Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet has been in continuous use for roughly three thousand years, making it one of the oldest writing systems still in use today. Its 24 letters encode the sounds of Modern Greek, Ancient Greek, and Koine Greek—the language of the New Testament. Beyond Greek itself, Greek letters form the basis for mathematical notation (alpha, beta, gamma), scientific symbols, and Greek letters are used in fraternity and sorority names.

Learning the Greek alphabet is easier than you might think—several letters look like Latin counterparts: Α resembles A, Β looks like B (but sounds like V), Ε is like E, Κ looks like K, Μ resembles M, Ν looks like N, Ο is like O, Τ looks like T, Υ resembles Y, and Χ looks like X. The letters that differ the most are Ξ (xi), Π (pi), Σ (sigma), Φ (phi), Ψ (psi), and Ω (omega).

The Greek alphabet descended from the Phoenician consonant script around 800 BCE, making it the first alphabet to assign independent letters to vowels. Before Greek, all scripts were abjads—all you got were consonants, and readers had to guess the vowels. The Greeks borrowed aleph for their alpha, but instead of using it for the glottal stop, they used it for the 'a' vowel sound—an invention that changed writing forever.

Every Latin letter (and thus every English letter) descends from Greek, either directly or through Etruscan adaptation. Latin borrowed Alpha as A, Beta as B, Gamma as C or G, Delta as D, and so on. When you write the alphabet today, you're using a system that traces back nearly 3,000 years to ancient Greek scribes.