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Phonology

Differences from Proto-Indo-European

Main article: Proto-Greek language

Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics, ancient Greek words could end only in a vowel or /n s r/; final stops were lost, as in γάλα “milk”, compared with γάλακτος “of milk” (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following:

• PIE *s became /h/ at the beginning of a word (debuccalization): Latin sex, English six, ancient Greek ἕξ /héks/.
• PIE *s was elided between vowels after an intermediate step of debuccalization: Sanskrit janasas, Latin generis (where s > r by rhotacism), Greek *genesos > *genehos > ancient Greek γένεος (/ɡéneos/), Attic γένους (/ɡénoːs/) “of a kind”.
• PIE *y /j/ became /h/ (debuccalization) or /(d)z/ (fortition): Sanskrit yas, ancient Greek ὅς /hós/ “who” (relative pronoun); Latin iugum, English yoke, ancient Greek ζυγός /zyɡós/.
• PIE *w, which occurred in Mycenaean and some non-Attic dialects, was lost: early Doric ϝέργον /wérɡon/, English work, Attic Greek ἔργον /érɡon/.
• PIE and Mycenaean labiovelars changed to plain stops (labials, dentals, and velars) in the later Greek dialects: for instance, PIE *kʷ became /p/ or /t/ in Attic: Attic Greek ποῦ /pôː/ “where?”, Latin quō; Attic Greek τίς /tís/, Latin quis “who?”.
• PIE “voiced aspirated” stops *bʰ dʰ ǵʰ gʰ gʷʰ were devoiced and became the aspirated stops φ θ χ /pʰ tʰ kʰ/ in ancient Greek.

Phonemic inventory

Main article: Ancient Greek phonology

The pronunciation of ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek. Ancient Greek had long and short vowels; many diphthongs; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops; and a pitch accent. In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ (iotacism). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives, and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent. Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes.# ISO certification in Inddia

The examples below represent Attic Greek in the 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. # ISO certification in Inddia