Spiritus lenis
|
◌̕
|
|
|---|---|
| Diacritical marks | |
| designation | character |
| Acute, simple | ◌́ |
| Acute, double | ◌̋ |
| Breve, about it | ◌̆ |
| Breve, including | ◌̮ |
| Cedilla, including | ◌̧ |
| Cedilla, about it | ◌̒ |
| Gravis, simple | ◌̀ |
| Gravis, double | ◌̏ |
| hook | ◌̉ |
| Hatschek | ◌̌ |
| horn | ◌̛ |
| Comma below | ◌̦ |
| Coronis | ◌̓ |
| Kroužek, about it | ◌̊ |
| Kroužek, including | ◌̥ |
| Macron, about it | ◌̄ |
| Macron, underneath | ◌̱ |
| Ogonek | ◌̨ |
| Period about that | ◌̇ |
| Point below | ◌̣ |
| Dash | ◌̶ |
|
diacritical slash |
◌̷ |
| Alcohol asper | ◌̔ |
| Spiritus lenis | ◌̕ |
| Tilde, about it | ◌̃ |
| Tilde, underneath | ◌̰ |
| Trema, about it | ◌̈ |
| Trema, including | ◌̤ |
| circumflex | ◌̂ |
The Spiritus lenis ( Latin for light breath ; ancient Greek ψιλή psilḗ , 'the light one', modern Greek ψιλή psilí ) denotes the vowel initial sound in contrast to the Spiritus asper , which was pronounced as [ h ]. The thesis that the Spiritus lenis would denote the glottic closure sound [ ʔ ] is improbable for phonetic and metric reasons. For example, an ending vowel before a vowel-like word is regularly elidated , which would not happen if the second word started with a glottic closure sound.
In the Greek script, both initials ( πνεύματα pnéumata , breaths') are reproduced, but not with letters, but with diacritical marks .
- Typographic characters with letter:
- ἀ - ἐ - ἠ - ἰ - ὀ - ὐ - ὠ
- Ἀ - Ἐ - Ἠ - Ἰ - Ὀ - Ὠ
The Spiritus lenis in the Greek script looks like a mirror-inverted, very small "c" and is above the vowel that begins the word (or the second vowel of a diphthong that begins with a word ) of a vowel - d. H. without a preceding "h" sound - starting word. If the first letter is capitalized, at the beginning of a sentence or a proper name, it is, like all Greek diacritical marks, to the left of it instead of above it. If the same vowel also has an accent , the spirit is to the left of the acute or grave accent , but below the circumflex .
Every Greek word that begins with a vowel letter in Scripture is given either a Spiritus asper or a Spiritus lenis. Words beginning with Ypsilon always have the spiritus asper, with all other vowel letters both appear. A Ypsilon with Spiritus lenis above it appears only as the second letter of a diphthong.
When the spiritus lenis symbol appears above a vowel inside the word , it is called a coronis and has a different meaning; It then indicates that sounds have dropped out here due to the contraction of two words ( Krasis ) (e.g. καλὸς κἀγαθός kalos kagathos from καλὸς καὶ ἀγαθός kalos kai agathos 'beautiful and good').
In modern Greek , which has lost the "h" sound at the beginning of the word, both spirit characters were officially abolished due to the higher learning effort due to the script reform of 1982 and the accents were simplified. Few conservative elderly people still use them today.
References
- ^ W. Sidney Allen: Vox Graeca. A guide to the pronunciation of classical Greek. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, London a. a. 1974, ISBN 0-521-20626-X .