polytonic orthography

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Example of polytonic text from a Byzantine manuscript, of 1020 AD, displaying the beginning of the Gospel of Luke (1:3-6)

The polytonic orthography of 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 the monotonic orthography. Polytonic is still sometimes used by people who consider monotonic an unfortunate break with tradition.

Description

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:
  • ά Oxeía (ὀξεῖα), the acute accent
  • ά Tónos (τόνος, used interchangeably in prose with the oxia, used to strengthen the tone of a vowel in poetry
  • ὰ Bareía (βαρεῖα), the grave accent
  • ᾶ Perispōménē (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:
  • ἁ Daseía (δασεῖα), or rough breathing (spiritus asper), indicating an [h] in Ancient Greek. Also used on words starting with rho (ρ) transliterated as rh.
  • ἀ Psilé (ψιλή), or smooth breathing (spiritus lenis), indicating the absence of an [h].
• ᾳ the ypogegrammeni (iota subscript) (ὑπογεγραμμένη), written under alpha, eta, and omega to indicate the long diphthongs āi, ēi, and ōi, respectively; sometimes written adjacent to capitals (in which case it is called an iota adscript, prosgegrammeni, προσγεγραμμένη).

The letters iota and upsilon can also take a diaeresis (διαλυτικά) to show that a pair of vowels is pronounced separately, rather than together: compare Modern Greek παϊδάκια [paiðak^ja] (lamb chops) and παιδάκια [peðak^ja] (little children). The diaeresis can be combined with acute, grave and circumflex but never with breathings (since the letter with diaeresis cannot be the first vowel of the word).

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 except for the diaeresis none have any significance in the modern language: there is no difference in pronunciation between words which formerly had smooth and rough breathings, and the pitch accent has been replaced with a stress accent. (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.)

History

The rough and smooth breathings were introduced in classical times in order to represent the presence or absence of [h] 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. Aristophanes of Byzantium introduced the various accent markings during the Hellenistic period for educational purposes. The majuscule system written entirely in capital letters was used until the 8th century, when the minuscule polytonic was widely adopted.

The acute and circumflex accents were invented in Alexandria; the grave accent then meant an unaccented syllable, when it was important to mark one. The modern convention, by which an acute accent on the last syllable of a word becomes a grave accent, was devised in Byzantine times, after the accent became stress; the convention began with certain proclitic words, which lose their accent before another word, and was generalized.

In the later development of the language, the ancient tones were replaced by a stress accent making the differences among 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 1982, monotonic orthography was imposed by law. The latter uses only the acute accent (or sometimes a vertical bar intentionally distinct from any of the traditional accents) and diaeresis and omits the breathings. Some individuals, institutions, and publishers continue to prefer the polytonic system, though an official reintroduction of the polytonic system does not seem probable.

In an intermediate stage (between the beginning of the 20th century and 1982, official since the 1960s), the grave was replaced by the acute under certain circumstances, in particular in handwriting. (Even in Ancient Greek, they almost always meant the same thing; in modern Greek, there is no difference in the pronunciation of the three accents.) Greek typewriters from that era did not have keys for the grave accent. The grave was also not taught in primary schools where instruction was in Demotic. This system is still used in some publications such as the periodical Estia.

Sample Greek text

The Lord's Prayer in a 4th century uncial manuscript Codex Sinaiticus, before the adoption of minuscule polytonic.

Computer encoding

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 historically had 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. The monotonic and polytonic accent however have been de jure equivalent since 1986, and accordingly the "oxia" diacritic in Unicode decomposes canonically to the monotonic "tonos" — both are underlyingly treated as equivalent to the Western acute accent, U+0301.

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.

Lower case

See also

• Greek alphabet
• Diacritic
• Katharevousa
• Greek orthography
• Diacritics (Greek alphabet)
• Minuscule
• Monotonic orthography

External links

• Citizens' Movement for the Reintroduction of the Polytonic System, in Greek, English and French
• 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
• How the law to abandon polytonic orthography was passed in the Greek parliament, in Greek

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