- Did Ancient Greek have an H sound?
- Did Ancient Greek have a soft C sound?
- How is Ancient Greek different from modern Greek phonology?
Did Ancient Greek have an H sound?
In fact, Greek once used the letter 'H' for the 'H' sound, but the Greek dialect that became standard did not sound the 'H,' and they used the letter 'H' for the long 'E' sound (what is the letter eta in Greek). Remnants of the use of the letter 'H' can be seen in the shape of the rough and smooth breathing marks.
Did Ancient Greek have a soft C sound?
(This is quite unhistorical; in ancient times all "c"s were hard, but we are used to pronouncing "Caesar," "Circe," etc. with a soft "c.") The same applies to "g"; soft (as in "giant") before "e" and "i" sounds, hard (as in "gate") otherwise.
How is Ancient Greek different from modern Greek phonology?
Attic Greek had about 15 consonant phonemes: nine stop consonants, two fricatives, and four or six sonorants. Modern Greek has about the same number of consonants. The main difference between the two is that Modern Greek has voiced and voiceless fricatives that developed from Ancient Greek voiced and aspirated stops.