Development of a Stemmer for the Greek Language - SAIS

Figure 4: The Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet contains 24 letters, 7 vowels (Α, Ε, Η, Ι, Ο, Υ and Ω) and 17
consonants (Β, Γ, ∆, Ζ, Θ, Κ, Λ, Μ, Ν, Ξ, Π, Ρ, Σ, Τ, Φ, Χ and Ψ).
The character “ς” called “teliko sigma” and it replaces the “σ” only when it is
written at the end of a word and for the lower case letters.
Every word with more than 2 syllables, takes a tone-mark called “tonos”, over one
vowel and under specific rules. In some cases we can have tone-mark over onesyllable
words or even words with two tone-marks. This tone-mark is used only
for the lower case letters too.
2.3 Definitions
Before a brief explanation of the most important grammatical rules for the Greek
language it is useful to define some important terms, common used in this thesis.
Syllable is the piece of word consisted of at least one single vowel or one vowel
followed by one or more consonants.
Stem or Theme is the static (unchangeable) part on the start of a word.
Derivative is a word created by another word if an affix added on its themes.
Derivational suffix is a suffix of a derivative word
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