Which Greek letters were created or adapted to represent vowel sounds?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

When the Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet to create the Greek alphabet, they made a major innovation by repurposing several Semitic consonant symbols to represent vowel sounds, which were not explicitly written in Semitic scripts.12

The following letters were adapted from Semitic consonants to represent vowels:1

  • Alpha (α): Derived from the Semitic consonant alef, it was assigned the value of the vowel a.12
  • Epsilon (ϵ): Derived from the Semitic consonant he, it was assigned the value of the vowel e.12
  • Iota (ι): Derived from the Semitic consonant yod, it was assigned the value of the vowel i.12
  • Omicron (ο): Derived from the Semitic consonant ayin, it was assigned the value of the vowel o.123
  • Upsilon (υ): Derived from the Semitic consonant vav, it was assigned the value of the vowel u.12

Additionally, as the Greek alphabet evolved, further letters were created or adapted to represent specific vowel sounds, including eta (η) for a long e (e¯) and omega (ω) for a long o (o¯).23