Loxias

 

About Beta

A code for writing accented Greek in English

I wrote the whole of my translation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone into ancient Greek using Beta. The printers then developed a simple program to turn it into Greek characters. Despite initial confusion between chi and xi by the programmer, and problems with Greek semi-colon and question mark, it worked brilliantly!

The Beta Code

Click here to obtain an annotated (.pdf) version of the Complete Beta Code Manual.

The Greek Alphabet

Beta Code Greek (lower and upper case)
A alpha
B beta
C xi
D delta
E epsilon
F phi
G gamma
H eta
I iota
K kappa
L lambda
M mu
N nu
O omicron
P pi
Q theta
R rho
S sigma (medial and final)
T tau
U upsilon
V digamma
W omega
X chi
Y psi
Z zeta
   
| iota subscript
' apostrophe
* upper case (following character is upper case)
- hyphen
, comma
. period
: raised dot (colon)
; question mark
_ dash
   
) smooth breathing
( rough breathing
/ acute accent
= circumflex accent
\ grave accent
+ diaeresis

 

For lower case, accents and diacritical marks are written directly after the coding for the character. When upper case, the accent and breathing precede the character.

Examples:

*(ella/s (Hellas) *(/aimwn

mh=nin a)/eide, qe/a, *phlhi+a/dew *)axillh=os ou)lome/nhn, o(\s muri/' e)/qhke ...

e)gw/ ei)mi to\ a)/lfa kai\ to\ w)/mega, to\ prw=ton kai\ to\ e)/sxaton

h(/kw *di/os pai=s *dio/nusos ...

e)gw\ d' o)fei/lw le/gein ta\ lego/mena, pei/qesqai/ ge me\n ou) panta/pasin o)fei/lw

o( a)nece/tastos bi/os ou) biwto\s a)nqrw/pw|

a)/nqrwpos politiko\n zw|=on

kai\ dh=t' e)to/lmas tou/sd' u(perbai/nein no/mous;

ou) ga/r ti/ moi *zeu\s h)=n o( khru/cas ta/de.

h( glw=ss' o)mw/mox' h( de\ frh\n a)nw/motos

ou) dei= gargali/zein dra/konta koimw/menon (motto of Hogwarts!)

*(hra/kleis