Spirant

The seventeen consonants are divided into stops (or mutes), spirants, liquids, nasals, and double consonants. They may be arranged according to the degree of tension or slackness of the vocal chords in sounding them, as follows:

a. Voiced (sonant, i.e. sounding) consonants are produced when the vocal chords vibrate. The sounds are represented by the letters β, δ, γ (stops), λ, ρ (liquids), μ, ν, γ-nasal (19 a) (nasals), and ζ. (All the vowels are voiced.) ρ with the rough breathing is voiceless.

b. Voiceless (surd, i.e. hushed) consonants require no exertion of the vocal chords. These are π, τ, κ, φ, θ, χ (stops), ς (spirant or sibilant), and ψ and ξ.

c. Arranged according to the increasing degree of noise, nearest to the vowels are the nasals, in sounding which the air escapes without friction through the nose; next come the semivowels υ̯ and ι̯ (20 a), the liquids, and the spirant ς, in sounding which the air escapes with friction through the cavity of the mouth; next come the stops, which are produced by a removal of an obstruction; and finally the double consonants.

Spirants.—There is one spirant: ς (also called a sibilant).

a. A spirant is heard when the breath passage of the oral cavity is so narrowed that a rubbing noise is produced by an expiration.

Consonants.—Most of the consonants were sounded as in English (1). Before ι, κ, γ, τ, ς never had a sh (or zh) sound heard in Lycia (Λυκίᾱ), Asia (Ἀσίᾱ). ς was usually like our sharp s; but before voiced consonants (15 a) it probably was soft, like z; thus we find both κόζμος and κόσμος on inscriptions. —ζ was probably = zd, whether it arose from an original σδ (as in Ἀθήναζε, from Ἀθηνα(ν)σ-δε Athens-wards), or from dz, developed from dy (as in ζυγόν, from (d)yυγόν, cp. jugum). The z in zd gradually extinguished the d, until in the Hellenistic period (p. 4) ζ sank to z (as in zeal), which is the sound in Modern Greek.—The aspirates φ, θ, χ were voiceless stops (15 b, 16 a) followed by a strong expiration: π^{h}, τ^{h}, κ^{h} as in upheaval, hothouse, backhand (though here h is in a different syllable from the stop). Thus, φεύγω was π̔εύγω, θέλω was τ̔έλω, ἔχω was ἔ-κ̔ω. Cp. ἐφ᾽ ᾧ for ἐπ(ὶ) ᾧ, etc. Probably only one h was heard when two aspirates came together, as in ἐχθρός (ἐκτ̔ρός). After 300 A.D. (probably) φ, θ, and χ became spirants, φ being sounded as f (as in Φίλιππος Philip), θ as th in theatre, χ as ch in German ich or loch. The stage between aspirates and spirants is sometimes represented by the writing πφ (= pf), τθ, κχ, which are affricata.—The neglect of the h in Latin representations of φ, θ, χ possibly shows that these sounds consisted of a stop + h. Thus, Pilipus = Φίλιππος, tus = θύος, Aciles = Ἀχιλλεύς. Modern Greek has the spirantic sounds, and these, though at variance with classical pronunciation, are now usually adopted. See also 108.