Rough breathing

Rough breathing
 ̔
Rough breathing
Diacritics
accent
acute( ´ )
double acute( ˝ )
grave( ` )
double grave(  ̏ )
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inverted breve(  ̑ )
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dot( · )
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horn / dấu móc(  ̛ )
macron( ¯ )
ogonek / nosinė( ˛ )
ring / kroužek( ˚, ˳ )
rough breathing / dasia( ῾ )
smooth breathing / psili( ᾿ )
diaeresis (diaeresis/umlaut)( ¨ )
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In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing (Ancient Greek: δασὺ πνεῦμα dasỳ pneûma or δασεῖα daseîa: modern Greek δασεία dasía; Latin spīritus asper), is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an /h/ sound before a vowel, diphthong, or rho. It remained in the polytonic orthography even after the Hellenistic period, when the sound disappeared from the Greek language. In modern monotonic orthography, it has been dropped.

The absence of an /h/ sound is marked by the smooth breathing.

Contents

History

Tack-shaped archaic consonantal Heta, together with a lowercase variant designed for modern typography.

The rough breathing comes from the left-hand half of the letter H.[1] In some Greek dialects, the letter was used for [h] (Heta), and this usage survives in the Latin letter H. In other dialects, it was used for the vowel [ɛː] (Eta), and this usage survives in the modern system of writing Ancient Greek, and in Modern Greek, where the vowel has shifted to [i].

Usage

The rough breathing ( ῾ ) is placed over an initial vowel, or over the second vowel of a initial diphthong.

  • αἵρεσις haíresis "choice" (→ Latin haeresis → English heresy)
  • ἥρως hḗrōs "hero"

An upsilon[2] or rho[3] at the beginning of a word always takes a rough breathing.

  • ὕμνος hýmnos "hymn"
  • ῥυθμός rhythmós "rhythm"

Inside a word

In some writing conventions, the rough breathing is written on the second of two rhos in the middle of a word.[3] This is transliterated as rrh in Latin.

In crasis (contraction of two words), when the second word has a rough breathing, the contracted vowel does not take a rough breathing. Instead, the consonant before the contracted vowel changes to the aspirated equivalent (i.e., π → φ, τ → θ, κ → χ),[4] if possible, and the contracted vowel takes the apostrophe or coronis (identical to the smooth breathing).

  • τὸ ἕτερον → θοὔτερον (not *τοὕτερον) "the other one"
    tò héteron → thoúteron

Technical notes

In Unicode, the code point assigned to the rough breathing is U+0314  ̔  combining reversed comma above. The pair of space + rough breathing is U+1FFE  ῾  greek dasia.

The rough breathing was also used in the early Cyrillic alphabet when writing the Old Church Slavonic language. In this context it is encoded as Unicode U+0485  ҅  combining cyrillic dasia pneumata

In Latin transcription of Semitic languages, especially Arabic and Hebrew, a symbol similar to the rough breathing U+02BF  ʿ  modifier letter left half ring, is used to represent the letter ayin.

References

  1. ^ Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar, par. 14.
  2. ^ Smyth, par. 10.
  3. ^ a b Smyth, par. 13.
  4. ^ Smyth, par. 64.

See also


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Rough breathing — Breathing Breath ing, n. 1. Respiration; the act of inhaling and exhaling air. [1913 Webster] Subject to a difficulty of breathing. Melmoth. [1913 Webster] 2. Air in gentle motion. [1913 Webster] 3. Any gentle influence or operation; inspiration; …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • rough breathing — n. [transl. of L spiritus asper] 1. in written Greek, the mark (ʼ) placed over an initial vowel or ρ (rho) to show that in ancient Greek it was pronounced with a preceding (h) sound, or aspirate 2. the sound thus indicated …   English World dictionary

  • rough breathing — rough′ breath′ing n. 1) ling. the symbol (‘) used in the writing of Greek to indicate aspiration of the initial vowel or of the ρ (rho) over which it is placed 2) ling. phn the aspirated sound indicated by this mark Compare smooth breathing… …   From formal English to slang

  • rough breathing — noun Etymology: translation of Late Latin spiritus asper 1. : a mark ʽ used in Greek over some initial vowels or over ρ to show that they are aspirated (as in ὡς pronounced ˈhōs or ῥη̃τωρ pronounced ˈhrātōr) 2. : the sound indicated by a mark ʽ …   Useful english dictionary

  • rough breathing — 1. the symbol ( ) used in the writing of Greek to indicate aspiration of the initial vowel or of the small greek letter Rho over which it is placed. 2. the aspirated sound indicated by this mark. Cf. smooth breathing. [1740 50; trans. of L… …   Universalium

  • rough breathing — /rʌf ˈbriðɪŋ/ (say ruf breedhing) noun 1. the pronunciation in Ancient Greek of an initial vowel or ρ with a preceding aspirate sound resembling h in modern English. 2. the diacritic mark ( ) placed over some initial vowels and ρ in written… …  

  • rough breathing — noun Date: 1746 1. a mark ʽ used in Greek over some initial vowels to show that they are aspirated or over ρ to show that it is voiceless 2. the sound indicated by a mark ʽ over a Greek vowel or ρ …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • rough breathing — noun a) The sound equivalent to an initial h before a vowel or an r in Ancient Greek. b) The mark used to indicate the occurrence of the sound …   Wiktionary

  • rough breathing — Aspirate …   New dictionary of synonyms

  • Breathing — Breath ing, n. 1. Respiration; the act of inhaling and exhaling air. [1913 Webster] Subject to a difficulty of breathing. Melmoth. [1913 Webster] 2. Air in gentle motion. [1913 Webster] 3. Any gentle influence or operation; inspiration; as, the… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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