Cyrillization of Greek

Cyrillization of Greek refers to the transcription or transliteration of text from the Greek alphabet to the Cyrillic script.

The Early Cyrillic alphabet included the entire Greek alphabet. However, as modern Cyrillic alphabets omit some Greek letters, and others had their pronunciation shift to no longer match their Greek counterparts, Greek names and loanwords are no longer spelled based on letter-to-letter correspondences in modern Cyrillic orthographies: For example, the name Γιάννης would never be transliterated as Гіаннис, but (for example) Яннис in Russian, Янніс in Ukrainian, Янис in Bulgarian, and Јанис in Serbian.

Correspondence of letters between the Greek and Early Cyrillic alphabets; obsolete Greek-originated letters are marked in blue; letters unique to Cyrillic are marked in green if actively used, and red if obsolete

Greek	Α α	—	Β β	Γ γ	Δ δ	Ε ε	—	Ϛ ϛ	Ζ ζ	Η η	Θ θ	Ι ι	Κ κ	Λ λ	Μ μ	Ν ν	Ξ ξ	Ο ο	Π π	Ϙ ϙ	Ρ ρ	Σ σ	Τ τ	Υ υ	Φ φ	Χ χ	Ψ ψ	Ω ω	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Early Cyrillic	А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Д д	Е е	Ж ж	Ѕ ѕ	З з	И и	Ѳ ѳ	І і	К к	Л л	М м	Н н	Ѯ ѯ	О о	П п	Ҁ ҁ	Р р	С с	Т т	У у	Ф ф	Х х	Ѱ ѱ	Ѡ ѡ	Ц ц	Ч ч	Ш ш	Щ щ	Ъ ъ	Ы ы	Ь ь	Ѣ ѣ	Ꙗ ꙗ	Ѥ ѥ	Ю ю	Ѫ ѫ	Ѭ ѭ	Ѧ ѧ	Ѩ ѩ

Greek-Russian orthographic transcription

The following system has been used to transcribe Modern Greek proper names and terms in Russian texts.

Greek	Note	Cyrillic	Example
α		а	Ελλάδα → Эллада
αι		э (word-initially), е (all other cases)	αιώνας → эонас, χαιρετάω → херетао
αϊ		ай	Ταϊβάν → Тайван
αυ	/af/ before a voiceless consonant; /av/ otherwise	ав	αυτό → авто, σαύρα → савра
β		в	βήτα → вита
γ		г	Γερμανία → Германия, γούπα → гупа
γι, γει, γυ	before vowels	й	Γιατρός → Ятрос [Йатрос]
γγ		нг	Άγγελος → Ангелос
γκ		г (word-initially), нг	Γκάνα → Гана, Έγκωμη → Энгоми
γχ		нх
δ		д	Δανία → Дания
ε		э (word-initially), е (all other cases)	επευφημώ → эпевфимо
ει		и
εϊ		эй
ευ	/ef/ before a voiceless consonant; /ev/ otherwise	эв
ζ		з	Ζαγορά → Загора
η		и
θ		т (also ф)	Θεόδωρος → Теодорос (also Феодорос)
ι		и, й (before a vowel)
κ		к
λ		л
μ		м
μπ		б (word-initially), мп (within a word)
ν		н
ντ		д (word-initially), нт (within a word)
ξ		кс
ο		о
οι		и
οϊ		ой
ου		у
π		п
ρ		р
σ	/z/ before voiced consonants	с
τ		т
υ		и
φ		ф
χ		х
ψ		пс
ω		о

See also

• Cyrillization
• Pontic Greek
• Romanization of Greek
• Hebraization of Greek