Transliteration of Greek Literary Author Names

Author headings follow a unified system of transliteration/transcription of the Greek, according to the following scheme:

• β: v
• γ: g (not gh, or y, or j)
• δ: d (not dh)
• η: i (not e)
• θ: th
• κ: k (not c)
• ξ: x
• ρ: r (not rh)
• σ: s
• υ: y (but also see below on diphthongs)
• φ: f (not ph)
• χ: ch (not h or kh)
• ψ: ps
• ω: o

• αι: ai εi: ei οι: oi ου: ou
• αυ: af or av ευ: ef or ev (according to sound)

• μπ: mb (b in word-initial position)
• γγ, γκ: ng (g in word-initial position)
• ντ: nt (d in word-initial position, and when –n- silent, in medial position)
• τσ: ts
• τζ: tz

Under the Author headings, the names of Greek literary authors are recorded with their spelling(s) as found in the sources.

In certain cases the transliterated form preferred by an author has been adopted for the Author heading:

• Anghelaki-Rooke, Katerina
• Calas, Nicolas
• Capetanakis, Demetrios
• Capri-Karka, Carmen
• Cavafy, C.P.
• Chioles, John
• Cicellis, Kay
• Haviaras, Stratis
• Rodocanachi, C.P.
• Tacopoulos, Paris
• Thaniel, George.

Regrettably, a few other authors’ names are rendered in the headings according to the standard transliteration:

• Giatromanolakis, Giorgis (Yatromanolakis, Yoryis)
• Vagenas, Nasos (Vayenas).

The Greek names of editors, translators, and authors of studies have not been transcribed under the scheme used for the (literary) Greek authors: instead, their names will be unified (in the index) under their fullest or most frequent form.

The transliteration scheme in the CENSUS shares the difficulty acknowledged by Linos Politis and Roderick Beaton in their histories of modern Greek literature: whether and how to represent the sound and/or the written form of the Greek.

The transliteration tables for Modern Greek followed by the ALA-Library of Congress (2010 version) may be found at https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/greekm.pdf.