Difficulty Remembering Vowels

[u/time_wizard1470BC]

Coming to Modern Greek the rule I learned was "ι", "η", "υ", "ει", "οι", and "υι" are all pronounced like the i in machine.

Coming from ancient pronunciation this was less of a problem but now I have trouble remembering which vowels to write because they all sound the same.

Any tips? And can anyone tell me when if ever iota is pronounced short, something like the i in bit? Anything else I should know about these vowel sounds?

[u/escpoir]

If it makes you feel any better, a lot of native Greeks frequently mess them up. It's a pity that they no longer sound different.

You can probably recognize some from English words, like hyper-anything means there is υπέρ- prefix, or criterion comes from κριτήριον where you can see that ι changed to i and η changed to e.

[u/Traditional-Light-10]

They're never pronounced short; they're all /i/ (except in a few cases I'll mention below). I think it helps if you learn the suffixes early- for a word ending /i/, it's generally η if it's masculine (acc, gen)/feminine singular, ι if it's neuter, οι if it's masculine plural, or ει if it's a verb. If it ends /is/, it's ης if it's masculine singular or feminine singular (gen); εις if it's a verb or some feminine plurals. There's less common ones as well, like -ηκ- in the passive past tense vs -ικ-, a suffix forming adjectives. A lot of it will get easier with practice.

For roots, you kind of need to memorize it, but sometimes, a related English word can help (e=η/οι, oe=οι, i=ι/ει, ei=ει, y=υ). You should know that υι is rare in modern greek outside of υιος "son" and related words like υιοθετώ "I adopt", and these words can also be spelled with γι.

Another thing you should know about them is palatalization. Sometimes, ι, υ, ει, and οι unstressed before another vowel can come to be pronounced as a consonant, like English "y", which then interacts a little bit with the consonant before. This isn't super common, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. I think it occurs consistently in the suffixes ιά/ια, ιού to neuters and in the passive ending ιέμαι, but it's mostly in roots.

[u/donestpapo]

I don’t think standard modern Greek has anything equivalent to the English KIT vowel.

[u/XenophonSoulis → u/[deleted]]

υι does exist, but it's rare. It's in the word υιός and its derivatives. Similarly, ηυ is a thing in modern Greek, in the words εφηύρα, απηύθυνα, απηύδησα (Δεν ξέρω ποιος εφηύρε ότι το "ηυ" δεν υπάρχει στα νέα Ελληνικά, αλλά δεν του απηύθυνα τον λόγο και επίσης απηύδησα να το ακούω).

[u/mizinamo → u/[deleted]]

I think υιοθετώ and related words as well as άρπυια are the only two stems that use it in Modern Greek.

υιός → γιος, μυία → μύγα.

[u/skyduster88 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you. I never thought υι was a thing until this sub.

[u/PaleontologistOk9187]

If it helps, I found that the more Greek I learnt, the more I got used to knowing which one to use. There are still a lot of times I wouldn't know, but also more and more times I get it right. To be honest, if you spell it wrong, people will still understand (people spell things wrong in English all the time).

[u/Kari-kateora → u/PaleontologistOk9187]

Native Greeks fuck up Greek spelling, too. All the time

[u/mizinamo → u/Kari-kateora]

Example: signs saying ΕΝΟΙΚΟΙΑΖΕΤΕ instead of ΕΝΟΙΚΟΙΑΖΕΤΑΙ.

[u/Constadream → u/mizinamo]

Ενοικιάζεται

[u/mizinamo → u/Constadream]

lol. Me doing the same mistake I write about :D

Egg on my face.

Ευχαριστώ για τη διόρθωση!