Exercise 3 The Alphabet and Punctuation Grammar 1. 2. 3. What are the seven vowels? Name Lower Case Upper Case Alpha a A Epsilon e E Eta h H Iota i I Omicron o O Upsilon u U Omega w W When do you find the two different forms of sigma? a. The Òfinal sigmaÓ form ( V ) is written wherever lower-case sigma is the last letter of a word. b. The normal lower-case form ( s ) is written wherever lower-case sigma is not the last letter of a word. What are the two breathing marks, and when do you find them? a. The rough breathing mark ( + ) sounds like the English letter Òh.Ó b. The smooth breathing mark ( = ) does not affect pronunciation. ¥ If the first letter of a word is a vowel or the letter rho ( r ), the word has a breathing mark. ¥ If the first letter of a word is not a vowel or the letter rho ( r ), the word does not have a breathing mark. ¥ If the first letter of a word is upsilon ( u ) or rho ( r ), the breathing mark is always a rough breathing mark. Otherwise, either a rough breathing mark or a smooth breathing mark could be used, depending upon the word. ¥ The breathing mark is placed as follows: ¥ If the word begins with a diphthong, then the breathing mark goes over the second vowel of the diphthong (e.g., aijwvn and Aijwvn). ¥ Otherwise, the breathing mark goes over the first letter of the word (e.g., rJabbiv, uJpevr, wJV, and ajmhvn). ¥ Exception: If the first letter is a capital letter (and not part of a diphthong), the breathing mark goes in front of the capital letter instead of over it, because there is no room over the capital letter to put a breathing mark. (e.g., +Rwmai¾oV, =HlivaV, and +Iovpph). !2 Exercise 3 4. How does the iota subscript affect pronunciation? ¥ 5. The iota subscript does not affect pronunciation.1 When is the diaeresis used? ¥ 1 ! 3 The diaeresis ( ¬ ) is used over the second of two vowels in a row that normally form a diphthong, but should be pronounced separately in this particular word. For example, in English, ÒNoelÓ as a manÕs name has one syllable and rhymes with ÒmoleÓ because ÒoeÓ forms a diphthong in English. ÒNo‘lÓ as a womanÕs name, however, has two syllables and is pronounced as Òno elÓ because the diaeresis over the ÒeÓ indicates that ÒoeÓ does not form a diphthong in this word.! Advanced information: Some teachers instruct students to pronounce alpha differently depending on whether it is short or long. Since iota only subscripts under long vowels, if alpha has an iota subscript, then you know that it is a long alpha, and should be pronounced accordingly. Where there is no iota subscript, however, you need some other information to know whether the alpha is long or short, and hence how to pronounce it. So the iota subscript does not affect the pronunciation of alpha, but it tells you which pronunciation to use. Because of the difficulty in knowing whether an alpha is long or short, some teachers have students pronounce alpha the same regardless of whether it is long or short.