The alphabet & sounds

You already know more of this alphabet than you think: many letters are the ancestors of ours. Our goal today is not mastery but decoding — turning shapes into sounds so that by Day 3 you can sound out real words. Pick one pronunciation system and commit. We default to Erasmian because it maps cleanly onto the spelling and matches most textbooks (Mounce included); if you later want a communicative, spoken approach, restored Koine is the alternative.

For this course, use an Erasmian/seminary hybrid: η is “ay,” ω is long “oh,” φ is “f,” χ is a hard “kh/ch” as in Bach, and υ by itself is “oo.” The point is consistency: say the same sound every time so spelling starts to become audible.

The vowels are α ε η ι ο υ ω. Two pairs are just length: ε (short e) vs η (long e), and ο (short o) vs ω (long o). ι and υ can be long or short. Today you only need the sound-map; later, vowel length helps explain accents and forms.

A few have no one-to-one English match: θ (theta, “th”), φ (phi, “ph/f”), χ (chi, a hard “ch” as in Bach), ψ (psi, “ps”), ξ (xi, “x”). And γ before another guttural (γγ, γκ, γχ) is pronounced “ng”. Sigma has two shapes: σ mid-word, ς only at the end (λόγος).

αι (“ai” as in aisle), ει (“ei” as in eight), οι (“oi” as in oil), υι (“wee”), αυ (“ow”), ευ/ηυ (“eu”), ου (“oo”). Spotting these as units is half of reading fluently.

Minutes 0–5: play each alphabet sound once and say the uppercase, lowercase, name, and sound aloud. Minutes 5–12: replay only the vowels and write α ε η ι ο υ ω from memory three times. Minutes 12–20: cover the name column and identify every consonant from its lowercase shape. Minutes 20–25: read the diphthongs aloud as units: αι ει οι υι αυ ευ ηυ ου. Minutes 25–30: finish the practice cards below; repeat any missed letters aloud twice.