You can now read the signs. The next skill is reading words, and for that you need to know how a scribe fitted Greek into the script. Everything follows from one fact you met in How a Syllabary Works and The d, k, m, n and p Rows.
Key idea
Greek does not fit
Greek is full of consonants that are not followed by a vowel. Look at khalkos, bronze: the l has no vowel after it, and neither does the final s. Look at tripos, tripod: the t and r stand together. A script of open syllables has no sign for l alone, s alone or t alone. The scribes solved this with a few fixed habits, which this unit teaches one at a time:
| Signs | Spelled | Said | What the spelling does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 𐀏𐀒 | ka-ko | khalkos | leaves out the l before k and the final s |
| 𐀴𐀪𐀡 | ti-ri-po | tripos | gives t an "empty" vowel copied from the next syllable |
| 𐀞𐀲 | pa-ta | panta | leaves out the n before t |
| 𐀷𐀙𐀏 | wa-na-ka | wanaks | writes the final k with the vowel before it, drops the s |
| 𐀞𐀳 | pa-te | pater | leaves out the final r |
Why it works
Common mistake
Worked example: Count the gaps
- pa writes p + a; te writes t + e.
- The final r has no vowel after it, and no sign can write r alone.
Answer: The final r.
Worked example: Why not "kalk"?
- No sign writes r (or l) alone, or s alone.
- Every sign ends in a vowel, so the scribe must either drop those consonants or add vowels.
- For l before a consonant and final s, the habit was to drop them.
Answer: No; the script has no consonant-only signs, so the scribe wrote ka-ko.
Try the rules on a modern name with the name writer; it shows which rule it uses for each part.