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Greek alphabet
Αα Alpha	Νν Nu
Ββ Beta	Ξξ Xi
Γγ Gamma	Οο Omicron
Δδ Delta	Ππ Pi
Εε Epsilon	Ρρ Rho
Ζζ Zeta	Σσ Sigma
Ηη Eta	Ττ Tau
Θθ Theta	Υυ Upsilon
Ιι Iota	Φφ Phi
Κκ Kappa	Χχ Chi
Λλ Lambda	Ψψ Psi
Μμ Mu	Ωω Omega
Obsolete letters
Ϝϝ Digamma	Ϸϸ Sho
Ϛϛ Stigma	Ϙϙ Qoppa
Ϻϻ San	Ϡϡ Sampi
Greek diacritics

It has been suggested that Monotonic orthography be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

The polytonic orthography of Greek uses a variety of diacritics (πολύ = many + τόνος = accent) to represent aspects of Ancient Greek pronunciation. It was the standard orthography for all varieties of Greek from Hellenistic times until 1982, although the distinctions it represented had disappeared from the spoken language early in the Christian era. In 1982, the Greek Parliament adopted the monotonic orthography. Polytonic is still sometimes used by people who consider monotonic an unfortunate break with tradition.

Polytonic Greek utilizes a set of diacritics on certain letters, illustrated below using the letter α. (Note that the transliteration of the names of the diacritics into the Latin alphabet varies, chiefly depending on whether they are considered words from Classical or Modern Greek.)

• Accents (tónoi, τόνοι), on the vowel of the accented syllable of a word and indicating different kinds of pitch patterns in Ancient Greek:
  • Oxeía (ὀξεῖα), the acute accent: ά.
  • Bareía (βαρεῖα), the grave accent: ὰ.
  • Perispōménē (περισπωμένη), the circumflex, sometimes printed in the form of a tilde, macron, or inverted breve: ᾶ.
• Breathings, written on the first syllable of words that start with a vowel:
  • Daseía (δασεῖα), the rough breathing (or spiritus asper in Latin), ἁ, indicating an [h] before the vowel in Ancient Greek. The letter rho (ρ), although not a vowel, when at the beginning of a word, always carries a spiritus asper, and is in that case transliterated as rh.
  • Psilé (ψιλή), the smooth breathing (or spiritus lenis in Latin), ἀ, indicating the absence of an [h]. A double rho, although always in the middle of a word, was originally written with a spiritus lenis on the first rho and a spiritus asper on the second one; these are now omitted altogether in Greek, but still transliterated as rrh in the case of ancient Greek.
• The iota subscript, or hypogegrammeni (ὑπογεγραμμένη), ᾳ, found under the letters α (alpha), η (eta), and ω (omega) to indicate the long diphthongs αι, ηι, and ωι, respectively. Sometimes written adjacent to capitals, in which case it is called a prosgegrammeni (προσγεγραμμένη), or iota adscript.
• The letters ι (iota) and υ (upsilon) can also take a diaeresis (διαλυτικά), to show that a vowel is pronounced apart from the one which precedes it, rather than together: compare Modern Greek παϊδάκια [paiðaca] (lamb chops) and παιδάκια [peðaca] (little children). The diaeresis can be combined with acute, grave and circumflex but never with breathings (since the letter with diaeresis cannot be the first vowel of the word).

All of these diacritics are important in Classical Greek (and the breathings in particular are relevant to the etymology of words in other languages), but except for the diaeresis none have any significance in the modern language: there is no difference in pronunciation between words which formerly had smooth and rough breathings, and the pitch accent has been replaced with a stress accent.

The diacritics are written above lower-case letters and at the upper left of capital letters. In the case of a diphthong, the second vowel takes the diacritics. A breathing diacritic is written to the left of an acute or grave accent but below a circumflex. Accents are written above a diaeresis, or between the two dots in the case of the acute or grave. When a word is written entirely in capital letters, diacritics are never used; the word Ἢ, "or", is an exception to this rule because of the need to distinguish it from the nominative feminine article Η. Diacritics can be found above capital letters in medieval texts. The diaeresis is always written.

The Lord's Prayer in a 4th century uncial manuscript Codex Sinaiticus, before the adoption of minuscule polytonic.

The original Greek alphabet did not have any diacritics. The Greek alphabet is attested since the 8th century BC. Until 403 BC, variations of the Greek alphabet—which used capitals exclusively—were used in different cities and areas. From 403 on, the Athenians decided to employ a version of the Ionian alphabet. With the spread of Koine Greek, a continuation of the Attic dialect, the Ionic alphabet superseded more or less quickly the other alphabets, called "epichoric". The Ionian alphabet, however, was also made up only of capitals.

The rough and smooth breathings were introduced in classical times in order to represent the presence or absence of an [h] in Attic Greek, which had adopted a form of the alphabet in which the letter H was no longer available for this purpose as itwas used to represent the long vowel [εː].

Example of polytonic text from a Byzantine manuscript, of 1020 AD, displaying the beginning of the Gospel of Luke (1:3-6)

During the Hellenistic period, (3rd century BC), Aristophanes of Byzantium introduced the breathings — marks of aspiration (the aspiration however being already noted on certain inscriptions, not by means of diacritics but by regular letters or modified letters) and the accents, of which the use started to spread, to become standard in the Middle Ages. It wasn’t until the 2nd century AD that the accents and breathings appeared sporadically in the papyruses. The need for the diacritics arose from the gradual divergence between spelling and pronunciation.

The majuscule system written entirely in capital letters was used until the 8th century, when the minuscule polytonic supplanted it. The modern convention, by which an acute accent on the last syllable of a word becomes a grave accent, was devised in Byzantine times, after the accent became stress; the convention began with certain proclitic words, which lose their accent before another word, and was generalized.

In the later development of the language, the ancient tones were replaced by a stress accent making the differences among accents superfluous, and the [h] sound became silent. Some textbooks of Ancient Greek for foreigners have retained the breathings, but dropped all the accents, simplifying the task for the learner, but breaking the link with the modern language.

Following the final adoption of the so-called Demotic form of the language, in 1982, the monotonic orthography was imposed by law. The latter uses only the acute accent (or sometimes a vertical bar intentionally distinct from any of the traditional accents) and diaeresis and omits the breathings. Some individuals, institutions, and publishers continue to prefer the polytonic system, though an official reintroduction of the polytonic system does not seem probable.

In an intermediate stage (between the beginning of the 20th century and 1982, official since the 1960s), the grave was replaced by the acute under certain circumstances, in particular in handwriting. Greek typewriters from that era did not have keys for the grave accent. The grave was also not taught in primary schools where instruction was in Demotic. This system is still used in some publications such as the periodical Estia.

There have been problems in representing polytonic Greek on computers, and in displaying polytonic Greek on computer screens and printouts, but these have largely been overcome by the advent of Unicode and appropriate fonts.

While the tonos of monotonic orthography looks similar to the oxia of polytonic orthography in most fonts, Unicode has historically had separate symbols for letters with these diacritics. For example, the monotonic "Greek small letter alpha with tonos" is at U+03AC, while the polytonic "Greek small letter alpha with oxia" is at U+1F71. The monotonic and polytonic accent however have been de jure equivalent since 1986, and accordingly the oxia diacritic in Unicode decomposes canonically to the monotonic tonos — both are underlyingly treated as equivalent to the Latin acute accent, U+0301.

The following tables list some of the characters required in polytonic Greek.

Note that depending on the font used in your browser, the upper-case letters with iota subscript may display with a separate (adscript) iota.

• Acute accent
• Circumflex
• Diacritic
• Grave accent
• Greek alphabet
• Greek orthography
• Iota adscript
• Iota subscript
• Katharevousa
• Minuscule
• Monotonic orthography
• Spiritus asper
• Spiritus lenis
• Tilde
• Umlaut (diacritic)

• Citizens' Movement for the Reintroduction of the Polytonic System, in Greek, English and French
• Graece — a keyboard for typing polytonic Greek fast, with a corresponding extended English keyboard
• Gentium — a typeface for the nations, a freely available font including polytonic Greek support
• Public domain Greek polytonic unicode fonts Including instructions on the use of fonts
• Athena, public domain polytonic Greek font
• History of accentuation in Ancient Greek and tutorial
• How the law to abandon polytonic orthography was passed in the Greek parliament, in Greek