GC-RZ/NT 1.0

Standard for romanized and native-script text styles for koiné greek language.

This document contains many rare Unicode characters, whose name is not mentioned. If you need to know the Unicode name of some character, you can copy the character from this document to some website that identifies Unicode characters. Main versions of writing styles: GC-RZ — fluent romanized koiné greek:
GC-RZ-P	Precise romanized koiné greek. Uses strong breaths and grammatical iotas. Differentiates pronunciations g/ñ, i/j, y/u/v (two = duo) and spelling preference rh/ŕ. Indicates unusual secondary meanings of words with a grave accent. Does not use the traditional accent marks. Generally regards convenience of the modern reader as a higher priority than historical accuracy of pronunciation, if these two aspects are in conflict. Foreign non-greek proper nouns are written literally (letter by letter), not based on pronunciation, as in all other of these romanized text styles. In foreign proper nouns uses letters that are outside of the basic greek alphabet, such as Q, W, Ä, Å, Ö or Ü. (All other of these romanized text styles imitate the selection of letters that is available in the basic greek alphabet, and refrain from using any letters outside of it, except some diacritical marks that are related to the greek language.)
GC-RZ-D	Detailed romanized koiné greek. Uses strong breaths and grammatical iotas. Differentiates pronunciations g/ñ and y/u/v (two = dyo). Does not differentiate pronunciations i/j, spelling preferences, or unusual secondary meanings. Does not use traditional accent marks. Generally regards historical accuracy of pronunciation as a higher priority than convenience of the modern reader, if these two aspects are in conflict.
GC-RZ-A	Accented romanized koiné greek. Uses breath marks, traditional accent marks and grammatical iotas. Does not differentiate pronunciations, spelling preferences, or unusual secondary meanings.
GC-RZ-S	Simple romanized koiné greek. Does not use breath marks, traditional accent marks or grammatical iotas. Does not differentiate pronunciations, spelling preferences, or unusual secondary meanings.
GC-NT — koiné greek with the native script:
GC-NT-P	Precise koiné greek with greek script. Uses strong breaths and grammatical iotas. Differentiates pronunciations g/ñ, i/j, y/u/v (two = duo), and spelling preference rh/ŕ. Indicates unusual secondary meanings of words with a grave accent. Does not use traditional accent marks. Generally regards convenience of the modern reader as a higher priority than historical accuracy of pronunciation, if these two aspects are in conflict. Foreign non-greek proper nouns are written literally letter by letter, not based on pronunciation (as in all other of these greek script text styles). In foreign proper nouns uses letters that are outside of the basic greek alphabet, such as the equivalents of Q, W, Ä, Å, Ö or Ü. (All other of these greek script text styles use the basic greek alphabet, and refrain from using any letters outside of it, except some diacritical marks that are related to the greek language.)
GC-NT-D	Detailed koiné greek with greek script. Uses strong breaths and grammatical iotas. Differentiates pronunciations g/ñ and y/u/v (two = dyo). Does not differentiate pronunciations i/j, spelling preferences, or unusual secondary meanings. Does not use traditional accent marks. Generally regards historical accuracy of pronunciation as a higher priority than convenience of the modern reader, if these two aspects are in conflict.
GC-NT-A	Accented koiné greek with greek script. Uses breath marks, traditional accent marks and grammatical iotas. Does not differentiate pronunciations, spelling preferences, or unusual secondary meanings.
GC-NT-S	Simple koiné greek with greek script. Does not use breath marks, traditional accent marks or grammatical iotas. Does not differentiate pronunciations, spelling preferences, or unusual secondary meanings.
Foreign non-greek proper nouns are usually written based on pronunciation in the greek script. The greek style of writing foreign proper nouns is imitated also in such of these romanized standards, whose primary emphasis is replicating the greek script text as such in latin script, rather than writing optimally convenient text with the latin script. Only such latin and greek Unicode characters have been deemed acceptable for these standards, which do not force the text row to be any higher than normal. Sometimes a greek text standard uses a latin Unicode character, even if a similar character were possible to achieve as a combination of a greek letter (visually identical to the latin letter) and a separate diacritical mark. Single Unicode characters are always favoured, because they produce the expected visual look more reliably and precisely in various software.

Sample text, for comparing these text styles:
GC-RZ-P	Hē ekklēsia apesteilen kài duo àñgelous, Jeremy [{Tzeremi}] kai Abraḥam, kēryssein to evañgelion tŏ laŏ en Ŕōmĕ.
GC-RZ-D	Hē ekklēsia apesteilen kai dyo añgelous, Tzeremi {[Ieremy]} kai Abraam, kēryssein to evañgelion tŏ laŏ en Rhōmĕ.
GC-RZ-A	Hē ẻkklēsía ảpésteilen kaì dúo ảggélous, Tzéremi {[Ieremi]} kaì Ảbraám, kērússein tò eủaggélion tṏ laṏ ẻn Rhṓmĕ.
GC-RZ-S	Ē ekklēsia apesteilen kai duo aggelous, Tzeremi {[Ieremi]} kai Abraam, kērussein to euaggelion tō laō en Rōmē.
GC-NT-P	Ἡ εκκλησια απεστειλεν κὰι δυο ὰṽγελους, Ῐερεμῠ [{Τζερεμι}] και Αβραἀμ, κηρῠσσειν το εῡαṽγελιον τῳ λαῳ εν Ṕωμῃ.
GC-NT-D	Ἡ εκκλησια απεστειλεν και δϋο αṽγελους, Τζερεμι {[Ιερεμῠ]} και Αβρααμ, κηρῠσσειν το εῡαṽγελιον τῳ λαῳ εν Ῥωμῃ.
GC-NT-A	Ἡ ἐκκλησία ἀπέστειλεν καὶ δύο ἀγγέλους, Τζέρεμι {[Ιερεμι]} καὶ Ἀβραάμ, κηρύσσειν τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῷ λαῷ ἐν Ῥώμῃ.
GC-NT-S	Η εκκλησια απεστειλεν και δυο αγγελους, Τζερεμι {[Ιερεμι]} και Αβρααμ, κηρυσσειν το ευαγγελιον τω λαω εν Ρωμη.

Logical convertibility between these text standards (based on the text itself only, without using any dictionary data or human help):
	RZ P	RZ D	RZ A	RZ S	NT P	NT D	NT A	NT S
RZ-P   ➔		YES	←	YES	YES	YES	←	YES
RZ-D   ➔	→		→	YES	→	YES	←	YES
RZ-A   ➔	→	→		YES	→	→	YES	YES
RZ-S   ➔	—	—	—		→	→	→	YES
NT-P   ➔	YES	YES	←	YES		YES	←	YES
NT-D   ➔	→	YES	←	YES	→		→	YES
NT-A   ➔	→	→	YES	YES	→	→		YES
NT-S   ➔	→	→	→	YES	—	—	—
A dash — or arrows → and ← are used in this diagram, if the conversion between two text styles is not supported, because the source text does not contain enough information for logically concluding the correct ortography in the target text style (in all possible scenarios). If such an unsupported conversion is requested, the default option is not to convert the source text at all. However, if it is deemed preferable to convert the text into the closest possible text style (most notably, when the script should change from native to romanized, or vice versa), the arrows point towards the text style that is the recommendable substitute for the unsupported conversion. A dash — is used in the diagram, when no other logically supported substitutes are available (in the same script) than the source text style itself. Foreign proper nouns cannot be automatically converted between a literal format (replicated letter by letter) and a transliteration based on pronunciation. Such a conversion would be reliably possible only if both the literal and the pronounced form of the name are documented in the source text, using some kind of tags or footnotes. This table of logical convertibility between the text styles ignores this aspect of foreign proper nouns, and promises convertibility from a text style to another, if no other logical obstacles exist for the conversion than the writing of foreign proper nouns being based on different principles. The sample texts afore use such a notation that the form based on pronunciation is given in [{curly brackets inside square brackets}], and the literal form is given in {[square brackets inside curly brackets]}, after the spelling that is chosen for the main text. Thus it would be possible to automatically recognize, which of the two formats is the literal one. These codes and alternative spellings are not intended to be seen by the human reader in the main text. These text styles use a strict logical correlation between latin letters and greek script letters, so that the text can be converted back and forth between greek script and latin script, and the text should stay exactly similar through all these conversions, without any changes caused by the conversion process back and forth. However, foreign proper nouns are not always fully compatible with this system. In some scenarios it is possible that converting a foreign proper noun from latin script to greek script, and then back into latin script, produces a different spelling in latin script than was the original form of the name. This can happen because these romanized greek text styles are optimized for fluent reading and strict logical compatibility with the greek script, not strict compatibility with the way how other languages use the latin script. Traditional accent marks are not used in the grammatically more ambitious text formats, which assume it to be more interesting and beneficial for the reader, if the unusual secondary meanings of words and pronunciation of ambiguous letters are indicated with diacritics. Adding diacritical marks for such purposes causes the need to reduce other visual noise from the text — such as the traditional accent marks.

Technical reliability of these text styles, as Unicode characters: To increase the grammatical information content of the text, these text styles use many uncommon diactirical marks and special characters, both in latin and in greek script. This causes a higher risk that some fonts or software will fail to display the text correctly and beautifully. One of the esthetic risks is that some letters in the text are displayed with a different font than the rest of text. This happens if the primary font does not include some rare character. In that case the software will use any other font that contains the character. If none of the available fonts contains the character, then the software probably displays some generic character, such as a square or a question mark, for example.

Diacritical marks in koiné greek: Bible manuscripts and other ancient greek literature are usually printed with traditional diacritical marks (nowadays, but not when those works were originally published). This standard uses the term GC-NT-A for such a text style: accented koiné greek in the native (greek) script. The diacritical marks of koiné greek are explained on this web page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_diacritics GC-RZ-A text in latin script would replicate all these diacritical marks, using latin Unicode characters that are visually as identical as possible with the greek ones: for example, οὐρανοῖς => oủranoĩs. This document leaves the standards GC-NT-A and GC-RZ-A incompletely defined, without giving an extensive list of Unicode characters for all forms and combinations of such diacritical marks. Nearly all of the necessary greek Unicode characters are found on the above-mentioned web page, and most of the corresponding latin Unicode characters can be found on these pages: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Extended_Additional #Compact_table en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Extended-A #Compact_table en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Extended-B #Compact_table en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin-1_Supplement #Compact_table en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Extended-D

Below is a guide for transliterating foreign proper nouns from latin script to koiné greek script literally, letter by letter — regardless of the language, or how the word is pronounced. Greek language traditionally uses specific letter combinations to denote consonants that do not exist in the basic greek alphabet. The standard GC-NT-P uses the primary transliteration variant only, which is not in parentheses. Some ambiguity and taking the pronunciation into consideration is allowed in standards GC-NT-D, GC-NT-A and GC-NT-S, whose acceptable alternatives are listed in parentheses, using the most basic greek alphabet only.
LAT	GRC	LAT	GRC
A a	Α α	P p	Π π
B b	Β β (Β β / ΜΠ Μπ μπ)	Q q	Ϙ ϙ (Κ κ)
C c	Ϲ ϲ (Σ σ / Κ κ)	R r	Ρ ρ
D d	Δ δ (Δ δ / ΝΤ Ντ ντ)	S s	Σ σ
E e	Ε ε	T t	Τ τ
F f	ɸ ȹ (Φ φ)	U u	Υ υ (Υ υ => ΟΥ Ου ου)
G g	Γ γ (Γ γ / ΓΚ Γκ γκ / ΤΖ Τζ τζ)	V v	Ῡ ῡ * (Υ υ => Β β)
H h	῾	W w	Ỹ ῦ ** (ΟΥ Ου ου / Υ υ)
I i	Ι ι	X x	Ξ ξ
J j	Ῐ ῐ (Ι ι / ΤΖ Τζ τζ)	Y y	Ῠ ῠ * (Υ υ / Ι ι / ΥΕ Υε υε)
K k	Κ κ	Z z	Ζ ζ
L l	Λ λ	Ä ä	Ä ἄ ** (Α α / ΑΕ Αε αε)
M m	Μ μ	Å å	Å ἆ ** (Ω ω / ΑΑ Αα αα / Α α)
N n	Ν ν	Ö ö	Ö ὄ ** (Ο ο / ΟΕ Οε οε)
O o	Ο ο	Ü ü	Ϋ ϋ * Ῠ ῠ (Υ υ / ΥΕ Υε υε)
* For latin letters V v and Y y GC-NT-D uses the same greek transliteration as GC-NT-P (unless decided otherwise by a human editor), because these letters are included in the main standard for text in koiné greek language. For latin letter Ü ü GC-NT-D uses greek transliteration Ῠ ῠ. ** Ỹ, Ä, Å and Ö are latin characters. These "greek" letters are in fact cyrillic characters: F f = ɸ ȹ (to distinguish these from the true greek PH ph = Φ φ, for reverse convertibility between the text styles without any loss of information). Automatic conversion algorithms use the alternative that is mentioned first within parentheses. Sometimes a different option than the first one is preferable in reality (for example, V => Β, not Υ, or U => ΟΥ, not Υ), but automatic conversion must use the primary meaning of a letter in the standard of source text, if no specific indication is given that a word is certainly a foreign proper noun.

GRC	LAT	SPECIAL CASES
Α α	A a	=> Ă ă, with grammatical iota. — In GC-NT-P/D/A: Ă ă => ᾼ ᾳ.
Β β	B b
Γ γ	G g	=> Ñ ñ before G, K, X or Ch: γγ = ñg, γκ = ñk, γξ = ñx, γχ = ñch. => Ġ ġ, when transliterating the hebrew (etc.) letter àyin in very ancient foreign proper nouns, in which the letter àyin may have been pronounced quite similarly to modern arabic ġayn. For example, hebrew Ặmorạh => Γομορρα (LXX) => Ġomorra. — In GC-NT-P/D: Ñ ñ => Ñ ṽ (these are latin characters). Ġ ġ => Ѓ ɣ (the capital letter is cyrillic, the lowercase letter is a latin character).
Δ δ	D d
Ε ε	E e
Ζ ζ	Z z
Η η	Ē ē	=> Ĕ ĕ, with grammatical iota. — In GC-NT-P/D/A: Ĕ ĕ => ῌ ῃ.
Θ θ	TH th	=> ΘΘ θθ = THH thh.
῾	H h	=> ´, masked strong breath: see letter R. => Ḥ ḥ, non-traditional strong breath: used by GC-RZ-P and GC-NT-P in foreign proper nouns, which include an H or Ch sound in the original language, but a strong breath is traditionally not written in the greek form of the name: Isaak => Isaḥak. — In GC-NT-P: Ḥ ḥ + vowel => see the list of combinations at the bottom of this page.
Ι ι	I i	=> J j, when in the logical (or even pronounced) role of consonant in foreign names: Jēsous. — In GC-NT-P: J j => Ῐ ῐ.
Κ κ	K k
Λ λ	L l
Μ μ	M m
Ν ν	N n
Ξ ξ	X x
Ο ο	O o
Π π	P p
Ρ ρ	R r	Rh rh => Ŕ ŕ, R with masked strong breath, used by GC-RZ-P and GC-NT-P in foreign names and loan words, in which the sound H does not belong to the word in the original language: ŕabbi. — In GC-NT-P: Ŕ ŕ => Ṕ ῤ (the uppercase character is latin).
Σ σς	S s	=> Š š, sound SCH in foreign names, a theoretical possibility supported by GC-RZ-P and GC-NT-P. — In GC-NT-P: Š š => Č č (these are latin characters).
Τ τ	T t
Υ υ	Y y	=> U u, in diphthongs au, eu, ēu, ou and ōu. GC-RZ-P uses U also in the word duo (two), treating "uo" as a diphthong in this case, for the convenience of modern readers. => V v, when modern readers tend to pronounce letter Y as V between two vowels, which happens in many but not all cases: levitēs, evēñgelisato, but: pisteuēte. — In GC-NT-P/D: Y y => Ῠ ῠ. U u => Υ υ. V v => Ῡ ῡ.
Φ φ	PH ph	=> ΦΦ φφ = PHH phh.
Χ χ	CH ch	=> ΧΧ χχ = CHH chh.
Ψ ψ	PS ps	=> ΨΨ ψψ = PPS pps.
Ω ω	Ō ō	=> Ŏ ŏ, with grammatical iota. — In GC-NT-P/D/A: Ŏ ŏ => ῼ ῳ.

Disambiguation in theoretical cases, which should never happen in text that follows the standard grammar: Ṗ ṗ is always a solitary letter P p, and Ṡ ṡ is always a solitary letter S s, not part of letter PS ps. Ḣ ḣ is always a strong breath H h on the following vowel, not part of letter CH, PH or TH, and not a strong breath on the preceding letter R. Examples: PS ps = Ψ ψ [PṠ pṡ / ṖS ṗs / ṖṠ ṗṡ = ΠΣ πσ], PPS pps = ΨΨ ψψ [ṖPS ṗps = ΠΨ πψ], PHA pha = ΦΑ φα [PḢA pḣa = ΠἉ πἁ], CHHA chha = ΧΧΑ χχα [CHḢA chḣa = ΧἉ χἁ], THA tha = ΘΑ θα [TḢA tḣa = ΤἉ τἁ], RHA rha = ῬΑ ῥα [RḢA rḣa = ΡἉ ρἁ]. This is not a complete list of all possible vowels and scenarios, but the characters Ḣ ḣ, Ṗ ṗ and Ṡ ṡ should be sufficient to handle all ambiguities related to letters H, P and S. To improve the clarity of reading, and to give a hint of a glottal stop, the standards GC-RZ-P, GC-RZ-D, GC-NT-P and GC-NT-D use a rising accent (acute ´) over a "u" vowel, which is followed by a long same sound "ou": pisteúousin. The conversion algorithm of text styles adds this automatically, without expecting the presence of such an accent mark in source text. A falling accent (grave `) or circumflex (^) over a vowel indicates in standards GC-RZ-P and GC-NT-P that a word has a different meaning here than is the most common meaning of the word: kai = and / kài = also, chōris = without / chôris = separately. The primary symbol for this purpose is grave (`). Circumflex (^) is used over vowels ē ō, as a combination of the horizontal line and a grave. Secondary meanings of some koiné greek words are listed on this page: melekh.net/docs/secondary_meanings_GC-RZ-NT.html Accent marks are used for a different purpose in traditional accented greek text (GC-NT-A and GC-RZ-A). To ensure that an automatic converter interprets the text correctly, text style of the source text should be indicated to the converter. Falling accent, in GC-RZ-P => GC-NT-P: À => À, à => ὰ, È => È, è => ὲ, Ê => Ĥ, ê => ὴ, Ì => Ì, ì => ὶ, Ò => Ò, ò => ὸ, Ô => Ὼ, ô => ὼ, Ỳ => Ŷ, ỳ => ῢ, Ù => Ỳ, ù => ὺ. (All capital letters except Ὼ are latin characters.) Strong breath and a falling accent, in GC-RZ-P => GC-NT-P: HÀ => Ἃ, hà => ἃ, HÈ => Ἓ, hè => ἓ, HÊ => Ἣ, hê => ἣ, HÌ => Ἳ, hì => ἳ, HÒ => Ὃ, hò => ὃ, HÔ => Ὣ, hô => ὣ, HỲ => Ὗ, hỳ => ὗ, HÙ => Ὓ, hù => ὓ. Strong breath in untypical cases, in GC-RZ-P/D => GC-NT-P/D: HY => Ὕ, hy => ὕ (compare to: HU => Ὑ, hu => ὑ). Strong breath and a foreign vowel, in GC-RZ-P => GC-NT-P: HÄ => Ἅ, hä => ἅ, HÅ => Ὧ, hå => ὧ, HÖ => Ὅ, hö => ὅ, HÜ => ϔ, hü => ῧ (compare to the basic forms of these vowels, in the transliteration table for foreign proper nouns). Supported combinations of a non-traditional strong breath and a vowel, in GC-RZ-P => GC-NT-P: ḤA => Ả, ḥa => ἀ, ḤE => Ẻ, ḥe => ἐ, ḤĒ => Ḣ, ḥē => ἠ, ḤI => Ỉ, ḥi => ἰ, ḤO => Ỏ, ḥo => ὀ, ḤŌ => Ὠ, ḥō => ὠ, ḤY => Ẏ, ḥy => ὖ, ḤU => Ỷ, ḥu => ὐ. (All capital letters except Ὠ are latin characters.) Not supported are combinations of a non-traditional strong breath and a falling or rising accent or a grammatical iota. They are also very improbable scenarios.