Setting up a Greek voice
- Record 5 to 15 seconds of a native Greek speaker.
- Set the voice's Language to Greek.
- Test with a question, a number and a word whose meaning depends on its accent.
Keep every accent mark
The tonos shows the stressed syllable, and some words differ only by where it falls: πότε / ποτέ (when / never), νόμος / νομός (law / prefecture). Text typed without accents, often in capitals or from a phone, is much harder to read correctly. Write in lower case with full monotonic accents, and keep the diaeresis where it belongs (Μαΐου, τσάι, κοροϊδεύω).
Questions
Greek writes its question mark like a semicolon (;). Before a line is read, its punctuation is tidied, and a plain semicolon is treated as a short pause, so a question can come out without its rising tone. If one sounds flat, generate it again, or phrase it so the words make it a question, for example by starting with Μήπως or a question word.
Writing Greek for the voice
- Numbers as words, with the right gender: τρεις γυναίκες, τρία παιδιά.
- Dates: 3 Μαρτίου → τρεις Μαρτίου; years written out.
- Abbreviations: κ. → κύριος, π.χ. → παραδείγματος χάριν, κλπ. → και λοιπά, οδ. → οδός.
- Latin-script words and brand names: write them in Greek letters the way they're said, if they come out oddly.
- Capitals drop accents in Greek typography, so avoid writing whole words in capitals.
A passage to record
Εδώ και εβδομάδες ήθελα να το ηχογραφήσω, οπότε ξεκινάμε. Είναι ένα ήσυχο βράδυ, ο καφές είναι έτοιμος και επιτέλους
έχω λίγα λεπτά για τον εαυτό μου. Ας δούμε πώς ακούγεται.
"I'd been meaning to record this for weeks, so here we go. It's a quiet evening, the coffee's ready and I finally have a few minutes to myself. Let's see how it sounds."
A dialogue to test with
Μαρία: Έφτασες κιόλας; Σε περιμένω από τις οκτώ.
Νίκος: Συγγνώμη! Είχε απίστευτη κίνηση.
Μαρία: Καλά, τώρα είσαι εδώ. Παραγγέλνουμε;For travel and tours
Greek is a natural fit for audio guides at sites and museums, often alongside English and other languages. See audio guides.