希腊字母 | 演变 / 传播

注：本文为趣味百科，可以了解一下希腊字母演变史。

机翻，未校。

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History of the Greek alphabet facts for kids

希腊字母历史

希腊字母的历史始于对腓尼基字母的采用

Thehistory of the Greek alphabetstarts with the adoption of Phoenician letter forms in the 9th–8th centuries BC during early Archaic Greece and continues to the present day. The Greek alphabet was developed during the Iron Age, centuries after the loss of Linear B, the syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek until the Late Bronze Age collapse and Greek Dark Age. This article concentrates on the development of the alphabet before the modern codification of the standard Greek alphabet.

希腊字母的历史始于公元前 9 世纪至 8 世纪，在古希腊早期的古风时期，希腊人采用了腓尼基字母形式，并一直延续到今天。希腊字母是在铁器时代发展起来的，此时距离线形文字 B 的消失已经过去了几个世纪。线形文字 B 是一种音节文字，在青铜时代晚期崩溃和希腊黑暗时代之前，一直被用于书写迈锡尼希腊语。本文主要关注在现代标准希腊字母编纂之前，希腊字母的发展情况。

腓尼基字母对希腊字母的影响及改编

The Phoenician alphabet was consistently explicit only about consonants, though even by the 9th century BC it had developed matres lectionis to indicate some, mostly final, vowels. This arrangement is much less suitable for Greek than for Semitic languages, and these matres lectionis, as well as several Phoenician letters which represented consonants not present in Greek, were adapted according to the acrophonic principle to represent Greek vowels consistently, if not unambiguously.

腓尼基字母虽然在公元前 9 世纪就已经发展出了 “母音字母”（matres lectionis）来表示一些（主要是词尾的）元音，但它始终主要明确表示辅音。这种字母排列方式对于希腊语来说，远不如对闪米特语族合适。这些 “母音字母”，以及一些在希腊语中不存在的腓尼基辅音字母，根据头音原则（acrophonic principle）被改编，以便一致（即使不是毫无歧义）地表示希腊语的元音。

希腊字母的传播

The Greek alphabet was developed by a Greek with first-hand experience of contemporary Phoenician script. After it was established in the Greek mainland, it was exported eastwards to Phrygia, where a similar script was devised. It was also exported westwards with Euboean or West Greek traders, where the Etruscans adapted the Greek alphabet to their own language, which eventually led to the Latin alphabet.

希腊字母是由一位对当时腓尼基文字有第一手经验的希腊人发展而来的。在它在希腊大陆确立之后，向东传播到了弗里吉亚，在那里人们设计出了一种类似的文字。它也随着优卑亚或西希腊的商人向西传播，伊特鲁里亚人将希腊字母改编用于他们自己的语言，最终导致了拉丁字母的产生。

Chronology of adoption

采用年表

Nestor’s Cup inscription, Euboean alphabet, 8th century BC

内斯特杯上的铭文，优卑亚字母表，公元前 8 世纪

Dipylon inscription

迪皮隆铭文

Most specialists believe that the Phoenician alphabet was adopted for Greek during the early 8th century BC, perhaps in Euboea. The earliest known fragmentary Greek inscriptions date from this time, 770–750 BC, and they match Phoenician letter forms of c. 800–750 BC. The oldest substantial texts known to date are the Dipylon inscription and the text on the so-called Cup of Nestor, both dated to the late 8th century BC, inscriptions of personal ownership and dedications to a god.

大多数学者认为，腓尼基字母表在公元前 8 世纪早期被希腊人采用，地点可能是在优卑亚岛。已知最早的希腊文片段铭文就来自这个时期，即公元前 770 年至 750 年，它们与大约公元前 800 年至 750 年的腓尼基字母形式相匹配。目前已知最古老的大量文本是迪皮隆铭文和所谓的内斯特杯上的文字，二者都可追溯到公元前 8 世纪晚期，内容是个人所有权的声明以及对神的奉献。

Tradition recounts that a daughter of a certain Agamemnon, king of Aeolian Cyme, married a Phrygian king called Midas.
 
传统记载，埃奥利亚的库迈国王阿伽门农的一个女儿，嫁给了一位名叫迈达斯的弗里吉亚国王。

This link may have facilitated the Greeks “borrowing” their alphabet from the Phrygians because the Phrygian letter shapes are closest to the inscriptions from Aeolis.

这种联系可能促进了希腊人从弗里吉亚人那里 “借用” 他们的字母表，因为弗里吉亚的字母形状与来自埃奥利斯的铭文最为接近。

Some scholars argue for earlier dates: Naveh (1973) for the 11th century BC, Stieglitz (1981) for the 14th century, Bernal (1990) for the 18th–13th century, some for the 9th, but none of these are widely accepted.

一些学者主张更早的时间：纳韦（1973 年）认为是公元前 11 世纪，斯蒂格利茨（1981 年）认为是公元前 14 世纪，伯纳尔（1990 年）认为是公元前 18 世纪至 13 世纪，还有一些人认为是公元前 9 世纪，但这些观点都没有被广泛接受。

The Fayum alphabet, originating on Cyprus, seems to be older than the fragmentary Greek inscriptions: it is dated to c. 800 BC and appears to preserve the earliest known form of the Greek alphabet. This could indicate that the Phoenician alphabet was adapted to Greek on Cyprus, where an important Phoenician colony existed at the time in the city-kingdom of Kition; however, the Cypriot syllabary, which was already employed at the time to write the local dialect, having been in use since the 11th century, remained in use in Cyprus until the 4th century BC and was not replaced by the adapted Phoenician alphabet this early.

起源于塞浦路斯的法尤姆字母表，似乎比希腊文片段铭文还要古老：它的年代约为公元前 800 年，并且似乎保留了已知最早形式的希腊字母表。这可能表明腓尼基字母表是在塞浦路斯被改编成希腊字母的，当时在基提翁城邦有一个重要的腓尼基殖民地；然而，塞浦路斯音节文字自公元前 11 世纪就已开始使用，当时已经被用于书写当地方言，并且在塞浦路斯一直使用到公元前 4 世纪，并没有这么早被改编后的腓尼基字母表所取代。

Another possibility is that the adaptation happened on Thera, which Herodotus and Pausanias claim to have been settled early by Phoenicians descending from Cadmus; however, a Phoenician presence on the island has not been proven archaeologically.

另一种可能性是，这种改编发生在锡拉岛，希罗多德和保萨尼亚斯声称，该岛早期由卡德摩斯的腓尼基后裔定居；然而，岛上存在腓尼基人的说法尚未得到考古证实。

Herodotus’ account

希罗多德的记载

According to legends recounted by Herodotus, the alphabet was first introduced to Greece by a Phoenician named Cadmus:

根据希罗多德所讲述的传说，字母表最初是由一位名叫卡德摩斯的腓尼基人引入希腊的：

The Phoenicians who came with Cadmus—amongst whom were the Gephyraei—introduced into Greece, after their settlement in the country, a number of accomplishments, of which the most important was writing, an art till then, I think, unknown to the Greeks. At first they [the Phoenicians] used the same characters as all the other Phoenicians, but as time went on, and they changed their language, they also changed the shape of their letters. At that period most of the Greeks in the neighbourhood were Ionians; they were taught these letters by the Phoenicians and adopted them, with a few alterations, for their own use, continuing to refer to them as the Phoenician characters—as was only right, as the Phoenicians had introduced them. The Ionians also call paper’skins’—a survival from antiquity when paper was hard to get, and they did actually use goat and sheep skins to write on. Indeed, even today many foreign peoples use this material. In the temple of Ismenian Apollo at Theba in Boeotia I have myself seen cauldrons with inscriptions cut on them in Cadmean characters—most of them not very different from the Ionian.

与卡德摩斯一同前来的腓尼基人 —— 其中包括盖菲拉伊人 —— 在定居希腊后，带来了许多技艺，其中最重要的便是书写，我认为在此之前，希腊人并不知道这项技艺。起初，他们（腓尼基人）使用与其他腓尼基人相同的字符，但随着时间的推移，他们的语言发生了变化，字母的形状也随之改变。在那个时期，周边的大多数希腊人是爱奥尼亚人；他们从腓尼基人那里学会了这些字母，并稍加改动后将其用于自己的语言，而且一直将它们称为腓尼基字符 —— 这是理所当然的，因为是腓尼基人将其引入的。爱奥尼亚人也把纸称为 “兽皮”—— 这是古代的一种遗留说法，当时纸张很难获得，他们实际上确实使用山羊皮和绵羊皮来书写。事实上，即使在今天，许多外国民族仍在使用这种材料。在维奥蒂亚的底比斯城的伊斯墨涅阿波罗神庙里，我亲眼见过一些刻有卡德摩斯文字的大锅 —— 其中大多数与爱奥尼亚文字没有太大区别。

Herodotus estimates that Cadmus lived sixteen hundred years earlier, or around 2000 BC. He had seen and described the Cadmean writing engraved on certain tripods in the temple of Apollo at Thebes. He estimated that those tripods dated back to the time of Laius, the great-grandson of Cadmus. On one of the tripods there was this inscription in Cadmean writing, which as he attested, resembled Ionian letters: Ἀμφιτρύων μ᾽ ἀνέθηκ᾽ ἐνάρων ἀπὸ Τηλεβοάων (“Amphitryon dedicated me from the spoils of [the battle of] Teleboae.”). A second tripod bears the inscription in hexameter verse: Σκαῖος πυγμαχέων με ἑκηβόλῳ Ἀπόλλωνι νικήσας ἀνέθηκε τεῒν περικαλλὲς ἄγαλμα. (“Scaeus the boxer, victorious in the contest, dedicated me to Apollo, the archer god, a lovely offering”). Herodotus estimated that if Scaeus, the son of Hippocoon was the dedicator and not another of the same name, he would have lived at the time of Oedipus. The third tripod bears the inscription again in hexameter verse: Λαοδάμας τρίποδ᾽ αὐτὸς ἐυσκόπῳ Ἀπόλλωνι μουναρχέων ἀνέθηκε τεῒν περικαλλὲς ἄγαλμα. (“Laodamas, while he reigned, dedicated this cauldron to Apollo, the sure of aim, as a lovely offering”).

希罗多德估计，卡德摩斯生活在一千六百年前，即大约公元前 2000 年。他曾见过并描述了刻在底比斯的阿波罗神庙中某些三足鼎上的卡德摩斯文字。他估计这些三足鼎可以追溯到卡德摩斯的曾孙拉伊俄斯时代。在其中一个三足鼎上用卡德摩斯文字刻着这样的铭文，据他证实，这种文字与爱奥尼亚字母相似：Ἀμφιτρύων μ᾽ ἀνέθηκ᾽ ἐνάρων ἀπὸ Τηλεβοάων（“安菲特律翁从（与）忒勒玻埃（之战的）战利品中献上了我。”） 。第二个三足鼎上刻着用六音步诗行写成的铭文：Σκαῖος πυγμαχέων με ἑκηβόλῳ Ἀπόλλωνι νικήσας ἀνέθηκε τεῒν περικαλλὲς ἄγαλμα.（“拳击手斯卡奥斯，在比赛中获胜，将我献给了射箭之神阿波罗，作为一件可爱的祭品”） 。希罗多德估计，如果希波科翁的儿子斯卡奥斯是献鼎者，而不是另一个同名的人，那么他应该生活在俄狄浦斯时代。第三个三足鼎上再次刻着用六音步诗行写成的铭文：Λαοδάμας τρίποδ᾽ αὐτὸς ἐυσκόπῳ Ἀπόλλωνι μουναρχέων ἀνέθηκε τεῒν περικαλλὲς ἄγαλμα.（“拉俄达玛斯在统治期间，将这个大鼎献给了百发百中的阿波罗，作为一件可爱的祭品”） 。

Hyginus’ account

许癸努斯的记载

Hyginus recounts the following legends about the development of the alphabet:

许癸努斯讲述了以下关于字母表发展的传说：

The three Fates created the first five vowels of the alphabet and the letters B and T. It is said that Palamedes, son of Nauplius invented the remaining eleven consonants. Then Hermes reduced these sounds to characters, showing wedge shapes because cranes fly in wedge formation and then carried the system from Greece to Egypt*. This was the Pelasgian alphabet, which Cadmus had later brought to Boeotia, then Evander of Arcadia, a Pelasgian, introduced into Italy, where his mother, Carmenta, formed the familiar fifteen characters of the Latin alphabet. Other consonants have since been added to the Greek alphabet. Alpha was the first of eighteen letters, because alphe means honor, and alphainein is to invent.
 
三位命运女神创造了字母表中的前五个元音字母以及字母 B 和 T。据说，瑙普利奥斯的儿子帕拉墨得斯发明了其余的十一个辅音字母。然后赫尔墨斯将这些发音转化为字符，呈现出楔形，因为鹤飞行时呈楔形编队，之后他将这个体系从希腊带到了埃及 *。这就是皮拉斯基字母表，后来卡德摩斯将其带到了维奥蒂亚，接着，阿卡迪亚的皮拉斯基人埃万德将其引入了意大利，在那里，他的母亲卡门塔形成了我们熟悉的拉丁字母表中的十五个字符。此后，其他辅音字母被添加到了希腊字母表中。字母 Alpha 是十八个字母中的第一个，因为 “alphe” 的意思是荣誉，而 “alphainein” 是发明的意思。

Diodorus’ account

狄奥多罗斯的记载

Some ancient Greek scholars argued that the Greek alphabet should not be attributed to the Phoenician alphabet. Diodorus Siculus in his Historical Library, Book 5, suggests that the Phoenicians merely “changed the form and shape” of earlier letters:

一些古希腊学者认为，希腊字母表不应被认为源自腓尼基字母表。狄奥多罗斯・西库卢斯在他的《历史丛书》第五卷中提出，腓尼基人仅仅是 “改变了早期字母的形式和形状”：

But there are some who attribute the invention of letters to the Syrians, from whom the Phoenicians learned them and communicated them to the Greeks when they came with Cadmus into Europe; hence the Greeks called them Phoenician letters. To these that hold this opinion, it is answered that the Phoenicians were not the first that found out letters, but only changed the form and shape of them into other characters, which many afterwards using the name of Phoenicians grew to be common.
 
但是，有些人将字母的发明归功于叙利亚人，腓尼基人从他们那里学到了字母，并在与卡德摩斯一同来到欧洲时将其传授给了希腊人；因此，希腊人将它们称为腓尼基字母。对于持这种观点的人，有人回应说，腓尼基人并不是最早发明字母的，他们只是将字母的形式和形状改变成了其他字符，后来许多人使用腓尼基人的这个名称，这些字符才变得普遍起来。

Plutarch’s account

普鲁塔克的记载

In his essay “On the Malice of Herodotus”, Plutarch criticizes Herodotus for prejudice and misrepresentation. Furthermore, he argues that Gephyraei were Euboeans or Eretrians and he doubts the reliability of Herodotus’ sources.

在他的文章《论希罗多德的恶意》中，普鲁塔克批评了希罗多德的偏见和不实描述。此外，他认为 “盖菲拉伊人” 是优卑亚人或埃雷特里亚人，并且他怀疑希罗多德资料来源的可靠性。

As for Aristogeiton, Herodotus puts him not forth at the back door, but thrusts him directly out of the gate into Phoenicia, saying that he had his origins from the Gephyraei, and that the Gephyraei were not, as some think, Euboeans or Eretrians, but Phoenicians, as himself has learned by report.
 
至于阿里斯托革同，希罗多德不是把他从后门赶出去，而是直接把他从大门推到了腓尼基，说他的祖先是盖菲拉伊人，而且盖菲拉伊人并不像有些人认为的那样是优卑亚人或埃雷特里亚人，而是腓尼基人，这是他自己听说的。

Plutarch and other ancient Greek writers credited the legendary Palamedes of Nauplion on Euboea with the invention of the supplementary letters not found in the original Phoenician alphabet. The distinction between Eta and Epsilon and between Omega and Omicron, adopted in the Ionian standard, was traditionally attributed to Simonides of Ceos (556–469).

普鲁塔克和其他古希腊作家认为，优卑亚岛瑙普利翁的传奇人物帕拉墨得斯发明了原始腓尼基字母表中没有的补充字母。爱奥尼亚标准中对 Eta 和 Epsilon 以及 Omega 和 Omicron 的区分，传统上归因于基奥斯的西蒙尼德斯（公元前 556 年至 469 年）。

Plutarch goes further back to describe an older Greek writing system, similar as he attested to the Egyptian writing. In his “Discourse Concerning Socrates’s Daemon”, he describes how Agesilaus king of Sparta, uncovers Alcmene’s tomb at Haliartus and discovers a brazen plate on which a very ancient script was written, much older than the Ancient Greek alphabet. Agesilaus sent a transcript to Egypt in order to be translated back into Ancient Greek. Agetoridas the Spartan travelled to Memphis of Egypt and gave the transcript to Chonouphis the Egyptian priest. Some scholars speculate that this plate was written in Linear B. Agesilaus’ decision to have text sent to Egypt is not unreasonable; it is widely accepted that Ancient Egyptians during the 4th century BC were able to translate to and from various other languages; they used three different writing systems within Egypt: hieroglyphic script, hieratic and demotic; this tradition continued during the Hellenistic period when all kinds of scripts were translated and copies were added to the library of Alexandria; one example today of a script written in three forms is the Rosetta Stone that appears in three texts: in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, in Egyptian demotic, and in ancient Greek. And therefore, as the story goes, the Egyptian priest, having studied the script and translated it, concluded that the writing enjoined the Greeks to institute games in honor of the Muses.

普鲁塔克追溯得更远，描述了一种更古老的希腊书写系统，据他证实，这种系统与埃及的书写系统类似。在他的《论苏格拉底的精灵》一文中，他描述了斯巴达国王阿格西劳斯如何在哈利阿图斯揭开了阿尔克墨涅的坟墓，并发现了一块青铜板，上面刻有一种非常古老的文字，比古希腊字母表要古老得多。阿格西劳斯将一份抄本送到埃及，以便将其翻译回古希腊语。斯巴达人阿革托里达斯前往埃及的孟菲斯，将抄本交给了埃及祭司乔诺菲斯。一些学者推测，这块板子上的文字是用线形文字 B 书写的。阿格西劳斯决定将文本送到埃及并非毫无道理；人们普遍认为，公元前 4 世纪的古埃及人能够翻译各种其他语言；他们在埃及使用三种不同的书写系统：象形文字、僧侣体和通俗体；这一传统在希腊化时期得以延续，当时各种文字都被翻译，副本被添加到亚历山大图书馆中；如今一个用三种形式书写的文字的例子是罗塞塔石碑，它以三种文本形式出现：古埃及象形文字、埃及通俗体文字和古希腊文。因此，据说埃及祭司在研究了这种文字并进行翻译后得出结论，文字要求希腊人举办比赛以纪念缪斯女神。

Restructuring of the Phoenician abjad

腓尼基辅音音素文字的重构

Phoenician	Greek
𐤀	ʼāleph	Α	alpha
𐤁	bēth	Β	beta
𐤂	gīmel	Γ	gamma
𐤃	dāleth	Δ	delta
𐤄‎	hē	Ε	epsilon
𐤅	wāw	Ϝ	digamma
Υ	upsilon
𐤆	zayin	Ζ	zeta
𐤇	ḥēth	Η	eta
𐤈	ṭēth	Θ	theta
𐤉	yōdh	Ι	iota
𐤊	kaph	Κ	kappa
𐤋	lāmedh	Λ	lambda
𐤌	mēm	Μ	mu
𐤍	nun	Ν	nu
𐤎	sāmekh	Ξ	xi
𐤏‎	ʿayin	Ο	omicron
𐤐	pē	Π	pi
𐤑	ṣādē	Ϻ	san
𐤒	qōph	Ϙ	qoppa
𐤓‎	rēš	Ρ	rho
𐤔	šin	Σ	sigma
𐤕	tāw	Τ	tau
		Φ	phi
		Χ	chi
		Ψ	psi
			Ω

Phonetic transcriptions below (in square brackets) use the International Phonetic Alphabet.

下面的音标（用方括号表示）使用的是国际音标。

The majority of the letters of the Phoenician alphabet were adopted into Greek with much the same sounds as they had had in Phoenician. However, Phoenician, like other Semitic scripts, has a range of consonants, commonly called gutturals, that did not exist in Greek: ʼāleph [ʔ], hē [h, e, a], ḥēth [ħ], and ʽayin [ʕ]. Of these, only ḥēth was retained in Greek as a consonant, eta, representing the [h] sound in those dialects that had an [h], while the consonants ʼāleph, hē and ʽayin became the vowels alpha [a], e [e] and o [o], respectively.

腓尼基字母表中的大多数字母被希腊字母采用，发音与在腓尼基语中大致相同。然而，腓尼基语和其他闪米特文字一样，有一系列在希腊语中不存在的辅音，通常被称为喉音：ʼāleph [ʔ]，hē [h, e, a]，ḥēth [ħ]，以及ʽayin [ʕ]。在这些字母中，只有ḥēth 在希腊语中作为辅音保留下来，即埃塔（eta），在那些有 [h] 音的方言中代表 [h] 音，而辅音ʼāleph、hē和ʽayin 则分别变成了元音阿尔法（alpha） [a]、埃普西隆（epsilon） [e] 和奥密克戎（omicron） [o]。

Phoenician had foreshadowed the development of vowel letters with a limited use of matres lectionis, that is, consonants that pulled double duty as vowels, which for historical reasons occurred mostly at the ends of words. For example, the two letters wāw and yōdh stood for both the approximant consonants [w] and [j], and the long vowels [u] and [i] in Phoenician. By this point in time, Greek had lost its [j] sound, so Phoenician yōdh was used only for its vocalic value, becoming the Greek vowel letter iota [i]. However, several Greek dialects still had a [w] sound, and here wāw was used for both of its Phoenician values, but with different forms: as the Greek letter digamma for the consonant [w], and as the letter upsilon for the vowel [u]. Upsilon was added at the end of the alphabet, perhaps to avoid upsetting the alphabetic order that was used in Greek numerals. Phoenician hē had been used as a mater lectionis for both [a] and [e] in addition to [h], but in Greek it was restricted to [e], following the acrophonic principle; its value [a] was instead written with the letter ʼāleph, while Greek [h] was written with ḥeth.

腓尼基语中已经预示了元音字母的发展，它有限地使用了 “母音字母”（matres lectionis），即同时充当元音的辅音，由于历史原因，这些情况大多出现在单词的结尾。例如，字母 wāw 和 yōdh 在腓尼基语中既代表近音辅音 [w] 和 [j]，又代表长元音 [u] 和 [i]。到这个时候，希腊语已经失去了 [j] 音，所以腓尼基语的 yōdh 只用于它的元音发音，成为了希腊语的元音字母伊奥塔（iota） [i]。然而，一些希腊方言中仍然有 [w] 音，在这里 wāw 保留了它在腓尼基语中的两种发音功能，但形式不同：作为希腊字母双伽马（digamma）表示辅音 [w]，作为字母宇普西隆（upsilon）表示元音 [u]。宇普西隆被添加到字母表的末尾，可能是为了避免打乱在希腊数字中使用的字母顺序。腓尼基语的 hē除了 [h] 音外，还曾作为 “母音字母” 表示 [a] 和 [e] 音，但在希腊语中，根据头音原则，它被限制为表示 [e] 音；其 [a] 音的值则用字母ʼāleph 来表示，而希腊语中的 [h] 音则用ḥeth 来表示。

All Phoenician letters had been acrophonic, and they remained so in Greek. Since the names of the letters ʼāleph and hē were pronounced [alepʰ] and [e] by the Greeks, with initial vowels due to the silent gutturals (the disambiguation e psilon “narrow e” came later), the acrophonic principle was retained for vowels as well as consonants by using them for the Greek vowel sounds [a] and [e]. Only the letter 'ayin for [o] necessitated a change of name (o, later omicron).

所有腓尼基字母原本都是头音字母，在希腊语中也依然如此。由于希腊人将字母ʼāleph 和 hē的名称发音为 [alepʰ] 和 [e]，由于无声的喉音，它们以元音开头（后来才有了用来区分的 e psilon “窄 e”），通过将它们用于表示希腊语中的元音发音 [a] 和 [e]，头音原则在元音和辅音中都得以保留。只有表示 [o] 音的字母 'ayin 需要更改名称（o，后来是 omicron）。

Phoenician also had an “emphatic” consonant, ṭēth, which did not exist in Greek. However, Greek had an aspiration distinction that Phoenician lacked, and used ṭēth for the aspirated [tʰ].

腓尼基语中还有一个 “强调” 辅音ṭēth ，在希腊语中并不存在。然而，希腊语有送气音的区别，而腓尼基语没有，因此用ṭēth 来表示送气音 [tʰ]。

The Phoenician consonants kaph and qōph represented sounds that were not distinctive in Greek—at most, they may have been identified with allophones determined by the following vowel. The letter qoppa was used in certain Greek dialects (notably the western dialects, which ultimately gave rise to Etruscan and eventually the Latin alphabet), but elsewhere dropped out of general use. It is possible that qoppa had been assigned to the Ancient Greek /kʷʰ/, and when that sound shifted to /pʰ/, the letter qoppa continued as the letter phi.

腓尼基语的辅音 kaph 和 qōph 所代表的音在希腊语中并不具有区别性 —— 最多，它们可能与后面元音所决定的音位变体有关。字母柯帕（qoppa）在某些希腊方言（特别是西部方言，最终产生了伊特鲁里亚字母，并最终演变成拉丁字母）中使用，但在其他地方则不再普遍使用。有可能柯帕曾被用来表示古希腊语中的 /kʷʰ/，当这个音变为 /pʰ/ 时，字母柯帕就演变成了字母斐（phi）。

Phoenician had three letters, sāmekh, ṣādē and šin, representing three or probably four voiceless sibilant sounds, whereas Greek only required one. The history here is complicated, but basically sāmekh dropped out in certain dialects, and was reused to represent [ks] in others, while usage for the [s] sound varied between ṣādē and šin. The letter now known as sigma took its name from sāmekh but its form from šin, while the letter San, which occurred in a few dialects only, took its name from šin but its place in the alphabet from ṣādē. A further Greek letter of uncertain origin, sampi, is found occasionally, and may represent an affricate, such as [t͡s].

腓尼基语有三个字母，sāmekh、ṣādē和šin ，代表三个或可能四个清擦音，而希腊语只需要一个表示清擦音的字母。这里的历史很复杂，但基本上 sāmekh 在某些方言中消失了，在其他方言中被重新用于表示 [ks] 音，而表示 [s] 音的用法则在ṣādē和šin 之间有所不同。现在被称为西格玛（sigma）的字母名称来自 sāmekh，但形式来自šin，而只在少数方言中出现的字母桑（San）名称来自šin，但在字母表中的位置来自ṣādē。还有一个起源不明的希腊字母萨米（sampi）偶尔会出现，它可能代表一个塞擦音，如 [t͡s]。

For the special case of zeta, see Zeta (letter).

关于泽塔（zeta）的特殊情况，请参见泽塔（字母）。

Epichoric alphabets

地方字母表

Main article: Archaic Greek alphabets

Distribution of epichoric alphabets after Kirchhoff (1887)

根据基希霍夫（1887 年）的研究，地方字母表的分布情况

Western, Cumae or Euboean alphabet Ionic, Attic and Corinthian Cretan

西部、库迈或优卑亚字母表 爱奥尼亚、阿提卡和科林斯字母表 克里特字母表

In the 8th to 6th centuries, local or epichoric variants of the alphabet developed. They are classified into three main groups, following Adolf Kirchhoff (1887): green (Cretan), red (Euboean or Western) and blue (Ionic, Attic and Corinthian). The main distinction is in the supplemental signs added to the Phoenician core inventory.

在公元前 8 世纪到 6 世纪期间，字母表出现了地方或 “地方特色（epichoric）” 的变体。根据阿道夫・基希霍夫（1887 年）的分类，它们主要分为三组：绿色（克里特字母表）、红色（优卑亚或西部字母表）和蓝色（爱奥尼亚、阿提卡和科林斯字母表）。主要区别在于在腓尼基字母核心体系基础上添加的补充符号。

With the exception of the early Fayum alphabet, which does not fit into the tripartite scheme, all abecedaries add Υ to the Phoenician inventory. The green alphabets have only this; the red add Φ for [pʰ], Χ for [ks], and Ψ for [kʰ]; and the blue add Φ for [pʰ], and Χ for [kʰ], with a dark blue subgroup (Corinth and Rhodes) also having Ψ for [ps].

除了早期的法尤姆字母表（它不符合这种三分法体系）之外，所有的字母表都在腓尼基字母体系中添加了 Υ。绿色字母表只有这一个补充；红色字母表添加了表示 [pʰ] 音的 Φ、表示 [ks] 音的 Χ 和表示 [kʰ] 音的 Ψ；蓝色字母表添加了表示 [pʰ] 音的 Φ 和表示 [kʰ] 音的 Χ，其中深蓝色的子群体（科林斯和罗德岛）还使用 Ψ 表示 [ps] 音。

Additional letters

额外的字母

In some, but not all, Greek dialects, additional letters were created to represent aspirated versions of Κ and Π (an aspirated version of Τ already existed as described above) and combinations of Κ and Π with Σ. There was some variation between dialects as to the symbols used:

在一些（并非全部）希腊方言中，创造了额外的字母来表示 Κ 和 Π 的送气音形式（如上所述，Τ 的送气音形式已经存在），以及 Κ 和 Π 与 Σ 的组合音。不同方言在使用的符号上存在一些差异：

• [kʰ] could be Κ, ΚΗ, Ψ, or Χ

• [pʰ] could be Π, ΠΗ, or Φ

• [ks] could be ΚΣ, ΧΣ, Χ, or Ξ

• [ps] could be ΠΣ, ΦΣ, or Ψ

• [kʰ] 音可以用 Κ、ΚΗ、Ψ 或 Χ 表示

• [pʰ] 音可以用 Π、ΠΗ 或 Φ 表示

• [ks] 音可以用 ΚΣ、ΧΣ、Χ 或 Ξ 表示

• [ps] 音可以用 ΠΣ、ΦΣ 或 Ψ 表示

Because [ks] and [ps] were the only consonant clusters occurring at the end of syllables, some gave them their own letters, Χ or Ξ and Ψ, so that all syllables would end in a single consonant letter, rather than seemingly have two exceptions in spelling.

由于 [ks] 和 [ps] 是仅有的出现在音节末尾的辅音组合，一些方言为它们创造了各自的字母，即 Χ 或 Ξ 以及 Ψ，这样一来，所有音节都以单个辅音字母结尾，而不是在拼写上似乎存在两个例外情况。

Greek, like Phoenician, made a distinction for vowel length; indeed, Greek had five short vowels and seven long vowels, but only five vowel letters. As in Phoenician, the difference in length was not originally made in writing. However, by the 6th century BC the letter eta (not needed for a consonant in eastern dialects of Greek, which lacked [h]) came to stand for the long vowel [ɛː], and a new letter, omega, was developed for long [ɔː]. The provenance of omega is not known, but it is generally assumed to derive from omicron with a line drawn under it. Long [eː] and [oː] were written with the digraphs ει and ου, respectively, whereas long and short [a], [i], [u] were never distinguished in writing.

希腊语和腓尼基语一样，对元音长度进行了区分；实际上，希腊语有五个短元音和七个长元音，但只有五个元音字母。和腓尼基语一样，最初在书写中并不区分元音长度。然而，到了公元前 6 世纪，字母 eta（在希腊东部方言中不需要作为辅音，因为这些方言没有 [h] 音）开始表示长元音 [ɛː]，并且为长元音 [ɔː] 创造了一个新字母，即欧米伽（omega）。欧米伽的起源尚不清楚，但一般认为它是由 omicron 下面加一条线演变而来的。长元音 [eː] 和 [oː] 分别用双字母组合 ει 和 ου 来书写，而长元音和短元音 [a]、[i]、[u] 在书写中从未进行区分。

Standardization – the Ionic alphabet

标准化 —— 爱奥尼亚字母表

Variations of ancient Greek alphabets

古希腊字母的变体

In 403/2 BC, following the devastating defeat in the Peloponnesian War and the restoration of democracy, the Athenians voted to abandon the old Attic alphabet (Pre-Euclidean alphabet) and to introduce a standardized variant of the easternIonic alphabet, after a proposal by archon Eucleides. ThisEuclidean alphabetincluded eta and omega, which concluded the process of adapting the Phoenician script so that all vowels could be written systematically, thus becoming the first ‘true’ alphabet. Apparently, some thirty years later, the same alphabet was introduced to Boeotia, having been adopted perhaps a little earlier in Macedonia, and went on in the course of the 4th century to displace the local alphabets throughout the whole Greek-speaking world.

公元前 403/2 年，在遭受伯罗奔尼撒战争的重创以及民主制度恢复之后，雅典人根据执政官欧几里得的提议，投票决定放弃古老的阿提卡字母表（前欧几里得字母表），并引入东部爱奥尼亚字母表的标准化变体。这个欧几里得字母表包括埃塔（eta）和欧米伽（omega），这标志着对腓尼基文字的改编过程结束，使得所有元音都能够系统地书写，从而成为第一个 “真正的” 字母表。显然，大约三十年后，同样的字母表被引入了维奥蒂亚，可能在马其顿被采用的时间稍早一些，并且在公元前 4 世纪，它逐渐取代了整个希腊语世界的地方字母表。

The Ionic alphabet included a new letter, omega, at the end of the alphabet, and standardised the representation of various sounds that had varied from one dialect to another, as follows:

爱奥尼亚字母表在字母表末尾增加了一个新字母，即欧米伽（omega），并对不同方言中发音各异的各种音的表示进行了标准化，如下所示：

Sound	Old Attic	Ionic
[h]	Η	(no symbol)
[ɛː]	Ε	Η (eta)
[eː]	Ε or ΕΙ	ΕΙ
[ɔː]	Ο	Ω (omega)
[oː]	Ο or ΟΥ	ΟΥ
[kʰ]	Χ	Χ (chi)
[pʰ]	Φ	Φ (phi)
[ks]	ΧΣ	Ξ (xi)
[ps]	ΦΣ	Ψ (psi)

发音	古阿提卡字母	爱奥尼亚字母
[h]	Η	（无符号）
[ɛː]	Ε	Η（埃塔）
[eː]	Ε 或 ΕΙ	ΕΙ
[ɔː]	Ο	Ω（欧米伽）
[oː]	Ο 或 ΟΥ	ΟΥ
[kʰ]	Χ	Χ（希）
[pʰ]	Φ	Φ（斐）
[ks]	ΧΣ	Ξ（克西）
[ps]	ΦΣ	Ψ（普西）

The absence of a letter for [h] was of no consequence for the Ionic dialects, but sometimes led to ambiguities in Attic, which had retained the sound. A symbol based on the left-hand half (Ͱ) of the letter Η was therefore sometimes used to indicate the presence of [h] where necessary, and its absence was indicated by a symbol based on the right half.

对于爱奥尼亚方言来说，没有表示 [h] 音的字母并无大碍，但在保留了 [h] 音的阿提卡方言中，有时会导致歧义。因此，在必要时，有时会使用基于字母 Η 左半部分（Ͱ）的符号来表示 [h] 音的存在，而使用基于其右半部分的符号来表示 [h] 音的缺失。

Later developments

后期发展

Over time, several changes occurred in the way the Greek alphabet was written and used.

随着时间的推移，希腊字母的书写和使用方式发生了一些变化。

1. Cursive forms
草写形式

In the Hellenistic period (323–31 BC), a cursive or “handwritten” form of the alphabet developed for everyday use, as opposed to the more formal and carefully inscribed capital letters used for inscriptions on stone or other durable materials. This cursive script was quicker to write and allowed for more rapid communication. For example, some letters took on more rounded and flowing shapes, making them easier to pen quickly. Eventually, different styles of cursive emerged in different regions, with some variations in the way certain letters were formed.

在希腊化时期（公元前 323 年至 31 年），一种用于日常使用的草写或 “手写” 形式的字母表发展起来，与用于在石头或其他耐用材料上铭刻的更为正式、精心书写的大写字母形成对比。这种草写体书写速度更快，便于更快速的交流。例如，一些字母呈现出更圆润流畅的形状，使得它们更容易快速书写。最终，不同地区出现了不同风格的草写体，某些字母的书写方式也存在一些差异。

2. Minuscule letters
小写字母

The development of minuscule (lowercase) letters came later, starting around the 8th century AD. Before this, all writing was done in capital (majuscule) letters. Minuscule letters were more compact and allowed for more efficient use of space on the page, especially in the production of manuscripts. They also made reading and writing easier, as the distinct shapes of the minuscule letters could be quickly recognized. For instance, the modern Greek lowercase letters have distinct forms that are quite different from their capital counterparts, and they have evolved over time to become more legible and practical for everyday writing.

小写字母的发展较晚，大约始于公元 8 世纪左右。在此之前，所有的书写都使用大写字母。小写字母更加紧凑，能够更有效地利用页面空间，尤其是在制作手稿时。它们也使阅读和书写更加容易，因为小写字母独特的形状可以快速识别。例如，现代希腊小写字母具有与大写字母截然不同的独特形式，并且随着时间的推移，它们已经演变，变得更易于辨认，对于日常书写也更实用。

3. Diacritics
变音符号

Diacritics, such as accents, breathings, and other marks, were gradually added to the Greek alphabet to indicate pronunciation more precisely. In ancient Greek, the language had a complex system of accents that affected the stress and intonation of words. Diacritical marks were used to represent these accents, as well as to distinguish between different vowel sounds and to indicate aspiration (the presence or absence of the [h] sound). For example, the acute accent (´) indicates a rising pitch, the grave accent (`) a falling pitch, and the circumflex (ˆ) a combination of rising and falling. Breathings, like the rough breathing (Ͱ) and smooth breathing (´), were used to show whether an initial vowel was aspirated or not.

变音符号，如重音符号、送气符号和其他标记，逐渐被添加到希腊字母表中，以便更精确地表示发音。在古希腊语中，这种语言有一个复杂的重音系统，影响着单词的重音和语调。变音符号被用来表示这些重音，以及区分不同的元音发音，并表示送气音（[h] 音的有无）。例如，锐音符（´）表示升调，抑音符（`）表示降调，长音符（ˆ）表示升降调的组合。送气符号，如粗气符（Ͱ）和细气符（´），被用来表示词首元音是否送气。

Names of the letters

字母名称

Each letter of the Greek alphabet has its own name, which often has an interesting etymology. For example:

希腊字母表中的每个字母都有其独特的名称，这些名称通常有着有趣的词源。例如：

• Alpha(Α): As mentioned earlier, it comes from the Phoenician ʼāleph, which originally meant “ox” or “bull”. In Greek, the name was retained, and it became the first letter of the alphabet.

• 阿尔法（Α）：如前所述，它源自腓尼基语的 ʼāleph，最初意为 “牛” 或 “公牛”。在希腊语中，这个名称被保留下来，并成为字母表的第一个字母。

• Beta(Β): Derived from the Phoenician bēth, which meant “house”. The sound value and the general form of the letter were carried over into Greek.

• 贝塔（Β）：源自腓尼基语的 * bēth*，意思是 “房子”。字母的音值和大致形状被沿用至希腊语中。

• Gamma(Γ): From the Phoenician gīmel, which may have originally been a picture of a throwing stick or a camel. In Greek, it became the third letter with its own distinct sound.

• 伽马（Γ）：来自腓尼基语的 * gīmel*，最初可能是投掷棒或骆驼的图像。在希腊语中，它成为了具有独特发音的第三个字母。

• Delta(Δ): Based on the Phoenician dāleth, which was likely a representation of a door. The triangular shape of the Greek delta is thought to be related to the shape of a doorway in ancient times.

• 德尔塔（Δ）：基于腓尼基语的 * dāleth*，很可能是门的一种表示。希腊字母德尔塔的三角形形状被认为与古代门的形状有关。

• Epsilon(Ε): Developed from the Phoenician hē, which had a range of values including [h], [e], and [a]. In Greek, it came to represent the short vowel [e] according to the acrophonic principle.

• 埃普西隆（Ε）：由腓尼基语的 * hē* 发展而来，hē 有一系列的音值，包括 [h]、[e] 和 [a]。在希腊语中，根据头音原则，它用来表示短元音 [e]。

The names of the other letters also have similar historical origins, often rooted in the Phoenician names and adapted to the Greek language and culture.

其他字母的名称也有类似的历史渊源，通常源于腓尼基语的名称，并根据希腊语言和文化进行了调整。

Greek numerals

希腊数字

The Greek alphabet was also used as a numeral system. Each letter was assigned a numerical value, as follows:

希腊字母表也被用作一种数字系统。每个字母都被赋予了一个数值，如下所示：

Letter	Value	Letter	Value	Letter	Value
Α	1	Ι	10	Ρ	100
Β	2	Κ	20	Σ	200
Γ	3	Λ	30	Τ	300
Δ	4	Μ	40	Υ	400
Ε	5	Ν	50	Φ	500
Ζ	7	Ξ	60	Χ	600
Η	8	Ο	70	Ψ	700
Θ	9	Π	80	Ω	800
				ϡ	900

To represent numbers larger than 999, additional symbols and conventions were used. This numeral system was in use for a long time in the Greek-speaking world and had an influence on other numeral systems in the region.

为了表示大于 999 的数字，人们使用了额外的符号和规则。这个数字系统在希腊语世界中使用了很长时间，并对该地区的其他数字系统产生了影响。

Diffusion

传播

The Greek alphabet had a significant impact on the development of writing systems in other cultures.

希腊字母表对其他文化中书写系统的发展产生了重大影响。

1. Etruscan and Latin alphabets

伊特鲁里亚字母和拉丁字母

As mentioned earlier, the Etruscans adapted the Greek alphabet to their own language. They made some modifications to the letters to suit the sounds of Etruscan. For example, they dropped some letters that were not needed for their language and added new symbols for sounds that did not exist in Greek. The Etruscan alphabet, in turn, influenced the development of the Latin alphabet. The Romans borrowed and further modified the Etruscan alphabet, which eventually became the basis for the Latin alphabet used throughout much of Europe and the Western world today.

如前所述，伊特鲁里亚人将希腊字母表改编以适应他们自己的语言。他们对字母进行了一些修改，以适应伊特鲁里亚语的发音。例如，他们去掉了一些在他们语言中不需要的字母，并为希腊语中不存在的发音添加了新的符号。伊特鲁里亚字母反过来又影响了拉丁字母的发展。罗马人借用并进一步修改了伊特鲁里亚字母，最终使其成为如今在欧洲大部分地区和西方世界广泛使用的拉丁字母的基础。

2. Coptic alphabet
科普特字母

The Coptic alphabet was developed from the Greek alphabet for writing the Coptic language, which is the latest stage of the Egyptian language. The Copts, who were Egyptian Christians, needed a writing system to record their religious texts and other literature. They added a few extra letters to the Greek alphabet to represent sounds specific to Coptic that were not present in Greek. This alphabet played an important role in preserving the Coptic language and culture.

科普特字母是由希腊字母发展而来，用于书写科普特语，科普特语是埃及语的最新阶段。科普特人是埃及的基督徒，他们需要一种书写系统来记录他们的宗教文本和其他文献。他们在希腊字母表的基础上添加了一些额外的字母，以表示科普特语中特有的、希腊语中不存在的发音。这个字母表在保存科普特语言和文化方面发挥了重要作用。

3. Other languages
其他语言

The influence of the Greek alphabet extended to other languages and regions as well. In some cases, it served as a model for the creation of new writing systems, and in others, it was directly adopted or adapted with various modifications. For example, some alphabets in the Balkans and parts of the Middle East show traces of Greek influence in their development.

希腊字母表的影响也扩展到了其他语言和地区。在某些情况下，它为新书写系统的创建提供了模板；在另一些情况下，它被直接采用或经过各种修改后被改编使用。例如，巴尔干半岛和中东部分地区的一些字母表在其发展过程中显示出希腊字母的影响痕迹。

In conclusion, the Greek alphabet has a rich and complex history, from its origins in the adoption of Phoenician letters to its development, standardization, and widespread influence on other writing systems around the world.

总之，希腊字母表有着丰富而复杂的历史，从最初对腓尼基字母的采用，到自身的发展、标准化，再到对世界其他书写系统的广泛影响。

See also

另请参阅

• Phoenician alphabet

• Latin alphabet

• Diacritic

• Greek numerals

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via：

• History of the Greek alphabet Facts for Kids
  https://kids.kiddle.co/History_of_the_Greek_alphabet