Names for the Greek letters

From: Micheal Palmer (mwpalmer@earthlink.net)
Date: Tue Aug 18 1998 - 00:02:37 EDT


Who invented the names we now use for the Greek letters?

It occurred to me the other day that some of the names we now use for the
Greek letters would have made little sense in the classical period. That
caused me to worder when those names first appear in the literature.

Let me give an example. EP-SILON and UP-SILON share the word PSILON
('simple') presumably to contrast them with the diphthongs AI and OI
respectively. In the classical period, though, there would have been no
confusion between these letters and the relevant diphthongs, so the names
could not have originated that early could they?

Depending on whose reconstruction of the pronunciation you follow the names
may have made sense by the New Testament period. Were they invented about
that time or later? If the names come from a later period, is there any
evidence for what these letters were called in the classical period?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Micheal W. Palmer mwpalmer@earthlink.net
North Carolina State University
Philosophy and Religion (New Testament)
Foreign Languages (Ancient Greek)

Visit the Greek Language and Linguistics Gateway at
http://home.earthlink.net/~mwpalmer/
You can also access my online bibliography of Greek Linguistics at
http://home.earthlink.net/~mwpalmer/greek.linguistics.bibliography/bibliography.
html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

---
B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-329W@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:39:56 EDT