(1) The letter gamma has two pronunciations, depending on what comes
after it: before EE and EH sounds (ι, η, υ, ει, οι, ε, αι), the sound is like y
as in yet; before AH, OH and OO sounds (α, ο, ω, ου), the sound is roughly like a
voiced version of the letter chi (See Note 3); it sounds a little
like gargling. I'll represent this letter by "gh" or "g", but
remember that it's not like an English g. (For those who know Arabic, I believe
the letter ghain غ/[
] sounds like Greek gamma.)
(2) I'm told the Greek letter rho sounds like the Spanish or Russian r,
not like the English, German, or French r. However, I never learnt how to say this
letter correctly, so I can't tell you for sure. (Comments are welcome!)
(3) The Greek letter chi has two pronunciations, depending on what comes
after it: before EE and EH sounds (ι, η, υ, ει, οι, ε, αι), the sound is like the German
ch in ich, or like the hy sound in huge. Before AH, OH and
OO sounds (α, ο, ω, ου), the sound is like the German ch in ach, the Scots
ch in loch, the Russian (Χ) or Arabic (خ/
Note the difference between delta and theta: the first letter is voiced (like th
in there or this, and the second letter is unvoiced (like th in
thick or thought. In these pages, I'll represent the pronunciation of
delta by "dh" and that of theta by "th".
Greek has the friendly practice of indicating the stressed syllable by an acute accent
(see also the page on the monotonic and polytonic systems),
which goes on the stressed vowel of the syllable.
Some of these letters, in combination, are pronounced differently than when they are
alone. Here are some vowel combinations:
) kha, or the Spanish
j.