Greek has
• 31 consonants including allophones and affricates (allophones are not included in this list): p, t, k, b, d, g, l, n, m, n, th(+), th(-), f, v, s, z, x, , ts, dz
• 5 vowels: i, e, a, o, u
Most Greek words tend to be more than one syllable in length.
Most Greek words end in a vowel. Consonants in word-final position are restricted to /s/ and /n/, except in loanwords. Consonants in syllable-final word-within position are mainly //, /l/, and /n/.
There are many (approx 65) consonant clusters in word-initial position (e.g., /pt, kt, ps, ks/)
Stress falls on one of the last three syllables in the word.
The Greek alphabet used today was developed around the ninth century B.C. It has 24 letters plus an accent mark to indicate stressed vowels. Typically there is a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters; however, in some cases the same sound can be represented by different letters For example, there are five different spellings for the sound [i].
Here are some relevant Greek words:
- Sound ήχος
- Word λέξη
- Sentence πρόταση
- Paragraph παράγραφος
Source: Mennen, I. & Okalidou, A. (2007). Greek speech acquisition. In S. McLeod (Ed). The international guide to speech acquisition. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning.
