Classical Greek in the context of "Hellenized"

Attic Greek is the Greek dialect of the ancient region of Attica, including the polis of Athens. Often called Classical Greek, it was the prestige dialect of the Greek world for centuries and remains the standard form of the language that is taught to students of Ancient Greek. As the basis of the Hellenistic Koine, it is the most similar of the ancient dialects to later Greek. Attic is traditionally classified as a member or sister dialect of the Ionic branch.

Lambda(/ˈlæmdə/ ; uppercase Λ, lowercase λ; Greek: λάμ(β)δα, lám(b)da; Ancient Greek: λά(μ)βδα, lá(m)bda), sometimes rendered lamda, labda or lamma, is the eleventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant IPA: [l]; it derives from the Phoenician letter Lamed, and gave rise to Latin L and Cyrillic El (Л). In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. The ancient grammarians typically called it λάβδα (lắbdă, [lábda]) in Classical Greek times, whereas in Modern Greek it is λάμδα (lámda, [ˈlamða]), while the spelling λάμβδα (lámbda) was used (to varying degrees) throughout the lengthy transition between the two.

In early Greek alphabets, the shape and orientation of lambda varied. Most variants consisted of two straight strokes, one longer than the other, connected at their ends. The angle might be in the upper-left, lower-left ("Western" alphabets) or top ("Eastern" alphabets). Other variants had a vertical line with a horizontal or sloped stroke running to the right. With the general adoption of the Ionic alphabet, Greek settled on an angle at the top; the Romans put the angle at the lower-left.

The traditional English pronunciation of Latin, and Classical Greek words borrowed through Latin, is the way the Latin language was traditionally pronounced by speakers of English until the early 20th century. Although this pronunciation is no longer taught in Latin classes, it is still broadly used in the fields of biology, law, and medicine.

In the Middle Ages speakers of English, from Middle English onward, pronounced Latin not as the ancient Romans did, but in the way that had developed among speakers of French. This traditional pronunciation then became closely linked to the pronunciation of English, and as the pronunciation of English changed with time, the English pronunciation of Latin changed as well.

Phi (/ˈfaɪ, ˈfiː/ FY, FEE; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; Ancient Greek: ϕεῖ pheî [pʰéî̯]; Modern Greek: φι fi [fi]) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet.

In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive ([pʰ]), which was the origin of its usual romanization as ⟨ph⟩. During the later part of Classical Antiquity, in Koine Greek (c. 4th century BC to 4th century AD), its pronunciation shifted to a voiceless bilabial fricative ([ɸ]), and by the Byzantine Greek period (c. 4th century AD to 15th century AD) it developed its modern pronunciation as a voiceless labiodental fricative ([f]).The romanization of the Modern Greek phoneme is therefore usually ⟨f⟩.

Psi /ˈ(p)saɪ, ˈ(p)siː/ (P)SY, (P)SEE (uppercase Ψ, lowercase ψ or 𝛙; Greek: ψι psi [ˈpsi]) is the twenty-third and penultimate letter of the Greek alphabet and is associated with a numeric value of 700. In both Classical and Modern Greek, the letter indicates the combination /ps/ (as in English word "lapse").

For Greek loanwords in Latin and modern languages with Latin alphabets, psi is usually transliterated as "ps".

Omicron (US: /ˈoʊmɪkrɒn, ˈɒmɪkrɒn/ , UK: / oʊˈmaɪkrɒn/; uppercase Ο, lowercase ο, Greek: όμικρον) is the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. This letter is derived from the Phoenician letter ayin: . In classical Greek, omicron represented the close-mid back rounded vowel [o] in contrast to omega, which represented the open-mid back rounded vowel [ɔː], and the digraph ⟨ου⟩ which represented the long close back rounded vowel [uː]. In modern Greek, both omicron and omega represent the mid back rounded vowel [o̞]. Letters that arose from omicron include Roman O and Cyrillic O and Ю. The name of the letter was originally οὖ (oû [ûː]), but it was later changed to ὂ μικρόν (ò mikrón 'small o') in the Middle Ages to distinguish the letter from omega ⟨ω⟩, whose name means 'big o', as both letters had come to be pronounced [o]. In modern Greek, its name has fused into όμικρον (ómikron). In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 70.

The dactylic pentameter is a verse-form which, in classical Greek and Latin poetry, follows a dactylic hexameter to make up an elegiac couplet. It features two halves, each consisting of two dactyls, for which spondees can be substituted in the first half only, followed by a longum. Thus the line most normally looks as follows (note that "—" marks a long syllable, "∪" a short syllable and " ∪ ∪ " either one long or two shorts):

As in all classical verse-forms, the phenomenon of brevis in longo is observed, so the last syllable can actually be short or long. Also, the line has a diaeresis, where a word boundary must occur, after the first half-line, here marked ||.

This article lists direct English translations of common Classical Greek phrases.