The spiritus asper (Latin for "rough breathing"; Greek: δασὺ πνεῦμα dasỳ pneûma or δασεῖα daseîa), is a diacritical mark used in the polytonic orthography. In ancient Greek, it indicates initial aspiration, or the presence of the voiceless glottal fricative (/h/) at the beginning of a word. It was maintained in the polytonic orthography even after the /h/ sound disappeared from the Greek language during the Hellenistic period, but has been droppe...
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The spiritus asper (Latin for "rough breathing"; Greek: δασὺ πνεῦμα dasỳ pneûma or δασεῖα daseîa), is a diacritical mark used in the polytonic orthography. In ancient Greek, it indicates initial aspiration, or the presence of the voiceless glottal fricative (/h/) at the beginning of a word. It was maintained in the polytonic orthography even after the /h/ sound disappeared from the Greek language during the Hellenistic period, but has been dropped in the modern monotonic orthography.
The spiritus asper ( ῾ ) is placed over the initial vowel or, in the case of an initial diphthong, over the second vowel. In all other cases, the initial vowel or diphthong carries the spiritus lenis. In addition, it is always placed over an initial or doubled letter rho.
Examples: ὕμνος stands for hymnos, "hymn", and ῥήτωρ for rhētōr, "orator".
The origin of the sign is thought to be the left-hand half of the letter H, which was used in some Greek dialects as an [h] while in others it was used for the...
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