Additional Letters of the Greek alphabet

Note: because of their scarcity and their recent introduction into the standard Unicode (version 4), some of these characters are seldom included in the font faces, even rich and provided well. Moreover, it is frequent that those make use of eye s “false”, in particular for the Koppa .

The Greek alphabet such as it is read and the writing currently is the result of several centuries of evolution. It does not include however many a additional letters . Indeed, during the centuries, this alphabet “improved” (by the development of the Ponctuation, the invention then the regularization of the tiny layout of the S) and acquired some particular features (like the existence of contextual alternatives ─ for Σ sigma into tiny: σ or at the end of the word ─, or many binding S).

By doing this, of the frequent letters in Antiquity were abandoned when in -403 one of the Greek alphabets was adopted in Athens then was essential in fact in the hellenistic world because the language of the City, become the Koinè, did not need any. Other characters (traced secondary of certain letters and well typographical bindings), used in the manuscripts then in printing works, were eliminated between XVIIIe and the XIXe century, when one wanted, in Greece, to standardize the writing.

This list of “wide” natures of the Greek alphabet thus includes/understands all at the same time:

of the old letters abandoned after the adoption of the Ionian model in -403 but often attested in epigraphy (of which the use continued, mutatis-mutandis , in the alphabetical numeration):

Digamma : Ϝϝ /w/,
Koppa : Ϙϙ /k/ (for the old Allophone|ḵ}} in front of vowel of back),
san : Ϻϻ /s/,

a letter suitable for the Bactrien, Indo-Iranian Language written in Greek alphabet following the conquests of Alexandre Large the (after IVe century before the Christian era):

Sho : Ϸϸ / ʃ /,

of the ancient C-Ws communication secondary handwritten (on papyrus) or medieval (in manuscripts) useful for the paleographer:

'' lunar sigma '': Ϲϲ ,
antiquated letters in their numerical C-W communication medieval still used:

Koppa : Ϟϟ (90),
Sampi : Ϡϡ (900),
Digamma : Ϛϛ (6) (confused in this C-W communication with the binding Stigma ),

of the typographical C-Ws communication secondary, of which bindings:

Stigma : Ϛϛ /st/,
the Abbreviation καὶ : ϗ kaì “and” (perhaps an old binding),

of the free alternatives of certain letters (especially tiny) sometimes drawn from cursive handwritten C-Ws communication (more or less old) or (allegedly) specific to the typographical uses of certain sciences (mathematical, astronomy):

ϐ béta buckled (for β; in French typography of contextual Variante is used for the common layout), ϵ lunar epsilon and ϶ lunar epsilon reversed (for ε) Θ and ϑ théta open (for Θ and θ), ϖ pi buckled (for π), ϰ kappa cursive (for κ), ϱ rhô cursive or buckled (for ρ), ϒ, ϓ and ϔ (for Υ, Ύ and Ϋ), ϕ phi closed (for φ),

of the characters used in compared philology and in the diachronic study of the Greek language being used to transcribe Phonème S which were not written:

Yot : ϳ /j/ (Indo-European phoneme yod , often transcribed by *y ). This letter is not Greek: it is well a J Latin, used however in texts in Greek to note the Phonème origin Indo-European *y (in API: ). Indeed, the Greek alphabet as used now does not allow to write such a phoneme, missing early Greek Dialecte Ionian-attic which left the model of alphabet still of use currently. Thus, one will be able to note the word cypriote ιϳατηραν in a work of linguistics or Greek epigraphy by means of such a philological artifice.

One limited oneself so that Unicode makes it possible (in its version 4) to code.

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Additional Letters of the Greek alphabet

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