ἄλφα

See also: άλφα

Ancient Greek

previous letter		following letter βῆτα
Α α – English: alpha

Etymology

Borrowed from Phoenician 𐤀 (ʾ /⁠ʾālep⁠/). The letter's name is from Phoenician 𐤀𐤋𐤐 (ʾlp, “bull, ox, head of cattle”).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /ál.pʰa/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈal.pʰa/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈal.ɸa/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈal.fa/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈal.fa/

Noun

ἄλφα • (álpha) n (indeclinable)

alpha, the name for the first letter Α, α of the Ancient Greek alphabet.

Descendants

Greek: άλφα (álfa)
→ Arabic: أَلْفَا (ʔalfā)
→ Asturian: alfa
→ Bulgarian: алфа (alfa)
→ Catalan: alfa
→ Classical Syriac: ܐܠܦܐ (ʾalpā)
→ Czech: alfa
→ Dutch: alfa
→ English: alpha
→ Finnish: alfa
→ French: alpha
→ Galician: alfa
→ Ge'ez: አልፋ (ʾälfa)
→ German: Alpha
→ Hindi: अल्फ़ा (alfā) (perhaps via Arabic)
→ Hungarian: alfa
→ Italian: alfa
→ Irish: alfa
→ Latin: alpha
→ Macedonian: алфа (alfa)
→ Old Armenian: ալփ (alpʻ), այբ (ayb)
→ Polish: alfa
→ Portuguese: alfa
→ Russian: а́льфа (álʹfa)
→ Serbo-Croatian: а̏лфа (ȁlfa)
→ Slovak: alfa
→ Slovene: alfa
→ Swedish: alfa
→ Spanish: alfa
→ Ukrainian: а́льфа (álʹfa)

References

“ἄλφα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
ἄλφα in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
ἄλφα in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
G1 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible

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