Lesson 2: Pronunciation

Watch · 22-Slide Overview

Pronunciation & Punctuation — The Visual Tour

A complete tour of the three pronunciation systems (we use Erasmian), the eight diphthongs and their iota/upsilon split, the iota subscript, smooth and rough breathing marks plus their full rules (initial υ, ρ, capitals, diphthongs), the three accent marks and the ultima/penult/antepenult system, the acute-to-grave switch, the high-frequency words distinguished only by accent, Greek punctuation (the semicolon trap), movable nu, elision, the Lord's Prayer reading, and a cultural note on why Greek has three accents. Watch first for the framework; the detailed written exposition below works through every point at depth.

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LESSON 2 · Unit I — Foundations · ~30 minutes

By the End of This Lesson

Recognize and pronounce the seven Greek diphthongs
Understand the iota subscript and what it means for pronunciation
Read smooth and rough breathing marks correctly
Know what accents are and how they affect (or don't affect) pronunciation
Recognize Greek punctuation marks — they differ from English

New to Greek? Use the 3-pass path

Pass 1 — UnderstandWatch the overview and read the main explanation. Do not try to master every detail today.

Pass 2 — RecognizeMemorize the main chart or paradigm and do the first trainer sets.

Pass 3 — MasterWork through the practice questions, pronunciation/alphabet drills, and memory trainer slowly.

Today's minimum

If you are new, this is enough for today.

Rough breathing (῾) adds an "h" sound; smooth breathing (᾿) does not.
For now, just stress the accented syllable — don't worry about pitch.
Learn the seven vowels and the common diphthongs (αι, ει, οι, ου, ευ).
Do only the first 2–3 trainer sets today.

CoreA Quick Word on Pronunciation Systems

There is no single 'correct' way to pronounce ancient Greek. Three main systems are used in seminaries today:

Erasmian — devised in the 16th century by Erasmus to give each letter a distinct sound. Used by virtually all English-language seminaries and textbooks. This is what we'll use.
Modern Greek — how Greek is pronounced today. Many vowels and diphthongs collapse into the 'ee' sound, which makes for easier speaking but harder learning of distinct forms.
Reconstructed Koine — what the original Koine speakers likely sounded like, as reconstructed by linguists. Used by some specialized programs (e.g. Buth's Living Koine).

The Erasmian system is the de facto standard for first-year Greek in the English-speaking world. Mounce uses it; Black uses it; Croy uses it. We'll use it too.

CoreDiphthongs

A diphthong is two vowels written side-by-side that combine into a single sound. Greek has eight of them (seven appear commonly in the NT; the eighth, ηυ, is rare but does appear). Memorize each pairing as a unit.

💡 Tip — diphthong pronunciation shortcut Most diphthongs are just two vowel sounds blended quickly: αι sounds like "eye", αυ like "ow" in "cow", οι like "oy", ου like "oo". The only surprise is εὐ/αὐ before voiceless consonants (they use the "f" sound). If you can say "eye", "ow", "oy", "oo" — you already know most diphthong pronunciation.

Diphthong	Pronunciation	Like English…	Example
αι	ai	as in 'aisle'	καί (and)
ει	ei	as in 'eight'	εἰς (into)
οι	oi	as in 'oil'	οἶκος (house)
υι	wi	as in 'we'	υἱός (son)
αυ	au	as in 'sauerkraut'	αὐτός (he)
ευ	eu	'eh-oo' run together	εὐαγγέλιον (gospel)
ου	ou	as in 'soup'	οὐ (not)
ηυ	ēu	like 'eh-oo' but with a longer first vowel	ηὐλίσθη (he lodged)

Pattern to notice Of the eight diphthongs, four end in iota (ι): αι, ει, οι, υι. Four end in upsilon (υ): αυ, ευ, ου, ηυ. The second vowel determines the diphthong; the first determines its starting sound. The second vowel is what makes it a diphthong; the first vowel determines the starting sound.

CoreIota Subscript

Sometimes you'll see a tiny iota tucked underneath the letter alpha, eta, or omega:

⚠ Gotcha — iota subscript is silent but not meaningless The tiny iota written under α, η, ω (ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ) is not pronounced in Erasmian Greek but it is never optional in writing. It is a full letter that affects the grammar — ᾳ vs. α can be a completely different form. Always write it, always notice it.

ᾳ ῃ ῳ

— alpha, eta, omega each with iota subscript —

In ancient Greek these were genuine diphthongs (āi, ēi, ōi). By the Koine period the iota was no longer pronounced; it remained only in the writing as a silent marker. You don't pronounce it, but the grammar still cares it's there — it often signals the dative case, which we'll meet in Lesson 4.

CoreBreathing Marks

Every Greek word that begins with a vowel — and every word that begins with rho (ρ) — carries a breathing mark over its initial letter. There are only two of them.

⚠ Gotcha — rough breathing changes pronunciation The rough breathing mark (') over a vowel adds an "h" sound: ὁ = "ho" not "o". This matters most with the article: ὁ ("ho") is "the" masculine; ὁδός = "hodos" (road/way). When you see any word starting with a vowel, check the breathing mark before pronouncing or parsing it.

Mark	Name	Pronunciation	Example
ἀ	smooth breathing	no extra sound	ἀγάπη (love — say "agápē")
ἁ	rough breathing	add an 'h' sound	ἁμαρτία (sin — say "hamartía")

⚠ This matters Smooth and rough breathing distinguish completely different words. ἐν (with smooth) means 'in'; ἕν (with rough) means 'one'. ὁ (rough) is 'the'; ὃ (smooth, with grave accent) is 'which/that'. Look at the mark every time.

A few rules to know:

Every word starting with a vowel has either smooth or rough breathing — never neither.
Every word starting with upsilon (υ) takes rough breathing. Always. (This is why the English derivatives — 'hyper-', 'hydro-', 'hyper-' — all start with 'h'.)
Every word starting with rho (ρ) takes rough breathing. So ῥῆμα ('word, saying') is pronounced 'rhēma'. The rh in 'rhetoric' and 'rhythm' is from this.
For diphthongs, the breathing mark goes over the second letter: οἶκος, not ὄικος.

CoreAccents

Most Greek words also carry an accent mark over one syllable. There are three accent marks:

💡 Tip — don't let accents paralyze you First-year students often freeze over accent rules. At this stage: read the accent as a stress mark (the accented syllable gets emphasis) and move on. Full accent rules are complex and belong later. The one accent rule that matters immediately: accent + breathing on the same vowel — rough breathing gets the accent marked on it.

Mark	Name	Form	Example
ά	acute	forward slash	λόγος
ὰ	grave	backward slash	τὸ ἔργον
ᾶ	circumflex	a curved 'roof'	δοῦλος

Good news In Erasmian pronunciation, all three accents are read the same way — as a slight stress on that syllable, like English stress. So λόγος is pronounced 'LO-gos' and δοῦλος is 'DOO-los'. The original ancient pitch distinctions are not preserved in modern reading.

The accents do matter for grammar, however — in some cases an accent is the only thing distinguishing two words that look identical. We'll address those when they come up. For now: just stress the syllable that has the accent.

Memory hook

The three accents in one image. Acute (´) points up like rising pitch. Grave (`) points down like falling pitch. Circumflex (῀) is both — the up-then-down curve of pitch first rising and then falling within one syllable. Originally these were musical marks; they're now just visual cues.

Some practical rules:

An accent never falls farther from the end than the third-to-last syllable.
The circumflex only ever falls on a long vowel or diphthong.
Some short words ('proclitics' and 'enclitics') have no accent at all — they lean on the next or previous word.
You don't need to memorize accent rules in detail at this stage. Recognize them, stress the marked syllable, and move on.

CorePunctuation

Greek punctuation is mostly familiar — but two marks are different from English, and one is the same as ours but means something else.

Mark	Greek	Function	English equivalent
period	.	end of sentence	.
comma	,	pause within sentence	,
colon / semicolon	·	stronger pause; mid-period	: or ;
question mark	;	question	?

⚠ The semicolon trap A Greek semicolon (;) is what English uses for a question mark. So τίς εἶ; means 'Who are you?' — it ends with a question, despite looking like English's semicolon. Get used to seeing this.

Greek's mid-level pause (which English would write as a colon or semicolon) uses a raised dot: ·. This dot is at letter-cap height, not at the baseline.

Common error

✗ Reading τίς εἶ; as a statement

✓ Reading τίς εἶ; as a question — Greek uses ; as the question mark

Greek punctuation differs from English: ; is a question mark (not a semicolon), · (raised dot) is the semicolon/colon, and . is a period. Watch the punctuation marks closely; they change meaning.

CoreRead These Aloud

Now that you have all the tools, sound out these words and phrases carefully. Identify the breathing marks, accents, and diphthongs.

ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος

— en archē ēn ho logos —

"In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1). Notice: ἐν smooth-breathing 'e'; ἀρχῇ with iota subscript and circumflex; ἦν circumflex on eta; ὁ rough-breathing alone (says 'ho').

υἱὸς θεοῦ

— huios theou —

"Son of God." The diphthong υι combines with the rough breathing on the upsilon (which is automatic) to give 'h-wi'. θεοῦ has a circumflex over the diphthong ου.

ἁμαρτία · ἔργον · ζωή

— hamartia · ergon · zōē —

sin · work · life. Three vocabulary words you'll meet later. Notice the rough breathing on hamartia (with the 'h'), the smooth on ergon, and how zōē is pronounced 'zoh-AY' (omega + eta, not just two e's).

Practice now Read each example above out loud three times. If a word is unclear, walk through it letter by letter, identifying the breathing mark and the accent. After this lesson you should be able to sound out any Greek word — even ones whose meaning you don't yet know.

Watch — Bill Mounce companion lecture

BBG Ch 3 & 4

Self-check before reading on

Quick test: how many syllables in ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos, 'human')? Where does each syllable break?

Reveal answer

Three syllables: ἄν-θρω-πος. The general rule: a single consonant between vowels goes with the following vowel; two consonants split unless they form a permissible cluster (like θρ).

BBG Ch 3 & 4 Punctuation and Syllabification Watch on YouTube ↗

Mounce combines the chapter-3 and chapter-4 overviews into a single video. The portion relevant to our Lesson 2 (punctuation, syllabification, accents) comes near the end.

Practice — drill the concepts

Five skill-specific drill sets covering pronunciation, then a cumulative Mastery Test of 50 questions that pushes the boundaries — diphthong identification in real NT words, breathing-and-accent combinations on the same vowel, the sound vs sign distinction (which marks are pronounced, which only carry grammatical info), and tricky punctuation traps. Items you miss loop until mastered.

CoreReading Greek Accents — What to Notice and Why

You've met the three accent marks. Now the practical question: what do you actually do with them when you're reading? Most introductory courses tell you to memorize a list of rules and move on. That's the wrong approach. The right approach is: notice four specific things every time you read a Greek word.

Here's what to notice, in priority order — from most useful to least:

1. Which syllable carries the accent (for pronunciation)

This is the easiest and most immediately useful job of accents. The accented syllable gets the stress. That's it. Whether the mark is acute, grave, or circumflex, you stress that syllable when you say the word out loud.

λόγος → "LO-gos"

Acute on the first syllable. Stress falls there. Two syllables; the first gets the emphasis.

ἀγάπη → "a-GA-pē"

Acute on the middle syllable. Three syllables; the middle one gets the emphasis.

δοῦλος → "DOO-los"

Circumflex on the first syllable. Stress falls there. The circumflex doesn't change where you stress — it just tells you that the original Greek had a rise-and-fall pitch on that syllable.

If you do nothing else with accents, do this. Every Greek word you read aloud should land its stress on the marked syllable. Within a few weeks of reading practice, this becomes automatic.

2. Whether the accent shifts between forms (for grammar)

This is where accents start doing real work. A noun's accent often shifts position as it changes case. A verb's accent shifts as it changes person and tense. The shift is usually predictable — controlled by the rules you'll see below — and watching it can help you parse the form.

Take ἄνθρωπος ("human") through three of its forms:

ἄνθρωπος (nom sg) — ἀνθρώπου (gen sg) — ἀνθρώπων (gen pl)

Three forms, three different accent positions. The accent moved from the first syllable to the second. Why? Because the rules constrain how far back from the end the accent can sit, and they're sensitive to whether the final syllable is long or short.

You don't need to predict these shifts yet. You just need to recognize that when you see what looks like a familiar word with a different accent placement, it's usually still the same word in a different form. Don't panic; check the stem, not the accent.

3. Whether an acute has changed to a grave (for context)

Here's a small phenomenon that confuses many beginners: the same word in isolation has an acute, but when something follows it, the acute becomes a grave. This is automatic — it's not a different word. The grave is essentially a "lowered" acute that signals "another word is coming."

θεός in isolation → θεὸς ἀγαπᾷ

"God" by itself = θεός (acute). "God loves" = θεὸς ἀγαπᾷ (grave on θεὸς because another word follows). Same word. Same meaning. The accent shape changed because of what came next.

The grave only ever appears on the very last syllable, and only when another word follows. At the end of a phrase or before punctuation, you'll see the acute. Reading rule: when you encounter θεὸς, treat it exactly as θεός.

4. Whether the accent distinguishes meaning (rare but matters)

For a small set of high-frequency words, accent placement is the only thing distinguishing two different words. These pairs are worth memorizing now, because they appear constantly in the NT and you don't want to confuse them.

The accent-distinguishes-meaning pairs

With accent	Without (or different)	Note
τίς, τί (acute) — "who? what?"	τις, τι (no accent) — "someone, anyone, something"	Interrogative vs indefinite — biggest payoff pair
ἤ — "or, than"	ἥ — "who" (fem. relative pronoun)	Different breathing too — but accent placement is part of the contrast
εἰ — "if"	εἶ (circumflex) — "you (sg) are"	Conditional vs verb form of εἰμί
ποῦ — "where?"	που — "somewhere, anywhere"	Same interrogative-vs-indefinite pattern
πῶς — "how?"	πως — "somehow"	Same pattern

The pattern: interrogative pronouns and adverbs always carry an acute accent; their indefinite counterparts have no accent of their own (they're enclitics, "leaning" on the previous word). When you see τις with no accent of its own, you're reading "someone." When you see τίς with an acute, you're reading "who?"

A worked example — accents in a real NT verse

τίς ἐστιν οὗτος ὅτι καὶ οἱ ἄνεμοι καὶ ἡ θάλασσα αὐτῷ ὑπακούουσιν;

"Who is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?" (Matt 8:27.) Notice the accents in action:

τίς with acute on the iota — interrogative "who?" Without the accent (τις), it would mean "someone" and the entire sentence would read very differently.
ἐστιν — usually unaccented (an enclitic), but here it carries an accent because it begins a new clause and there's no preceding word for it to lean on.
οὗτος with circumflex — "this one." The circumflex marks the long vowel pair ου.
θάλασσα, ἄνεμοι, ὑπακούουσιν — each carries an acute on a different syllable, controlled by the rules below.
αὐτῷ with circumflex on the iota subscript syllable — pronoun "to him," dative case.

Reading this sentence with attention to accents tells you (a) where to stress each syllable when you say it aloud, (b) that τίς opens a question (the acute is the giveaway), and (c) that the various forms are all in the right grammatical positions. You don't have to "produce" any of these accents. You just have to read them as part of the words.

The rules behind the accents

If you want to understand why accents land where they do (and why they shift between forms), here are the underlying rules. You don't need to memorize all of these for first-year reading, but they'll help you make sense of accent shifts when you see them.

First: name the syllables

The last three syllables of a Greek word have technical names, counting from the end:

Ultima — the very last syllable
Penult — the second-to-last syllable
Antepenult — the third-to-last syllable

So in ἀγάπη (a-GA-pē): -πη is the ultima, -γά- is the penult, ἀ- is the antepenult. The acute accent here sits on the penult.

An accent can only appear on one of these three syllables — never further back. So in a four-syllable word, the first syllable can never carry the accent.

The acute (´) can fall on any of the three syllables — antepenult, penult, or ultima — depending on the word.
The circumflex (῀) can only fall on the penult or ultima, never on the antepenult. And it can only sit over a long vowel or diphthong (its very shape encodes the original "rising-then-falling pitch" of a long sound).
The grave (`) only appears on the ultima — and only when the word is followed by another word (not at the end of a phrase or before punctuation). It's essentially an acute that has "lowered" because another word follows immediately.
If the ultima is long, the antepenult can never carry an accent. The accent has to move forward (toward the end). This is why ἄνθρωπος (short ultima) has its accent on the antepenult, but ἀνθρώπου (long ultima -ου) has its accent forced onto the penult.
If the ultima is long and the penult carries the accent, that accent must be acute, not circumflex. So ἀνθρώπου (acute on penult, long ultima) but δῶρον (circumflex on penult, short ultima).

What you actually need to do — a checklist

For first-year Greek reading, here's the realistic version of "what to do with accents":

Stress the marked syllable when reading aloud. Always.
Recognize that the same word can appear with different accent placements as it changes form. Don't treat the accent shift as a different word.
Treat the grave as an acute that knows another word is coming.
Memorize the small list of accent-distinguishes-meaning pairs (τίς/τις being the most important).
Don't try to produce Greek accents from scratch yet. The lexicon and printed text always show them. Production is a second-year skill.

That's it. Accents are working tools when you read, not a hurdle to memorize before you can start. The rules above will become clearer over the next few lessons as you see them in action.

PracticeNow You Try It

Two sets of guided exercises — focused on diphthongs, breathing marks, and accents.

Set 1 — Diphthongs and breathing

For each word, find the diphthong, identify the breathing mark, and count syllables.

οὐρανός

Find the diphthong.
Where does the breathing mark sit (over which vowel)?
Smooth or rough?
How many syllables?

υἱός

What's the diphthong?
The breathing mark is on which letter?
Smooth or rough?

εὐαγγέλιον

How many diphthongs?
How many syllables?
What's the accent on the γέ?

Reveal answers

οὐρανός ("heaven"): Diphthong: ου. Breathing mark sits over the second vowel (υ) — Greek convention places the breathing on the second letter of a diphthong. Smooth. 3 syllables: ou-ra-NOS.

υἱός ("son"): Diphthong: υι. The breathing mark sits over the iota (the second vowel). Smooth.

εὐαγγέλιον ("good news, gospel"): Two diphthongs (or arguably one — ευ at the start, then αγγ which isn't a diphthong but a consonant cluster). Just one diphthong: ευ. The αγγ is "ang" with the gg pronounced "ng" before another γ — a phonetic rule. 5 syllables: eu-an-GE-li-on. Accent on γέ is acute.

Set 2 — Accent placement

Identify the type of accent and which syllable it falls on (ultima, penult, antepenult).

ἄνθρωπος

What kind of accent?
Which syllable carries it?
Why couldn't this be a circumflex?

δῶρον

What kind of accent?
Which syllable?
Why is a circumflex possible here but not in the previous word?

θεὸς ἀγαπᾷ

What kind of accent on θεὸς?
Why is it grave and not acute?
What kind of accent on ἀγαπᾷ?

Reveal answers

ἄνθρωπος: Acute (´). On the antepenult (the very first syllable, ἄν-). It can't be circumflex because circumflexes can only sit on the penult or ultima, never on the antepenult.

δῶρον: Circumflex (῀). On the penult (δῶ-). Circumflex is allowed here because the ultima (-ρον) is short and the penult vowel (ω) is long. In ἄνθρωπος, the antepenult position blocks circumflex regardless of vowel length.

θεὸς ἀγαπᾷ: Grave (`) on θεὸς because another word follows immediately (ἀγαπᾷ). In isolation it would be θεός with acute. The accent on ἀγαπᾷ is circumflex over the contracted ᾷ (alpha + iota subscript) — a contract verb's signature.

CoreReading Practice — Sounding Out the Lord's Prayer Opening

You can now read with attention to accents, breathing marks, and punctuation. Try the opening of the Lord's Prayer (Matt 6:9). Read each word aloud, paying attention to where the accent falls.

Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς·

"Our Father, the one in the heavens." Notice: Πάτερ has an acute accent on the first syllable — stress falls there. ἡμῶν has rough breathing (h-sound) plus circumflex over the omega. οὐρανοῖς has circumflex on the οῖς. The raised dot · at the end is a Greek semicolon — a brief pause before the next petition. Six accent marks, all of them functional rhythm guides for reading aloud.

ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου·

"Hallowed be your name." ἁγιασθήτω begins with rough breathing — pronounced "hagias-thay-toh." Long word: 5 syllables. The accent on ὄνομά shifts because of the unaccented enclitic σου following it (an accent rule we'll touch in later lessons). Another raised dot · ends the petition.

ReferenceVocabulary Notes

Three short notes on punctuation and pronunciation phenomena that will repay attention from this lesson forward.

Movable nu — the disappearing -ν Some Greek verb forms can end with or without a final ν. ἐστί and ἐστίν both mean "he/she/it is." The ν is added before a word starting with a vowel (or before a punctuation mark) for smoother pronunciation, and dropped before consonants. This is "movable nu" (νῦ ἐφελκυστικόν in Greek). It also appears on 3rd-person plural verb endings (-ουσι/-ουσιν) and on the dative plural of 3rd-declension nouns (-σι/-σιν). Don't panic when you see the same word with two endings — they mean exactly the same thing.

Elision — vowel collision When a Greek word ends in a short vowel and the next word starts with a vowel, the final vowel often drops out and is replaced by an apostrophe. δι' αὐτοῦ ("through him") is really διὰ αὐτοῦ with elision of the final α. You'll see this constantly with prepositions. The apostrophe is a clue: a vowel was eaten by the next word.

Iota subscript — silent but real In τῇ, ᾄδω, or τῷ, you see a tiny iota written underneath the long vowel (η, α, or ω). This iota was once pronounced — these forms are remnants of older diphthongs (ηι, αι, ωι). By Koine times the iota had gone silent but kept its written form. When you see iota subscript, recognize it as a grammatical signal (often dative singular) even though you don't say it aloud.

PracticeChallenge Verses — Try It on the Greek NT

Three reading challenges focused on accents, breathing marks, and punctuation. Read each one out loud, decide what the punctuation tells you, then check.

Challenge 1 — Why is this a question?

τίς εἶ;

Reveal answer

"Who are you?" The semicolon ; in Greek is a question mark. τίς means "who" with an acute accent on the iota; εἶ is the 2nd-singular form of εἰμί ("you are") with circumflex. Without that final ;, this would be a fragment. With it, it's the question Pilate or the disciples ask Jesus several times in the Gospels.

Challenge 2 — Spot the elision

δι' ἐμοῦ

Reveal answer

"Through me." The apostrophe between δι and ἐμοῦ tells you a vowel dropped — this is διὰ ἐμοῦ with the final α of διά elided before the vowel-initial ἐμοῦ. Read it as a single sound-flow: "di-emou." This phrase appears in John 14:6 — "no one comes to the Father except through me."

Challenge 3 — Movable nu in action

ἐστιν ὁ θεός vs ἐστι θεός

Reveal answer

Both phrases mean "God is" or "is God" — same meaning. The first uses ἐστιν because the next word (ὁ) begins with a vowel; the second uses ἐστι because the next word (θεός) begins with a consonant. The movable ν smooths pronunciation, nothing more. Don't be confused when you see the same verb in both forms in adjacent verses.

Deep DiveOptional Deep Dive — A Cultural Note — Why Greek Has Three Accent Marks

No other modern alphabet has three accents. Why does Koine Greek?

In the classical period (roughly 500-300 BC), Greek was a pitch-accented language — like modern Mandarin or Swedish, but in a smaller way. The acute mark indicated a rising pitch; the circumflex indicated a pitch that rose and then fell within one syllable; the grave indicated low pitch. When Greek poets composed in meter, the accents were essentially musical notation. A sung version of the Iliad would have followed those pitch marks with audible variation.

By the time the New Testament was written (50-100 AD), this pitch system had begun to collapse into a stress-accented system, more like modern English. Pitch was being replaced by emphasis. Yet the written accents — invented around 200 BC by Aristophanes of Byzantium specifically to help non-native speakers pronounce Greek correctly — were preserved. They're still in modern Greek New Testaments, even though no one has spoken with the original three-pitch system for two millennia.

For your purposes as a beginner, the accents tell you which syllable to stress — that's their primary practical function in Koine reading. But every time you write Πάτερ instead of πατέρ, you're preserving a small musical artifact from a culture that read its scriptures aloud, in worship and in synagogue, with care for how every word sounded in the air.

Going further For a deep dive into Greek accents, D. A. Carson's short book Greek Accents: A Student's Manual (Baker, 1985) is the most accessible technical reference. For the broader history of Greek pronunciation, see Geoffrey Horrocks, Greek: A History of the Language and Its Speakers (Wiley-Blackwell, 2nd ed.).

In summary — what mattered

Diphthongs collapse two vowels into a single syllable; an iota subscript (ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ) is silent but historically significant.
Three accents — acute, grave, circumflex — were originally pitch marks; in Koine, they help with stress and disambiguation.
Two breathing marks (rough = h, smooth = no h) are required on every word starting with a vowel or rho.
Greek punctuation: . = period, , = comma, ; = question mark, · = semicolon/colon. Don't confuse Greek ; with English ;.
Greek words break into syllables by predictable rules; one consonant between vowels joins the following vowel.