The general recognized pronunciation of these diphthongs is as follows: ai, pronounced like ai in aisle; au, pronounced as ow in cow; ei, pronounced like a in fate; eu, pronounced like eu in feud; oi, pronounced as oi in oil; ou, pronounced as oo in food; and ui, pronounced as uee in queen. You will find some variation in the pronunciation of these diphthongs. For instance, ei is some times presented as pronounced as ei in height. Hence, some will pronounce the Greek preposition (Lesson Seven) eiV as having a long a; others as having the long i sound.

     There are other matters that could be mentioned which I do not deem essential to this Greek introductory course. Such matters as a diphthong that has an iota subscript and liquids, mutes, and sibilants regarding consonants. Greek can be complicated but you do not need to know all the grammatical nuances to acquire a practical knowledge of biblical Greek. I will mention shortly why it is so important for you to memorize the vowels and diphthongs.

     There are three accent marks in Koiné Greek. They are the acute, the grave, and the circumflex. Allow me to illustrate them with the English upper case A.

     The acute is Á, the grave is À and the circumflex is  (the symbol Greek fonts will not allow the placement of these marks). We really do not know all the particulars about the original pronunciation of Koiné Greek. However, it is believed the acute, grave, and circumflex marks were used to indicate the rising and falling inflections of the voice and had to do with pitch, as in music. For practical reasons, the emphasis on pitch is not reproduced today. However, the syllable over which a mark is placed does have the accent in pronunciation. As I mentioned in the introduction to this course, without requiring you to make a download of special key coded fonts and a number of changes in the configuration of your computer, we cannot place these marks over the "universal" Greek fonts we are using in this course. Nevertheless, there are rules to determine the placement of these marks.

     Greek has two breathing marks. The smooth breathing resembles a single right quotation mark and the rough breathing a single left quotation mark. Every Greek word beginning with a vowel or a diphthong must have one of these breathing marks. The breathing mark is placed over the single vowel or over the second vowel of a diphthong, which begins a word. Consider the word anqrwpoV (man). Since the word begins with a vowel, it in reality has a breathing mark (check "man" in Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words that I recommended you have before beginning Lesson Four. You can also use Vine to check your transliteration work). The mark resembles a single right quotation mark, which means it is smooth breathing and does not affect the pronunciation or transliteration. I know this is confusing, but do not be discouraged, it is not as bad as it sounds. I should also mention that anqrwpoV has an acute accent mark over the vowel a.

     It is important that you realize and learn that the Greek word has as many syllables as it has vowels and diphthongs. The two vowels of a diphthong make one syllable, not two. Before I illustrate this more, allow me to revisit the breathing marks issue. Let us look at a word that has a rough breathing. Take the word "sin," amartia. If you are looking at Vine's (Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, hereafter identified as "Vine's"), you see the word begins with a vowel (a, alpha, always look up the "meaning word," in this case, "sin" in Vine). You will notice that the breathing mark resembles the left quotation mark, which means it is rough breathing. Two things to remember: when a Greek word has a rough breathing mark, it is transliterated with an English "h" at the first of the word. In other words, amartia is not amartia but hamartia.

     Now let us apply the vowels and diphthong rule to determine syllables. Notice hamartia has four vowels. They are alpha, alpha, iota, and alpha. There is not a diphthong present. Hence, hamartia is ha-mar-ti-a. If you are looking at Vine's, you see the acute accent mark above iota. Therefore, hamartia (Greek word for sin) is pronounced ha-mar-tí-a with the accent on the next to last syllable. Look again at anqrwpoV (man). Again, there is no diphthong, but there are three vowels. Count them, there is alpha, omega, and omicron. As mentioned earlier, anthropos has a smooth breathing mark above the alpha (see Vine's). Hence, there is no special transliteration or pronunciation situation. Since there are three vowels and the acute accent mark is over alpha, the word is pronounced an-thro-pos, with the first syllable accented. Just in case you might need to know this for future reference, the final three syllables of a Greek word are called the antepenult, penult, and ultima. The ultima is the last syllable in the word, the penult is the next to the last, and the antepenult is the third from the last or the one before the penult. Thus, the acute mark in anqrwpoV is placed on the antepenult, the third from the last. Notice also in the case of án-thro-pos that the sigma should resemble a "s" in Greek, since sigma is located at the end of the word. Look at Vine's and you can clearly see what I mean.

     Applying your additional knowledge of Greek, what do you now see when you look at prwtoV (first)? If you are also consulting Vine, you see that prôtos has the circumflex accent mark over omega. Examine prwtoV, does it have a diphthong and how many vowels are present? There is no diphthong but there are two vowels, w and o (omega and omicron). Notice also that protos does not begin with a vowel; therefore, there is not a breathing mark. Hence, the word is pronounced prô-tos (notice the long o, omega). Now consider agaqoV (good). The first letter is a vowel, therefore, there is a breathing mark. In checking Vine (look up "good," you see that the mark indicates smooth breathing. You also observe the acute is over the ultima or last syllable and that there are a total of three vowels present, a, a, o. Hence, a-ga-thós. While you have Vine open, look at how agathós is used in the New Testament. Notice the absolute uses of agathós in the case of God and then the general use of agathós as applied morally to persons (Matt. 19: 17; 5: 45). Consider how agathós is used in contrast with poneros (ponhroV) in Matthew 5: 45. Thus, there is good and evil and the two can be distinguished (cp. Isa. 5: 20 ff.). Since I mentioned ponerós, observe that ponerós has three vowels, o, h, and o (omicron, eta, and omicron). Hence, po-ner-rós. Also observe how that the second syllable or the penult has eta. Eta is always pronounced as a long "a" and in some Greek works, you will find eta transliterated with the English "a," to stress the long sound. When transliterated with the English "e" (usual case), the e normally has a long diacritical mark placed above it to distinguish it from epsilon, also transliterated "e" in English. You will find the same situation regarding omicron and omega. Both are transliterated "o" in English but omega will have the long diacritical mark placed above it and is pronounced as long.

     I have mentioned the precision of the Greek language, now allow me to illustrate some of what I meant with the use of állos (alloV). Simply stated állos means another. However, the Greek language has more capability than the English does. Fully speaking, állos has the capability of meaning more than just another; the full meaning can be "another of the same kind." Another Greek word that on the surface appears to mean the same as állos is héteros (eteroV, rough breathing, read what Vine says about állos and héteros under "another"). Paul (the Holy Spirit) used both ál-los and hé-te-ros in Galatians 1: 6, 7. Notice the reading:

     "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another (héteros, dm) gospel: Which is not another (állos, dm); but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ."