Post by Caitlin Locke on Sept 18, 2005 11:49:15 GMT -5
This is technically the Greek Alphabet, but it has the look that I was looking for. It is used and is called the Ancient Language on this site.
A á
Alpha
Transliterated "A"
Ancient Pronunciation: "a" as in "father",
maybe sometimes as in "cat"
B â
Beta
Transliterated "B"
Ancient Pronunciation: "b" as in "bubble"
This is supposed to be the picture of a house, with two stories. "Beta" is cognate with "Beth", Hebrew for "house", given to many Jewish congregations.
à ã
Gamma
Transliterated "G"
Ancient Pronunciation: "g" as in "goggles"
"Gamma" is the same word as "camel", in Semitic "gimel". The letter actually does look like a camel's head. This letter passed into the Latin alphabet in this position in a curved form as our "C". The Etruscans did not distinguish between the "g" and "k" sounds, so Greek gamma came to have the "k" sound in Latin. The Romans needed another letter for the "g" sound, so they added a bar to the "C" to get "G".
Ä ä
Delta
Transliterated "D"
Ancient Pronunciation: "d" as in "daddy"
This was supposed to be a door, in Semitic "Daleth". It became tilted and one side rounded as our "D". You know the mouth of a river and maybe other triangular things as "deltas".
Å å
Epsilon
Transliterated "E"
Ancient Pronunciation: "e" as in "feather bed"
"Psilo" means "little", hence "little E" or "short E". The letter began in Semitic as "heh", for the "H" sound, or rough aspirate. Their alphabet did not have a letter for this vowel (or most others), so the Greeks used it instead for the short "e" sound, and used a reverse apostrophe to indicate the "h" sound, which in Greek occurs only at the beginnings of words.
Æ æ
Zeta
Transliterated "Z"
Ancient Pronunciation: "z" as in "zoo"
This letter came directly from the Semitic alphabet. Some people will tell you that the letter was always pronounced "dz". I find this a little bit hard to believe.
Ç ç
Eta
Transliterated "E"
Ancient Pronunciation: "long a" like the "e" in "Riviera"
This was a consonant in Semitic, but the Greeks used it as their "long a" sound. On the continent, e often takes what we call the "long a" sound. Curiously, the letter moved into Latin as the "H", which they needed because the Greek reverse apostrophe wouldn't do.
È è
Theta
Transliterated "TH"
Ancient Pronunciation: "unvoiced th" as "thin"
This is always unvoiced (as in "thin"). This letter actually used to exist in English. (So did the voiced "th", as in "father", the letter "thorn", a lower-case "d" with the upright crossed). But both letters were replaced by the "th". It's easy to see the letter's origin. It's the tongue protruding just between the front teeth of the open mouth, as when you say either of the "th" sounds.
É é
Iota
Transliterated "I"
Ancient Pronunciation: "long e" as in Italian "Italia",
maybe sometimes "short i" as in "pin"
Lower-case "i", a simple mark for a simple sound. Our English "short i" is hard for many non-English-speakers to learn to say. The letter is the smallest in Greek, was cited in the New Testament ("not a jot..."), and actually became our word "jot".
Ê ê
Kappa
Transliterated "K"
Ancient Pronunciation: "k" as in "smokestack"
Kappa came right from the Semitic languages unchanged into Greek and passed into Latin and English for the "k" sound.
Ë ë
Lambda
Transliterated "L"
Ancient Pronunciation: "l" as in "little"
This came from Semitic alphabet, where it was always an angle, but its orientation varied. Sometimes the "L"'s would even indicate whether the line was to be read right-to-left or left-to-right. The Greeks used the letter with the angle pointing up. It was turned on its side by the Romans to become our "L".
Ì ì
Mu
Transliterated "M"
Ancient Pronunciation: "m" as in "mummy"
The Egyptians used a horned owl for "m", and this may be the origin of this letter, which came from Semitic and went into Latin and English unchanged.
Í í
Nu
Transliterated "N"
Ancient Pronunciation: "n" as in "noon"
The waves are supposed to be water. This also passed unchanged from Semitic into Greek, then to Latin and then English.
Î î
Xi
Transliterated "X"
Ancient Pronunciation: "ks" as "exist"
A crossmark stood for the "t" sound in Semitic, but somehow ended up as the letter "chi" in Greek. For some reason, the Greeks decided to use three bars for the "ks" double consonant. The Romans didn't need the "kh" sound, so they used the "chi" for their "ks" sound, which is now our "X". "Ksi" is hard to say, so campus Greeks pronounced this this letter "ZAI".
Ï ï
Omicron
Transliterated "O"
Ancient Pronunciation: "short o" or "aw" as in "doll"
"Micro" means "little", hence "little o". The throat and the lips are both rounded to make this sound, hence the shape.
Ð ð
Pi
Transliterated "P"
Ancient Pronunciation: "p" as in "pipe"
The Semitic form probably meant nothing. We use the Greek form for the circumference of a circle with unit diameter. Why a version of this letter with the right upright rounded became the Roman "P", matching the Greek letter for "R", is anybody's guess.
Ñ ñ
Rho
Transliterated "R"
Ancient Pronunciation: "trilled r" as a Scot might say "Rrroberrrt Burrrns"
The Greek letter came from the Semitic form, and for some reason the Romans added a diagonal bar to distinguish this from their altered form of "pi", which they used for the "p" sound. Think about this: Among the many dialects of Engilsh, there are at least six ways to say the "R" sound. Compare the Scots burr, John Kennedy's accent from Hahvahd (a short non-rhotic R), some of the New Yawwk accents (a longer non-rhotic R), thingyney, Appalachian, an average American "R", and my own harsh Midwestern pronunciation.
Ó óò
Sigma
Transliterated "S"
Ancient Pronunciation: "s" as "sense"
This came from the Semitic alphabet, where it was once shaped like our "W". (The Hebrew "shin", familiar to most people from Jewish religious objects, is the same letter.) The letter was turned to make the classical Greek "sigma". The Greek "sigma" in turn was altered slightly as our "s". At the end of a word, lower-case sigma was written as our lower-case "s".
Ô ô
Tau
Transliterated "T"
Ancient Pronunciation: "t" as in "tent"
Our "T", taken from the Semitic languages which used a cross. Interestingly, some of the early Christian writers thought this letter has a special correlation with the Cross.
Õ õ
Upsilon
Transliterated "U" or "Y"
Ancient Pronunciation: "uuh" as in German "putsch"
"Long U". Its upper-case form came into English as our almost-a-vowel letter "y" (a short "long e"). It also went into Latin as "V", which has the "ooh" sound ("vir quisque vir"). When English needed a letter for the "v" sound, it used the Latin "V" and rounded its bottom for a range of vowel sounds that we call "u". Doubled "V" kept the "ooh" sound, which is what our almost-a-vowel "w" (the French call it "double V") now has.
Ö ö
Phi
Transliterated "PH"
Ancient Pronunciation: "ph" as in "phosphate",
but supposedly more breathy than our "f"
The Greeks used to have a letter ("digamma", two gammas, one on top of the other) for the "f" sound but dropped it. The Romans revived it, and neither they nor we needed a special letter for "ph". By custom, we indicate a word's Greek origin by using the "ph" letter-pair. The Greeks made up this letter and the remaining three, and added them to the end of their alphabet.
× ÷
Chi
Transliterated "CH"
Ancient Pronunciation: "kh" as in "chanukkah", "Achmed", or "Ach!"
We don't use the deep-throated sound of this letter, which is good if you have a sore throat. The Greeks made this letter up.
Ø ø
Psi
Transliterated "PS"
Ancient Pronunciation: "ps" as in "upset"
For some reasons the Greeks thought they needed a separate letter for the "ps" sound. We don't pronounce the "p" when it starts a word ("psychiatrist", "psalms"), but the Greeks did.
Ù ù
Omega
Transliterated "O"
Ancient Pronunciation: "long o" as in "tone"
"Big o". It was marked specially by a bar under the upper case, doubling the lower case. This letter didn't make it into our alphabet, but survives as the symbol for electric resistance (ohms). The apocalypse has the Lord say, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." Tielhard de Chardin, the priest-archeologist and mystic who discovered Peking Man, saw evolution reaching the "omega point".
Alpha
Transliterated "A"
Ancient Pronunciation: "a" as in "father",
maybe sometimes as in "cat"
B â
Beta
Transliterated "B"
Ancient Pronunciation: "b" as in "bubble"
This is supposed to be the picture of a house, with two stories. "Beta" is cognate with "Beth", Hebrew for "house", given to many Jewish congregations.
à ã
Gamma
Transliterated "G"
Ancient Pronunciation: "g" as in "goggles"
"Gamma" is the same word as "camel", in Semitic "gimel". The letter actually does look like a camel's head. This letter passed into the Latin alphabet in this position in a curved form as our "C". The Etruscans did not distinguish between the "g" and "k" sounds, so Greek gamma came to have the "k" sound in Latin. The Romans needed another letter for the "g" sound, so they added a bar to the "C" to get "G".
Ä ä
Delta
Transliterated "D"
Ancient Pronunciation: "d" as in "daddy"
This was supposed to be a door, in Semitic "Daleth". It became tilted and one side rounded as our "D". You know the mouth of a river and maybe other triangular things as "deltas".
Å å
Epsilon
Transliterated "E"
Ancient Pronunciation: "e" as in "feather bed"
"Psilo" means "little", hence "little E" or "short E". The letter began in Semitic as "heh", for the "H" sound, or rough aspirate. Their alphabet did not have a letter for this vowel (or most others), so the Greeks used it instead for the short "e" sound, and used a reverse apostrophe to indicate the "h" sound, which in Greek occurs only at the beginnings of words.
Æ æ
Zeta
Transliterated "Z"
Ancient Pronunciation: "z" as in "zoo"
This letter came directly from the Semitic alphabet. Some people will tell you that the letter was always pronounced "dz". I find this a little bit hard to believe.
Ç ç
Eta
Transliterated "E"
Ancient Pronunciation: "long a" like the "e" in "Riviera"
This was a consonant in Semitic, but the Greeks used it as their "long a" sound. On the continent, e often takes what we call the "long a" sound. Curiously, the letter moved into Latin as the "H", which they needed because the Greek reverse apostrophe wouldn't do.
È è
Theta
Transliterated "TH"
Ancient Pronunciation: "unvoiced th" as "thin"
This is always unvoiced (as in "thin"). This letter actually used to exist in English. (So did the voiced "th", as in "father", the letter "thorn", a lower-case "d" with the upright crossed). But both letters were replaced by the "th". It's easy to see the letter's origin. It's the tongue protruding just between the front teeth of the open mouth, as when you say either of the "th" sounds.
É é
Iota
Transliterated "I"
Ancient Pronunciation: "long e" as in Italian "Italia",
maybe sometimes "short i" as in "pin"
Lower-case "i", a simple mark for a simple sound. Our English "short i" is hard for many non-English-speakers to learn to say. The letter is the smallest in Greek, was cited in the New Testament ("not a jot..."), and actually became our word "jot".
Ê ê
Kappa
Transliterated "K"
Ancient Pronunciation: "k" as in "smokestack"
Kappa came right from the Semitic languages unchanged into Greek and passed into Latin and English for the "k" sound.
Ë ë
Lambda
Transliterated "L"
Ancient Pronunciation: "l" as in "little"
This came from Semitic alphabet, where it was always an angle, but its orientation varied. Sometimes the "L"'s would even indicate whether the line was to be read right-to-left or left-to-right. The Greeks used the letter with the angle pointing up. It was turned on its side by the Romans to become our "L".
Ì ì
Mu
Transliterated "M"
Ancient Pronunciation: "m" as in "mummy"
The Egyptians used a horned owl for "m", and this may be the origin of this letter, which came from Semitic and went into Latin and English unchanged.
Í í
Nu
Transliterated "N"
Ancient Pronunciation: "n" as in "noon"
The waves are supposed to be water. This also passed unchanged from Semitic into Greek, then to Latin and then English.
Î î
Xi
Transliterated "X"
Ancient Pronunciation: "ks" as "exist"
A crossmark stood for the "t" sound in Semitic, but somehow ended up as the letter "chi" in Greek. For some reason, the Greeks decided to use three bars for the "ks" double consonant. The Romans didn't need the "kh" sound, so they used the "chi" for their "ks" sound, which is now our "X". "Ksi" is hard to say, so campus Greeks pronounced this this letter "ZAI".
Ï ï
Omicron
Transliterated "O"
Ancient Pronunciation: "short o" or "aw" as in "doll"
"Micro" means "little", hence "little o". The throat and the lips are both rounded to make this sound, hence the shape.
Ð ð
Pi
Transliterated "P"
Ancient Pronunciation: "p" as in "pipe"
The Semitic form probably meant nothing. We use the Greek form for the circumference of a circle with unit diameter. Why a version of this letter with the right upright rounded became the Roman "P", matching the Greek letter for "R", is anybody's guess.
Ñ ñ
Rho
Transliterated "R"
Ancient Pronunciation: "trilled r" as a Scot might say "Rrroberrrt Burrrns"
The Greek letter came from the Semitic form, and for some reason the Romans added a diagonal bar to distinguish this from their altered form of "pi", which they used for the "p" sound. Think about this: Among the many dialects of Engilsh, there are at least six ways to say the "R" sound. Compare the Scots burr, John Kennedy's accent from Hahvahd (a short non-rhotic R), some of the New Yawwk accents (a longer non-rhotic R), thingyney, Appalachian, an average American "R", and my own harsh Midwestern pronunciation.
Ó óò
Sigma
Transliterated "S"
Ancient Pronunciation: "s" as "sense"
This came from the Semitic alphabet, where it was once shaped like our "W". (The Hebrew "shin", familiar to most people from Jewish religious objects, is the same letter.) The letter was turned to make the classical Greek "sigma". The Greek "sigma" in turn was altered slightly as our "s". At the end of a word, lower-case sigma was written as our lower-case "s".
Ô ô
Tau
Transliterated "T"
Ancient Pronunciation: "t" as in "tent"
Our "T", taken from the Semitic languages which used a cross. Interestingly, some of the early Christian writers thought this letter has a special correlation with the Cross.
Õ õ
Upsilon
Transliterated "U" or "Y"
Ancient Pronunciation: "uuh" as in German "putsch"
"Long U". Its upper-case form came into English as our almost-a-vowel letter "y" (a short "long e"). It also went into Latin as "V", which has the "ooh" sound ("vir quisque vir"). When English needed a letter for the "v" sound, it used the Latin "V" and rounded its bottom for a range of vowel sounds that we call "u". Doubled "V" kept the "ooh" sound, which is what our almost-a-vowel "w" (the French call it "double V") now has.
Ö ö
Phi
Transliterated "PH"
Ancient Pronunciation: "ph" as in "phosphate",
but supposedly more breathy than our "f"
The Greeks used to have a letter ("digamma", two gammas, one on top of the other) for the "f" sound but dropped it. The Romans revived it, and neither they nor we needed a special letter for "ph". By custom, we indicate a word's Greek origin by using the "ph" letter-pair. The Greeks made up this letter and the remaining three, and added them to the end of their alphabet.
× ÷
Chi
Transliterated "CH"
Ancient Pronunciation: "kh" as in "chanukkah", "Achmed", or "Ach!"
We don't use the deep-throated sound of this letter, which is good if you have a sore throat. The Greeks made this letter up.
Ø ø
Psi
Transliterated "PS"
Ancient Pronunciation: "ps" as in "upset"
For some reasons the Greeks thought they needed a separate letter for the "ps" sound. We don't pronounce the "p" when it starts a word ("psychiatrist", "psalms"), but the Greeks did.
Ù ù
Omega
Transliterated "O"
Ancient Pronunciation: "long o" as in "tone"
"Big o". It was marked specially by a bar under the upper case, doubling the lower case. This letter didn't make it into our alphabet, but survives as the symbol for electric resistance (ohms). The apocalypse has the Lord say, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." Tielhard de Chardin, the priest-archeologist and mystic who discovered Peking Man, saw evolution reaching the "omega point".
I love that smiley by the way. ^_^