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