Romanization of Greek

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There are several methods for the romanization of Greek, especially depending whether the language written with Greek letters is Ancient Greek or Modern Greek and whether rather phonetic transcription or a graphematic transliteration is intended.

1 Table
2 Diacritics
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Table

This table lists several transcription schemes from the Greek alphabet to the Latin alphabet.

Greek	Ancient			Modern
Greek	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	ISO	BGN/ PCGN	UN/ ELOT	Greeklish^†
α	a	a	A	a	a	a	a
β	b	b	B	v	v	v	b, v
γ	g	g	G	g	g, y¹	g	g, y
δ	d	d	D	d	dh, d²	d	d, dh
ε	e	e	E	e	e	e	e
ζ	z	z, (dz)	Z	z	z	z	z, s
η	e	ē	H	ī	i	i	h, i, n
θ	th	th	Q	th	th	th	th, u, 8, 9, q
ι	i	i	I	i	i	i	i
κ	c	k	K	k	k	k	k, c
λ	l	l	L	l	l	l	l
μ	m	m	M	m	m	m	m
ν	n	n	N	n	n	n	n, v
ξ	x	x	C	x	x	x	ks, 3, x, j
ο	o	o	O	o	o	o	o
π	p	p	P	p	p	p	p, n
ρ	r, rh³	r, (rh³)	R	r	r	r	r, p
σ	s	s	S	s	s⁴	s	s, 6, w
τ	t	t	T	t	t	t	t, 7
υ	y	y, (u)	U	y	i	y	y, u, i
φ	ph	ph	F	f	f	f	f, ph
χ	ch	ch	X	ch	kh	ch	ch, x, h
ψ	ps	ps	Y	ps	ps	ps	ps, y
ω	o	ō	W	ō	o	o	w, o, v

Vowel digraphs¹¹
Greek	Ancient			Modern
Greek	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	ISO	BGN/ PCGN	UN/ ELOT	Greeklish^†
αι	ae, e	ai	AI	ai	e	ai	ai, e
αυ	au	au	AU	au	av	av⁵, af⁶	ay, au, af, av
ει	i	ei	EI	ei	i	ei	ei, i
ευ	eu	eu	EU	eu	ev	ev⁵, ef⁶	ey, eu, ef, ev
ηυ	eu	ēu	HU	īy	iv	iv⁵, if⁶	hy, hu, if, iv
οι	oe, e	oi	OI	oi	i	oi	oi, i
ου	u	ou	OU	ou	u	ou	ou, u, oy
υι	ui	ui	UI	yi	i	yi	yi, gi, i

Consonant digraphs
Greek	Ancient			Modern
Greek	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code	ISO	BGN/ PCGN	UN/ ELOT	Greeklish^†
γγ	ng	ng	GG	gg	ng	ng	gg, gk, ng
γξ	nx	nx	GC	gx	nx	nx	gks, gx
γκ	nc	nk	GK	gk	g⁷, ng⁸	gk	gk
γχ	nch	nch	GX	gch	nkh	nch	nx, nch
μπ	mp	mp	MP	mp	b⁷, mb⁸	b⁷, mp⁸	mp, b, mb
ντ	nt	nt	NT	nt	d⁷, nd⁸	nt	nt, d, nd

Modifiers (only classical Greek)
Greek	Ancient
Greek	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code
̔	h⁹	h⁹	(	(spiritus asper, δασεῖα)
̓	none	none	)	(spiritus lenis, ψιλή)
ͺ	i?	i?	\|	(iota subscript, ὑπογεγραμμένη)¹⁰

Archaic letters
Greek	Ancient
Greek	Clas- sical	Scien- tific	Beta code
ϝ	w		V	(digamma)
ϛ	st		#2	(stigma)
ϻ	s, ś		#711	(san)
ϸ	sh			(sho)
ϟ	q		#3	(qoppa)
ϡ	ss		#5	(sampi/disigma)

Notes:

before αι, ε, ει, η, ι, οι, υ, υι.
between ν and ρ.
with spiritus asper.
sometimes doubled between vowels (ex. Larissa).
before β, γ, δ, ζ, λ, μ, ν, ρ and vowels.
before θ, κ, ξ, π, σ, τ, φ, χ, ψ and at the end of a word.
at the beginning of a word.
in the middle of a word.
on vowel: h before the vowel; on ρ: rh.
under long vowels.
except when there is a diaeresis ( ¨ ) on the second vowel

† The use of 'Greeklish' (here: writing Greek in the Latin alphabet) has risen enormously with the advent of SMSs, email, online chatting, and other digital media, where Greek fonts are not always readily available.

Examples:

Θέλω → Thelo or 8elw etc
Ξανά → Ksana or Xana etc
Ψυχή → Psyxh or Yuhi etc

[edit] Diacritics

The traditional polytonic orthography of Greek uses several distinct diacritic signs to render what was originally the pitch accent of Ancient Greek, and the presence or absence of word-initial h. In 1982, monotonic orthography was officially introduced for modern Greek. The only diacritics that remain are the acute accent (indicating stress) and the diaeresis (indicating that two consecutive vowels should not be combined). The acute accent and the diaeresis are kept in both the BGN/PCGN and the UN/ELOT romanization systems. There is one exception: in the vowel combinations αυ, ευ and ηυ the accent moves from the υ (that becomes v or f) to the preceding vowel.