# Happy Sweetest Day



## JerryNone

How would one say "Happy Sweetest Day In Greek" to a female?

I would like to know this in the *PRINTED* version and *NOT *in Cursive. I know what the modern Greek Alphabet looks like PRINTED but I have yet to see it *WRITTEN*.
*ΑΒΓΔΕΖΘΗΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩ
*Ι would really appreciate this. Thanks.


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## ireney

JerryNone first of all welcome to the forums. 

Secondly I am not quite sure what you mean by cursive. Are we talking about something like the ancient greek and byzantine writing? Or about handwriting? 

Anyway, I can assure you that in this forum and as far as it concerns me in all forums only the standard keyboard alphabet is used

Hopefully she knows what the Sweetest Day is 

Ευτυχισμένη/Χαρούμενη Γλυκύτερη Μέρα Choose whichever of the first you like best. If you want it in all capitals it's

ΕΥΤΥΧΙΣΜΕΝΗ/ΧΑΡΟΥΜΕΝΗ ΓΛΥΚΥΤΕΡΗ ΜΕΡΑ.

If you want approximated pronunciation let us know


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## JerryNone

ευχαριστω or εφχαριστω ? Why is there this mark / in the Happy Sweetest Day? Does that mean two seperate words?

Also is it καληχντα or καλιχνυτα where the second version has an accent mark above the u or Upsilon or Ypsilon?

Yes when I said Cursive I did mean handwriting

Dowedzenia - Polish for "To See You Again"

Jerry / Jurek


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## JerryNone

Yes, I will need the aproximate pronounication.  Thanks again.



ireney said:


> JerryNone first of all welcome to the forums.
> 
> Secondly I am not quite sure what you mean by cursive. Are we talking about something like the ancient greek and byzantine writing? Or about handwriting?
> 
> Anyway, I can assure you that in this forum and as far as it concerns me in all forums only the standard keyboard alphabet is used
> 
> Hopefully she knows what the Sweetest Day is
> 
> Ευτυχισμένη/Χαρούμενη Γλυκύτερη Μέρα Choose whichever of the first you like best. If you want it in all capitals it's
> 
> ΕΥΤΥΧΙΣΜΕΝΗ/ΧΑΡΟΥΜΕΝΗ ΓΛΥΚΥΤΕΡΗ ΜΕΡΑ.
> 
> If you want approximated pronunciation let us know


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## parakseno

JerryNone said:


> ευχαριστω or εφχαριστω ? Why is there this mark / in the Happy Sweetest Day? Does that mean two seperate words?





> Ευτυχισμένη/Χαρούμενη Γλυκύτερη Μέρα


means you can say either
Ευτυχισμένη Γλυκύτερη Μέρα
or
Χαρούμενη Γλυκύτερη Μέρα



JerryNone said:


> Also is it καληχντα or καλιχνυτα where the second version has an accent mark above the u or Upsilon or Ypsilon?


do you mean "good night" (which would be καληνύχτα)?


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## ireney

JerryNone said:


> ευχαριστω or εφχαριστω ? Why is there this mark / in the Happy Sweetest Day? Does that mean two seperate words?
> 
> Also is it καληχντα or καλιχνυτα where the second version has an accent mark above the u or Upsilon or Ypsilon?
> 
> Yes when I said Cursive I did mean handwriting
> 
> Dowedzenia - Polish for "To See You Again"
> 
> Jerry / Jurek





JerryNone said:


> Yes, I will need the aproximate pronounication.  Thanks again.



Hi there

For Happy you can use either Ευτυχισμένη or Χαρούμενη. It´s two words and you can choose whichever you want.

It's ευχαριστώ (pronounced efharistO)
It's Καληνύχτα (KalinIhta) goodnight

For pronunciation:

a as u in cup, a in bat, or pasta
e as in elephant
i as in ink
o as in omnibus, copy
ou as in you, coup
h as in happy, or ch in achtung (german) loch (scotish)
g as y in you, wh in why, ll in billet (french), g in negra (spanish)
s is always s never a "z" sound

The letter in capital is the accented one (i.e. I would write "absUrd" to show where the stress goes in the word "absurd")

eftihismEni / harOUmeni glikIteri mEra.


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## JerryNone

Okay if the Greek letter "U" is pronounced as the same as the letter "f" in English then what sound is represented by the letter fi or "Φ, φ"?
I always thought that Fi made the "F" sound.


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## parakseno

JerryNone said:


> Okay if the Greek letter "U" is pronounced as the same as the letter "f" in English then what sound is represented by the letter fi or "Φ, φ"?
> I always thought that Fi made the "F" sound.



υ is pronounced in many ways depending on the context

*υ alone is /i/ as in "kit" eg: νυχτα - /nihta/
*when preceded by α or ε it's either /f/ or /v/ depending on the consonant that follows:
αυτός - /aftos/
συναυλία - /sinavlia/ (here ypsilon is read in two different ways)
* in the group ου it's read as /u/. eg: ou in y*ou
*
Φ, φ is always /f/


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## ireney

parakseno got it (of course!  )

just so you don't think we're absolutely crazy, it has to do with how ypsilon was pronounced in the ancient times (up to and including big slice of the byzantine times) (see this article to get an idea)


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## parakseno

ireney said:


> parakseno got it (of course!  )



looool


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## JerryNone

Thanks again to Parakseno and Ireney.  I was reading up on the Greek Alphabet but this was NEVER explained.  I know about the vowel sounds:

*Capital*​*Small*​*Sound*​A​α​A ​E​ε​E ​H​η​I​Ι​ι​I ​Ο​ο​O ​Υ​υ​I ​Ω​ω​O ​

So then υυ or υυ equals the "f" sound, eh?  This keyboard is funny.  When I set it for Greek and use the Word Processer first and then go to an html page it makes the Ypsilon look like this υ but when I first set it to Greek and then go to an html page, the Ypsilon looks like the English letter "u".  Which is most bizzare.


parakseno said:


> υ is pronounced in many ways depending on the context
> 
> *υ alone is /i/ as in "kit" eg: νυχτα - /nihta/
> *when preceded by α or ε it's either /f/ or /v/ depending on the consonant that follows:
> αυτός - /aftos/
> συναυλία - /sinavlia/ (here ypsilon is read in two different ways)
> * in the group ου it's read as /u/. eg: ou in y*ou*
> 
> Φ, φ is always /f/


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## parakseno

> So then υυ or υυ equals the "f" sound, eh?


 I don't know if υυ is possible in Greek... I haven't seen any word that has a double ypsilon (of course, this doesn't mean that it doesn't exist)... I haven't seen this combination mentioned in any of the grammars/ courses I've read either... Anyway, I think it's more likely it would be pronounced as /i/. Usually, double Greek vocals (αα, οο, ωω) keep their value, it's just that they're pronounced longer (/a:/,/o:/,/o:/).



> This keyboard is funny. When I set it for Greek and use the Word Processer first and then go to an html page it makes the Ypsilon look like this υ but when I first set it to Greek and then go to an html page, the Ypsilon looks like the English letter "u". Which is most bizzare.


It might be that it's a different font when you paste it from your word processor. Try to select the text and set the font in WR's editor (top left of the box where you input your text).


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## ireney

double ypsilon does not exist in the Greek language really


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## parakseno

So I knew well... wasn't very certain about Classic Greek... or the different dialects.


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## ireney

Nope, in classic Greek two ypsilon would be simplified in one "long" one. Since no ancient Greek dialect ever had double ypsilon, no modern Greek dialect is going to have it (we've changed some things but we moved toward simplification)


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## parakseno

Well, maybe someone will find it useful if I gave the pronounciation of Greek vowels and diphtongs... I'm boring myself anyway 

(Oh, I mention this is the MODERN Greek pronunciation)
Α,α - /a/ as u in g*u*t, or o in d*o*ne
Η,η - /i/ same as Ι,ι
Ε,ε - /e/ as e in *e*xtra, as e in b*e*t
Ι,ι - /i/, as i in b*i*t
Ο,ο - /o/ as o in t*o*p
Υ,υ - /i/ same as Η,η
Ω,ω - same as Ο,ο

αι, αί - /e/ same as Ε,ε
αυ, αύ - /af/ or /av/ depending on the sound that follows
ει, εί - /i/ same as Ι,ι
ευ, εύ - /ef/ or /ev/
οι, οί - /i/ same as Ι,ι
ου, ού - /u/ as ou in y*ou
*
In αυ and ευ you have /av/, /ev/ in the following cases:
the sound that follows is:
- a vowel: δουλεύω (dhoulevo)
- β, γ, δ, ζ, λ, μ, ν, ρ: αυγή (avghi)
In the other cases you have /af/, /ef/.

The rest (if they exist) are read as the sounds corresponding to the letters that make up that combination.

Also note that,
άι - /ai/ as ie in l*ie*
αϊ, αϋ - /ai/
έι - /ei/ as ey in th*ey*
εϊ, εϋ - /ei/ 

Hope I haven't forgotten any.


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## ireney

excelent list parakseno! There's always the οϊ for instance so I'll just provide the following rule:

In the cases of *αι, αυ, ει, ευ, οι, υι*. 


*I. 
a. *When they don't have any kind of mark on them they are read (MG) as one (a, av/af, i, iv/if, i, i)

b. If there's an accent mark over the second vowel the same applies.

*II.* 
a.If the accent mark is over the first one then they are read as two separate vowels

b. The *¨* marks are called in greek διαλυτικά, diairesis marks. They disconstruct the diphthong. 
When they are present (always over the second vowel) whether there is or isn't an accent mark over it, the vowels are read as two separate ones.

I hope it's not too complicated.


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