23 Comments
It's NOT 'b' or 'beta'. You are confusing learners! In modern Greek it's 'v' (veeta). There should be 'v' among correct answers at least.
It was 'beta' in ancient Greek so that's how it's pronounced in many loan words, but the language changed since then. To spell 'b' sound modern Greeks usually use 'mp' (mee+pi) letter combination.
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I guess as it's a "translate" exercise, it wants an English answer, not a Greek one?
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This can appear as a "type what you hear" exercise as well. It definitely seems to me that "βήτα" should be accepted when the correct answer is "β."
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In Ancient Greek it was /b/ (hence the English name for the letter, "beta"). In Modern, /v/. To write /b/ in Modern Greek, you use the digraph <μπ>.
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The correct modern Greek pronunciation is v, but sometimes b is used as the English equivalent of the Greek letter β
Hi, everyone. Here's a tip. Just hover over the word and you'll see some of the accepted answers.
Exactly. There is no rule of how this letter is to be portrayed in English. We present a variety. You are not being tested on which version of English transliteration is "correct" but on how the Greek is heard. We accept: veeta / veta/ v/b/vee/beta/vita.
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Thanks Jaye I see you in every comment. This language is incredible. I hope to be fluent in 2018.
You're welcome. We are a team and work as such and hope you become fluent. We've prepared a list of resources which you may like: here It's very long and not meant to be read all together. Bookmark it for further queries and of course come back and ask us anything you like.
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Why do so many languages associate B and V sounds together? Greek, Spanish, Hebrew...
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It's a good question. Here's a phonological answer. The sound [b] is a voiced bilabial plosive, while [v] is a voiced interdental fricative. Interdentality and bilability are quite similar, so as two of the three main articulatory features are the same or close to the same (i.e., the only major difference between the phones is the manner of articulation), it's not surprising that they should be treated similarly.
Note, however, that Greek does indeed have completely separate sounds for both [v] and [b]. The former is of course represented by the letter β; the latter is written μπ. That is, "μπράβο" is pronounced [bɾavo]. From a linguistic perspective, this also makes sense: the phone [m] is a voiced bilabial nasal, which is essentially the quintessence of voicing; when an unvoiced consonant follows it, the resulting sound is the same as the sound of the corresponding voiced consonant (albeit with a high voice-onset time). As [p] is the unvoiced version of [b] (an unvoiced bilabial plosive), the result follows.
wcchargin: 'It's a good question. Here's a ...' and then I got stuck :o) I have copied the rest of your text to my Greek notes for further reading. It's packed with peanuts. Super. Thanks.
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is misleading. For "ζ" the right Translation was z, for this letter the whole word.
Yes, this skill has some odd requests we are working on a whole new tree and this section is getting particular attention.
However, from our incubator, I see the following also would have been correct: "[v/b/vee/veta] so you should not have had a problem. What kind of exercise was it.?
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So in Greek there is no single letter for the phonem b (as in boat) if I understood correctly? The only way is with the digraph μπ.
Given that b is a common sound in many languages (maybe not in Greek) then I assume μπ is seens pretty commonly?
So in Greek there is no single letter for the phonem b (as in boat) if I understood correctly? The only way is with the digraph μπ.
That's right.
Given that b is a common sound in many languages (maybe not in Greek) then I assume μπ is seens pretty commonly?
Well, /b/ was a reasonably common sound in Ancient Greek, but nearly all those /b/s shifted to /v/.
There are some occurrences of /b/ μπ deriving from old /mb/ μβ (e.g. κουμπί "button" from κομβίον, μπαίνω "enter" from εμβαίνω) or other Greek sources through various sound changes, but most /b/s are probably from loanwords from other languages that do have that sound.
So it's a mix. It's not that common in "original" Greek words, but some such words are very common, e.g. μπορώ "be able to, can"; and depending on how many loanwords you use, it may be more or less common in total.
What we are showing here is the correct Modern Greek pronunciation of the Greek letter Ββ. See here for a fuller view of the alphabet: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/22424028
Knowing the name of the letter will not assist you in using the langauge it's the way it's pronounced that you'll need.
And for other resources see here:https://forum.duolingo.com/topic/936
