Greek Sounds in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

And an Assignment of ASCII Characters to IPA Symbols

Please note: The current page is an adaptation for Greek of this general page, which is concerned with an assignment of ASCII characters to IPA symbols in general (for all languages) by the author.

Two tables are given below, one for consonants and one for vowels. The sounds of the Modern Greek language are shown in cyan-colored cells. Other cells that are not colored contain IPA-recognized sounds that are not found among the Modern Greek ones. Finally, darker-colored cells are sounds that cannot be generated by the human vocal system. ASCII symbols for use instead of the actual IPA symbols (in environments supporting only ASCII) are shown in red color. The following legend explains all this:

IPA Greek sound D ASCII character sample Greek syllable	IPA non-Greek sound S ASCII character
(blank cell) sound possible by the human vocal system, but not observed in any language	sound impossible by the human vocal system

Consonants

In the table of consonants, below, the first symbol within a cell denotes an unvoiced sound (e.g., t), whereas the second symbol denotes the corresponding voiced sound (e.g., d).

Consonants	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Plosive	p b πα μπα		t d τα ντα			\ /	c ] κι γκι	k g κα γκα	q G		?
Nasal	m   μα	M παμφ-	n   να			%	#   νι	N   αγχ-	7
Trill	}		R   τρα						8
Tap or Flap			P   αρα			[
Fricative	F B	f v φα βα	T D θα δα	s z σα ζα	S Z	$ 2	C J χι γι	x + χα γα	X Q	H 9	h 6
Lateral fricative			4 5
Approximant		V	r			{	j	W
Lateral approximant			l   λα			|	K   λι	L

Before proceeding to the Greek vowels, let us make a few explanatory notes on the rows and columns of the above table:

• Columns: moving from left to right corresponds to how much to the front or to the back in the mouth cavity the mouth-parts that produce the sound are. For example: bilabial sounds (as front as possible) are made with the two lips; labiodental sounds with the upper teeth touching the lower lip; alveolar sounds with the tip of the tongue touching the back of the teeth (the alveolar ridge); palatal sounds with the middle of the tongue touching the hard palate; and velar sounds with the back of the tongue touching the soft palate. (In "standard" Greek e.g., as produced by news anchormen/women no further back part of the mouth participates in creating any sound.)
• Rows: each row of the table represents a sound "quality". Thus, plosives are instantaneous, with the air escaping suddenly from the mouth; nasals require that air passes through the nasal cavity; in the only trill of the language the tongue vibrates rapidly (once or twice) against the alveolar ridge; in fricatives the air passes smoothly through the center of the mouth; and in lateral approximants the air passes through the sides of the mouth, while the tongue blocks the central region.

Vowels

In the table of vowels, below, wherever symbols appear in pairs, the leftmost symbol of the pair denotes an unrounded vowel, while the rightmost symbol denotes the corresponding rounded vowel.

Vowels   Front   Cen tral       Back Close i y   1 -       w u   τι               του       IY         U   Close-mid   e 0   ) =     , o     τε             το             @       Open-mid     E ~   3 ;   ^ O                             &     *     Open       a <       A (         τα

The meaning of the columns and rows of the table for vowels is as follows:

• Columns: from left to right, the tongue moves from the front position (close to the teeth) to back.
• Rows: in the top rows the mouth stays relatively closed, while in the bottom ones it opens more.
• A third dimension is included in this table through the pairs of unrounded and rounded vowels: keep the open-closedness and back-frontness of the other two dimensions fixed, and either round or unround your lips to produce each of the sounds in a pair.

Back to the Greek Alphabet page