Traveling in the style advocated by this site assumes a willingness to acquire at least the rudiments of modern Greek. It can be potentially dangerous to stroll off into the Greek yonder without being able to understand at least the gist of the usually detailed directions being offered you by villagers. I strongly urge you to at least master the script transliteration tables below; the majority of rural, business and bus signs are not romanized.
| Α,α | ah | Μ,μ | m |
| B,/3 | ν | Ν,ν | η |
| r> | gh (unique soft palatal), but | Ξ,ί | ksi |
| y before many vowels | 0 ,ο | ο | |
| Α,δ | th as in these—rendered as | Π,ττ | Ρ |
| dh in this book | Ρ,Ρ | Γ | |
| Ε,ε | eh | Σ,σ,ί | s, sometimes ζ |
| ζ,ί | ζ | Τ,τ | t |
| H,u | ee | Ύ,υ | ee; varies (see next section) |
| Θ,θ | th as in throw | Φ,φ | f |
| I,/ | ee | Χ,χ | gutteral h |
| K,*,u | k | ψ,ψ | ps |
| Λ,λ | 1 | Ω,Ο,ω, | 0 |
| Double letters often have entirely different values. |
αι ay as in hay
ει ee οι ee
ου oo, often rendered on signs as ‘ 8’ αυ av but often at before certain consonants ευ ev but often ef in same conditions as above ηυ eev or eef, as above YY ng
γκ ng when medial, g otherwise μπ mb when medial, b initial ντ nd when medial, d initial τζ
The presence of any of the last three clusters usually indicates a word’s Turkish, Italian, Slavic or other foreign origins. Now you are fully equipped to read all signs, menus and phone books.
Simple accents are indicated over the stressed syllables. Accentuation is critical in Greek, occasionally counterintuitive and often the only difference between two otherwise identical words. Mllo, “apple,” vs. milo, “I speak,” is one of numerous examples. To ensure comprehensible pronunciation, these transliterations are phonetic and do not parallel, letter-for-letter, the word spelling in the Greek alphabet. Nouns are given in the nominative singular case, unless otherwise noted; adjectives, except for numbers and nationalities, appear in the neuter gender.