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Writing Systems Technical Resources

Unicode Status for Greek

In The Unicode Standard, Greek script implementation is discussed in Chapter 7 Europe-I — Modern and Liturgical Scripts.

Prior to version 4.1 of The Unicode Standard, the Coptic script was considered a stylistic variant of the Greek script, and a unified Greek and Coptic block contained the Coptic characters which could not arguably be written with Greek letters. However, subsequent discussion determined that the two scripts would be better encoded separately, so version 4.1 added a Coptic block which contained characters needed for accurately processing Coptic text. Coptic characters already encoded in the Greek block remain there for use in the Coptic script.

The Greek script is now encoded in the following blocks:

BlocksCharacter RangeAdded in Unicode VersionUnicode Chart
Greek and Coptic0370..03FF1.0U0370
Phonetic Extensions1D26..1D2A, 1D5D..1D61, 1D66..1D6A4.0U1D00
Phonetic Extensions Supplement1DBF4.1U1D80
Greek Extended1F00..1FFF1.1U1F00
Letterlike Symbols21261.1U2100
Latin Extended-EAB657.0UAB30
Ancient Greek Numbers10140..1018F4.1U10140
Ancient Symbols101A07.0U10190
Ancient Greek Musical Notation1D200..1D24F4.1U1D200

See also “Unicode Status (Combining marks)” for combining marks used in the Greek script.

Subsequent to version 1.1, the following characters have been added to the Greek script:

CharactersUnicode VersionDocumentation
0370..03735.1n2946.pdf/L2/05-003, (L2/05-002)
0376..03775.1n2946.pdf/L2/05-003
037B..037D5.0n2990.pdf
037F7.0n3997.pdf/L2/10-474
03CF5.1n3122.pdf/L2/06-266
03D73.0n1743.pdf/L2/98-210 (not online)
03D8..03D93.2
03DB3.0n1743.pdf/L2/98-210 (not online)
03DD3.0n1743.pdf/L2/98-210 (not online)
03DF3.0
03E13.0n1743.pdf/L2/98-210 (not online)
03F4..03F53.1
03F63.2
03F7..03F84.0n2411.pdf/L2/02-056
03F94.0n2512.pdf/L2/02-314
03FA..03FB4.0n2522.pdf/L2/02-313
03FC4.1n2612-5.pdf/L2/03-188
03FD..03FF4.1n2642.pdf/L2/03-324
AB657.0WG2 N4307, L2/12-266
10140..1018A4.1
1018B..1018C7.0WG2 N4194, L2/12-034
1018D9.0WG2 N4596.doc, L2/14-156
1018E9.0WG2 N4594.doc, L2/14-158
101A07.0WG2 N4194,
L2/12-034
1D200..1D2454.1

Documentation refers to ISO Working Group and Unicode proposals

A number of proposals for its inclusion were submitted to the Unicode Technical Committee and WG2:

  • 1984-11-01 Greek alphabet coded character set for bibliographic information interchange — The following 13 standards were provided by Randall Barry (LoC) for synchronization with ISO/IEC 19646 (L2/98-187 (not online))

  • 1995-01-11 Clarify character shape of 03DE (GREEK LETTER KOPPA) — Japan NB (WG2 N1141.doc (not online))

  • 1997-07-29 Ancient Greek Akrophonic Characters — Bruce Robertson (L2/97-202 (not online))

  • 1998-02-03 Titlecase mappings for GREEK SYMBOLs — John Cowan (L2/98-263)

  • 1998-05-25 Additional Greek characters for the UCS — Michael Everson (WG2 N1743, L2/98-210 (not online))

  • 1998-09-12 Responses to NCITS/L2 and Unicode Consortium comments on numerous proposals — Michael Everson (WG2 N1847)

  • 1998-09-25 Additional Characters for the UCS — Ad Hoc on Bucket 35 (WG2 N1884)

  • 1998-11-10 Greek Ordering — Carl-Martin Bunz, Marc Wilhelm Küster (L2/99-121)

  • 1998-12-02 Discussion paper on Greek Omega with Iota — Davis (L2/98-412 (not online))

  • 1998-12-12 On GREEK LETTER KOPPA — Michael Everson (WG2 N1938, WG2 N1938_koppa, L2/99-018)

  • 1999-05-04 Default sequence of GOST Greek section (n681-p2.pdf) — GOST (L2/99-146)

  • 1999-10-22 ISO 8859-7 – Greek question mark discussion — Mark E. Davis, Kent Karlsson (L2/99-339)

  • 2000-12-21 Encoding Iranian Scripts in Unicode, Iranianist meeting report from Paris — Carl-Martin Bunz (L2/01-007)

  • 2001-03-24 Case mapping, and Greek Final — Mark Davis (L2/01-133, L2/01-196)

  • 2001-11-05 Greek Acrophonic Numerals Proposal and Proposals for Other Greek Additional Characters — Deborah Anderson (L2/01-412)

  • 2002-01-21 TLG: Measures Unicode Proposal — TLG (D. Anderson) (L2/02-029)

  • 2002-01-21 TLG: Metrical Signs Proposal for Unicode — TLG (D. Anderson) (L2/02-030)

  • 2002-01-21 TLG: Miscellanea Proposal — TLG (D. Anderson) (L2/02-031)

  • 2002-01-21 TLG: Background & detail information (208k, 26pp) — TLG (D. Anderson) (L2/02-033)

  • 2002-01-30 Proposal to add two Greek letters for Bactrian to the UCS — Nicholas Sims-Williams and Michael Everson (WG2 N2411, L2/02-056)

  • 2002-02-04 Description of TLG Documents — Deborah Anderson (L2/02-053)

  • 2002-06-06 Greek: Haralambous Proposals — Nick Nicholas (L2/02-237)

  • 2002-08-13 TLG Unicode Proposal (Ancient Greek Ext) — Maria Pantelia / TLG (L2/02-273)

  • 2002-08-21 Proposal to add the Greek Capital Lunate Sigma Symbol to the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (WG2 N2512, L2/02-314)

  • 2002-11-07 Proposal to encode the Greek Capital Letter San and Greek Small Letter San in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (WG2 N2522, L2/02-313)

  • 2002-11-07 Proposal for encoding Greek Metrical Symbols in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (WG2 N2546, L2/02-315)

  • 2002-11-07 Proposal to encode additional Greek editorial and punctuation characters in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (L2/02-312)

  • 2002-11-07 Proposal for encoding Greek numerical characters in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (L2/02-318)

  • 2003-02-10 FDIS for Latin/Greek alphabet — Michael Everson (L2/03-035)

  • 2003-05-19 Additional Beta Code Characters not in Unicode (WIP) — Maria Pantelia / TLG (L2/03-157)

  • 2003-06-11 Proposal to encode Greek Numerical characters in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (WG2 N2612-2, L2/03-158)

  • 2003-06-11 Proposal to encode Greek Acrophonic characters in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (WG2 N2612-3, L2/03-075)

  • 2003-06-11 Proposal to encode one additional combining diacritic in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (WG2 N2612-4, L2/03-186)

  • 2003-06-11 Proposal to encode the Greek Rho with Stroke Symbol in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (WG2 N2612-5, L2/03-188)

  • 2003-06-11 Proposal to encode ancient Greek mathematical characters in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (WG2 N2612-6, L2/03-187)

  • 2003-06-11 Proposal to encode Ancient Greek Musical Symbols in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (WG2 N2547, L2/02-316)

  • 2003-06-11 Proposal to encode additional Punctuation Characters in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (WG2 N2612-7, L2/03-193)

  • 2003-06-11 Proposal to encode New Testament editorial characters in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (WG2 N2612-1, L2/03-074)

  • 2003-10-06 Proposal to encode additional Greek editorial and punctuation characters in the UCS — Maria Pantelia / TLG (WG2 N2642, L2/03-324)

  • 2004-01-23 Request to Change Greek Collation Order for SAN — Jeremy March, Peter Kirk, Patrick Rourke, TLG (Maria Pantelia, Nick Nicholas, and Richard Peevers), and Deborah Anderson (L2/04-034)

  • 2004-01-30 Comments on Request for Change to Greek Collation Order for Koppa L2/04-030 — Deborah Anderson (L2/04-055)

  • 2004-02-08 Proposal to encode the Greek Zero Sign in the UCS — Raymond Mercier (WG2 N2708, L2/04-054)

  • 2004-06-04 Request for Change to Greek Collation Order for KOPPA — Peter Kirk (L2/04-030)

  • 2004-11-10 Proposal to add Greek Letter Lowercase Heta and Greek Letter Capital Heta to the UCS — Nick Nicholas (L2/04-388)

  • 2004-11-10 Epigraphical Greek Letters: Request for preliminary opinion — Nick Nicholas (L2/04-389)

  • 2005-01-01 Proposal to add Greek Letter Lowercase Heta and Greek Letter Capital Heta — Nick Nicholas (L2/05-002)

  • 2005-01-31 Feedback on Proposals for Tack Hetas and Greek Epigraphical Letters [Nicholas, L2/05-002 and L2/05-003] — Deborah Anderson (L2/05-054)

  • 2005-04-03 Proposal to add Greek epigraphical characters to the UCS (executive summary of L2/05-002 and L2/05-003) — Nick Nicholas (L2/05-098)

  • 2005-05-22 Proposal to add Greek epigraphical letters to the UCS — Nick Nicholas (WG2 N2946, L2/05-003)

  • 2005-08-12 Proposal to add nine lowercase characters — The Unicode Consortium (Asmus Freytag), US NB (Ken Whistler) (WG2 N2942.doc)

  • 2005-09-27 U+1DBF Modifier Letter Small Theta — Mark Davis, Ken Whistler (L2/05-276)

  • 2005-10-20 Letter from Dumbarton Oaks re Byzantine Greek inscriptions — Joel Kalvesmaki (L2/05-323)

  • 2006-01-26 Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Han — Mark Davis (L2/06-025)

  • 2006-08-06 Proposal to add Latin letters and a Greek symbol to the UCS — Michael Everson (WG2 N3122, L2/06-266)

  • 2006-09-21 Response to Project Editor’s contribution N3146, “Draft disposition of comments on SC2 N3875 (PDAM text for Amendment 3.2 to ISO/IEC 10646:2003)” — Ireland N.B. (WG2 N3160, L2/06-318)

  • 2007-01-09 Proposal to add Medievalist and Iranianist punctuation characters to the UCS — Michael Everson, Peter Baker, Marcus Dohnicht, António Emiliano, Odd Einar Haugen, Susana Pedro, David J. Perry, Roozbeh Pournader (WG2 N3193, L2/07-004)

  • 2007-02-05 Representation of Greek mute iota — Eric Muller (L2/07-068)

  • 2007-06-01 Representation of Greek mute iota (response to L2/07-068) — John Hudson (L2/07-198)

  • 2007-08-07 Greek mute iota, documents L2/07-068 (and L2/07-198) — Deborah Anderson (L2/07-263)

  • 2010-07-19 Proposal to change the glyph of the DRACHMA SIGN — Michael Everson (WG2 N3866, L2/10-253)

  • 2010-08-05 Proposal to add additional characters for Greek, Latin, and Coptic to the UCS — Michael Everson, Stephen Emmel, Siegfried G. Richter, Susana Pedro, António Emiliano (WG2 N3873, L2/10-290)

  • 2010-09-21 Revised proposal to add additional characters for Greek, Latin, and Coptic to the UCS — Michael Everson, Stephen Emmel, Siegfried G. Richter, Susana Pedro, António Emiliano (WG2 N3912, L2/10-348)

  • 2010-12-12 Proposal to encode GREEK CAPITAL LETTER YOT — Michael Bobeck (WG2 N3997, L2/10-474)

  • 2011-10-07 Study of the Issues Present in the Registration of IDN TLDs in Greek Characters — ICANN (L2/11-371)

  • 2011-10-15 Proposal to encode two Greek modifier letters for Critical Apparatuses in the UCS — Martin Schrage, Karl Pentzlin (WG2 N4211, L2/11-374)

  • 2012-01-23 Proposal for three Greek papyrological characters — Joshua Sosin, Paul Heilporn, Cisca Hoogendijk, Donald Mastronarde, Todd Hickey, Deborah Anderson (WG2 N4194, L2/12-034)

  • 2012-07-12 Proposal for Two Phonetic Characters — Luanne von Schneidemesser, Lewis Lawyer, Ken Whistler, Deborah Anderson (WG2 N4307, L2/12-266)

  • 2014-07-18 Proposal to encode GREEK BYZANTINE INDICTION SIGN — Dumbarton Oaks (Joel Kalvesmaki) (WG2 N4596.doc, L2/14-156)

  • 2014-07-18 Proposal to encode GREEK BYZANTINE DOUBLE SUSPENSION MARK — Dumbarton Oaks (Joel Kalvesmaki) (WG2 N4595.doc, L2/14-157)

  • 2014-07-18 Proposal to encode GREEK BYZANTINE NOMISMA SIGN — Dumbarton Oaks (Joel Kalvesmaki) (WG2 N4594.doc, L2/14-158)

  • 2014-07-28 Recommendations to UTC #140 August 2014 on Script Proposals — Deborah Anderson, Ken Whistler, Rick McGowan, Roozbeh Pournader, Laurentiu Iancu (L2/14-170)

  • 2014-07-30 Proposal to change glyph for small GREEK LETTER YOT — Michael Bobeck (L2/14-185)

  • 2014-10-20 Feedback on L2/14-185 Proposal to change glyph for small GREEK LETTER YOT — Deborah Anderson (L2/14-255)

  • 2023-03-02 Add Simple_Case_Folding mappings for three existing characters — Markus Scherer (L2/23-062)

    • UTC #175 Minutes (L2/23-076) (See F.1 Section 2.1 for decision and action items)

  • 2024-06-04 Unicode request for Greek letters with palatal hook — Kirk Miller (L2/24-146)

    • Recommendations to UTC #180 (July 2024) on Script Proposals (L2/24-166) (See point A.V.14.)

    • UTC #180 Minutes (L2/24-159) (See D.1 Section V Section 14 for decision and action items)

  • 2024-06-24 Unicode request for modifier psi and omega (revised) — Kirk Miller (L2/24-145)

    • Recommendations to UTC #180 (July 2024) on Script Proposals (L2/24-166) (See point A.V.13.)

    • UTC #180 Minutes (L2/24-159) (See D.1 Section V Section 13 for decision and action items)

  • 2024-08-17 Phonetic characters: Greek and Latin? — Denis Moyogo Jacquerye (L2/24-202)

    • Recommendations to UTC #181 November 2024 on Script Proposals (L2/24-228) (See points 4.7 and 6.5.)

    • UTC #181 Minutes (L2/24-221) (See D.1 4.7 and 6.5 for decision and action items)

  • 2024-12-26 On the decision to rename and change the glyphs of Greek phonetic letters (revised) — Eduardo Marin Silva (L2/25-043)

    • Recommendations to UTC #183 April 2025 on Script Proposals (L2/25-091) (See point 5.11.)

    • UTC #183 Minutes (L2/25-085) (See D.1 5 for decision and action items)