὲ	ὴ	ὶ	ὸ	ὺ	ὼ	ᾲ	ῂ	ῲ
With circumflex	ᾶ		ῆ	ῖ		ῦ	ῶ	ᾷ	ῇ	ῷ
Smooth breathing	ἀ	ἐ	ἠ	ἰ	ὀ	ὐ	ὠ	ᾀ	ᾐ	ᾠ	ῤ
Rough breathing	ἁ	ἑ	ἡ	ἱ	ὁ	ὑ	ὡ	ᾁ	ᾑ	ᾡ	ῥ
Smooth and acute	ἄ	ἔ	ἤ	ἴ	ὄ	ὔ	ὤ	ᾄ	ᾔ	ᾤ
Smooth and grave	ἂ	ἒ	ἢ	ἲ	ὂ	ὒ	ὢ	ᾂ	ᾒ	ᾢ
Smooth and circumflex	ἆ		ἦ	ἶ		ὖ	ὦ	ᾆ	ᾖ	ᾦ
Rough and acute	ἅ	ἕ	ἥ	ἵ	ὅ	ὕ	ὥ	ᾅ	ᾕ	ᾥ
Rough and grave	ἃ	ἓ	ἣ	ἳ	ὃ	ὓ	ὣ	ᾃ	ᾓ	ᾣ
Rough and circumflex	ἇ		ἧ	ἷ		ὗ	ὧ	ᾇ	ᾗ	ᾧ

External links

Public domain Greek polytonic unicode fonts Including instructions on the use of fonts
Athena, public domain polytonic Greek font
Gentium — a typeface for the nations, a freely available font including polytonic Greek support
History of accentuation in Ancient Greek and tutorial

Hellenic scripts | Greek language | Orthography

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