Expert: Maria - 8/3/2007

Question
I am having a sign for my kids made.  I want it to read "Commitment, Strength, Excellence, Victory."  How would those translate in ancient Greek (either Doric or Attic)?  If possible I would like the actual characters not just the pronunciation.

Answer
Hello,

First of all I have to tell you that sometimes the system does not allow the use of the Greek fonts and then I'm not sure that you can read what I'll  write below. Anyway here’s the ancient Greek translation of  "Commitment, Strength, Excellence, Victory”:

-“Σπουδή, Ρώμη, Άρετή, Νίκη “ (Greek fonts)

-“Spoudé, Rhóme, Areté, Nίke “ (Latin alphabet, i.e. Latin transliteration).

Note that :

-Σπουδή (Spoudé) contains the following  Greek letters: sigma-pi-omicron-upsilon-delta-eta with the acute accent.

-Ρώμη (Rhóme) contains the following  Greek letters: Rho with the rough breathing-omega with the acute accent-mu-eta.

-Άρετή(Areté) contains the following  Greek letters :alpha with the smooth breathing -rho-epsilon-tau-eta with the acute accent.

-Νίκη ( Nίke) contains the following  Greek letters : nu-iota with the acute accent-kappa-eta.

For the Greek alphabet see the links below:
http://www.dur.ac.uk/stat.web/greek.htm
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html
http://planetmath.org/encyclopedia/GreekLetters.html

The “smooth breathing” is  the mark which indicates the absence of initial aspiration. It is written as an opening half moon on top of or to the left of an initial vowel or diphthong, and looks like a comma.

The "rough breathing"  is the mark of an initial aspiration in ancient Greek. It is written as an opening half moon on top of or to the left of an initial vowel, diphthong  and rho. It looks like a reversed comma.

Best regards,
Maria
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Pronunciation
-Σπουδή (Spoudé = Commitement)):Σ (S ) like the S in ‘spring’; π (P) like the P  in English; OU like the OO in ‘poor’; D like in English; ή (E) like the E in ‘best’

-Ρώμη (Rhóme =Strength)) : RH like the R I ‘ring’; O like the OO in ‘door’; M like in English; E like the E in ‘bet’.

Άρετή  (Areté=Excellence): A like the A in ‘father’; R like the R in ‘ring’; E like the E in ‘bet’; T like in English; E like the E in ‘best’.

Νίκη ( Nίke = Victory) : N like in English; I like the EE  in ‘queen’; Kappa like the C in ‘cat’; E like the E in ‘bet’.