N with malus towards none - Genesis Nursery

standard from Hellenic times until 1982, but much of their distinction had already disappeared from spoken
Greek early in the Christian era. The polytonic diacritics have no signifiance in the modern language, but do
reflect the proper etymology. If you are interested in Greek plant names, it may be best to use a Modern
approach to pronunciation. The following may provide a slight glimmer of clarity to the storm cloud of
markings.
Learning the breathing marks and diacritics is difficult. While researching Greek plant and animal
names, sources are encountered which treat (or totally ignore) these markings in a variety ways. The clarity of
the diacritics in the 19 th and early 20 th century botanical sources and Greek texts makes one wonder how those
scholars learned Greek names. (The various treatments of different sources have been preserved due to my
inexperience, or misinterpreted for the same reason.) Their names will vary and the mark used may also vary.
The circumflex, which indicates a syllable with a rising then falling pitch, is also called the perisōménē,
περισπωµένη, or perispomeni, and may be seen written as a circumflex ˆ, a tilde ̃, a macron ̄, or an inverted
breve ̑. With some font packages, a circumflex may not be available for a ι, iota, you may have to use a
Roman i, î.
Acute accent, όξεῖα+, oxeîa, or oxia. ά, indicates a rising pitch, or a high pitch. The similar apex of
classical and postclassical Latin marked long vowels. An oxia is a sharp pitch, think of the sharp taste of
Oxalis leaves.
Grave accent, βαρεῖα, bareîa, , or varia. ὰ, indicates a falling pitch. Grave is from Latin gravis,
heavy, and is pronounced ‘grahv”. It originally occured only on the last syllable of a word and marked a
heavier, louder tone, opposed the sharper pitch of an acute accent.
Circumflex, περισπωµένη, perisōpménē, or perispomeni, ̂, variously as a circumflex ˆ, tilde ̃, macron
̄, or an inverted breve ̑, (sometimes called a ‘frown’) indicating a rising then falling pitch. Circumflex is from
Latin circumflexus, bent around, from Hellenistic Greek περισπώµενον, περισπωµένη, perispomeni, from
περισπᾶν, to pronounce (any syllable, esp. the last syllable) with the circumflex accent. (ῦ may start with a
upsilon with a tilde in Helvatica then changed to Times New Roman.)
Breve, vrachy. ̆, indicates a short vowel, opposed to the macron. In some sources in Greek and
Latin, only long vowels are indicated, with unmarked vowels understood as short. It was originally used to
mark a short syllable. From Latin brevis, short.
Diaeresis, dieresis, or διαλυτικά, dialytiká, ̈, only on ϊ or ϋ, showing that the vowel is pronounced
apart from the one that precedes it, that it is not a dipthong. The diaeresis was once in more common usage in
English, as in Noël, Zoë, Chloë, reënter and coöperate. The diaeresis can be combined with the acute accent,
the grave accent and the circumflex, but never with a breathing mark. From the Greek διαίρεσις, diairesis,
noun from verb διαιρεῖν, diairein. The opposite of diaeresis is συναίρεσις, synaeresis, the contraction of two
vowels into a dipthong or long vowel, similar to the Latin apix, vide infra (p447).
Macron, from Greek µακρόv, makrón, meaning long. ̄, used over a vowel to mark it as long, it was
originally used to mark a long syllable.
Breathing marks are used on the first letter of the first syllable of words that start with a vowel or with
ρ, rho.
Rough breathing, dasia, or daseîa δασεῖα, from dasy pneuma, or spiritus asper. ἁ indicates an H sound at
the beginning of a word. The letter rho, ρ, at the begining of a word always carries a dasia or spiritus asper and is
transliterated as rh. The H sound is said to have evolved as having the sound of the first half of the letter H,
symbolically ˫, reducing it to the upper half,⌊, and finally to the dasia῾, the rough breathing sound. (In some
ancient Greek alphabets, ph was indicated by π˫, not by φ.
Smooth breathing, psili, or psilé, ψιλή, from psilon pneuma, or spiritus lenis. ἀ indicates the absence
of an H sound. The lack of an H sound is said to have evolved as having the sound of the second half of the
letter H, ˧, reducing it to the upper half, ⌋, and finally to the psili ᾿, the smooth breathing sound. Double rho is