Editing Eta (section)

==History==

===Consonant h===
[[File:41 - Stoà of Attalus Museum - Ostracism against Megakles (487 BC) - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 9 2009.jpg|thumb|right|Eta ([[heta]]) in the function of {{IPA|/h/}} on the [[ostrakon]] of [[Megacles]], son of Hippocrates, 487 BC. Inscription: {{lang|grc|ΜΕΓΑΚLES HIΠΠΟΚRATOS}}. On display in the Ancient Agora Museum in Athens, housed in the [[Stoa of Attalus]].]]
[[File:Hermes e Sarpedon.jpg|thumb|Eta in the function of {{IPA|/h/|cat=no}} on an Attic [[Red-figure pottery|red-figured]] [[Calyx (mythology)|calyx]]-[[krater]], 515 BC. Amongst the depicted figures are [[Hermes]] and [[Hypnos]]. Inscriptions: {{lang|grc|ΗΕΡΜΕΣ}} – {{lang|grc|ΗΥΠΝΟΣ}}.]]
{{main|Heta (letter)}}
The letter shape 'H' was originally used in most Greek dialects to represent the [[voiceless glottal fricative]], {{IPA|el|h|}}. In this function, it was borrowed in the 8th century BC by the [[Old Italic alphabet|Etruscan and other Old Italic alphabets]], which were based on the [[Cumaean alphabet|Euboean]] form of the Greek alphabet. This also gave rise to the Latin alphabet with its letter [[H]].

Other regional variants of the Greek alphabet ([[epichoric alphabets]]), in dialects that still preserved the sound {{IPA|el|h|}}, employed various glyph shapes for consonantal ''heta'' side by side with the new vocalic ''eta'' for some time. In the southern Italian colonies of [[Heraclea Lucania|Heraclea]] and [[Taranto|Tarentum]], the letter shape was reduced to a "half-heta" lacking the right vertical stem (Ͱ). From this sign later developed the sign for [[rough breathing]] or ''spiritus asper'', which brought back the marking of the  {{IPA|el|h|}} sound into the standardized post-classical ([[Greek diacritics|polytonic]]) orthography.<ref name="Nicholas">[http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/unicode_aitch.html Nick Nicholas (2003), "Greek /h/"] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130901210905/http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis//unicode/unicode_aitch.html|date=2013-09-01}}.</ref> [[Dionysius Thrax]] in the second century BC records that the letter name was still pronounced ''heta'' (ἥτα), correctly explaining this irregularity by stating "in the old days the letter Η served to stand for the rough breathing, as it still does with the Romans."<ref>{{lang|grc|παρὰ τοῖς ἀρχαίοις ὁ τύπος τοῦ Η ἐν τύπῳ δασείας ἔκειτο, ὥσπερ καὶ νῦν <παρὰ> τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις}}. Alfredus Hilgard (ed), "In artis Dionysianae §6" in ''Grammatici Graeci. Scholia in Dionysii Thracis Artem Grammaticam'' (1901), p. 486.</ref>

===Long e===
In the East [[Ionic dialect]], however, the sound {{IPA|el|h|}} disappeared by the sixth century BC, and the letter was re-used initially to represent a development of a long [[open front unrounded vowel]], {{IPA|el|aː|}}, which later merged in East Ionic with the long [[open-mid front unrounded vowel]], {{IPA|el|ɛː|}} instead.<ref>
{{cite book
|title=New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin
|first=Andrew L.
|last=Sihler
|edition=illustrated
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|year=1995
|location=New York
|ISBN=0-19-508345-8
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IeHmqKY2BqoC
|pages=10–20
}}
</ref> In 403 BC, [[Athens]] took over the Ionian spelling system and with it the vocalic use of H (even though it still also had the {{IPA|el|h|}} sound itself at that time). This later became the standard orthography in all of Greece.

===Itacism===
During the time of post-classical [[Koiné Greek]], the {{IPA|el|ɛː|}} sound represented by eta was [[Vowel height|raised]] and merged with several other formerly distinct vowels, a phenomenon called ''iotacism'' or ''[[itacism]]'', after the new pronunciation of the letter name as ''ita'' instead of ''eta''.

Itacism is continued into [[Modern Greek]], where the letter name is pronounced {{IPA|[ˈita]}} and represents the [[close front unrounded vowel]], {{IPA|el|i|}}. It shares this function with several other letters ([[Iota|ι]], [[Upsilon|υ]]) and [[Digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] (ει, οι, υι), which are all pronounced alike.

===Cyrillic script===
Eta was also borrowed with the sound value of {{IPA|[i]}} into the [[Cyrillic script]], where it gave rise to the Cyrillic letter [[I (Cyrillic)|И]].