View source for Smooth breathing

{{Short description|Diacritical mark (᾿) used in polytonic orthography}}
{{redirect|᾿|the similar character "'''ʼ'''"|Ejective consonant}}
{{Infobox diacritic|char=◌̓
|name=
|unicode={{unichar|0313|COMBINING COMMA ABOVE|note=|cwith=}}
|see_also = [[Rough breathing]]}}

The '''smooth breathing''' ({{langx|grc|ψιλὸν πνεῦμα|psilòn pneûma}}; {{langx|el|ψιλή}} ''psilí''; {{langx|la|spiritus lenis}}) is a [[diacritic|diacritical mark]] used in [[Greek diacritics|polytonic orthography]]. In [[Ancient Greek]], it marks the absence of the [[voiceless glottal fricative]] {{IPAslink|h}} from the beginning of a word.

Some authorities have interpreted it as representing a [[glottal stop]], but a final vowel at the end of a word is regularly elided (removed) when the following word starts with a vowel and [[elision]] would not happen if the second word began with a glottal stop (or any other form of stop consonant). In his ''Vox Graeca'', [[W. Sidney Allen]] accordingly regards the glottal stop interpretation as "highly improbable".<ref>{{cite book |last=Allen |first=W. Sidney |author-link=W. Sidney Allen |year=1987 | orig-year=1968 |title=Vox Graeca: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Greek |edition=3rd |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yws4Zey-ZnYC&pg=PA56 |isbn=0-521-33555-8}}</ref>

The smooth breathing mark ( {{lang|grc|᾿}} ) is written as on top of one initial [[vowel]], on top of the second vowel of a [[diphthong]] or to the left of a capital and also, in certain editions, on the first of a [[gemination|pair]] of [[rho]]s. It did not occur on an initial [[upsilon]], which always has [[rough breathing]] (thus the early name {{lang|grc|ὕ}} ''hy'', rather than {{lang|grc|ὔ}} ''y'') except in certain [[Ancient Greek dialects|pre-Koine dialects]] which had lost aspiration much earlier. 

The smooth breathing was kept in the traditional polytonic orthography even after the {{IPAslink|h}} sound had disappeared from the language in [[Koine Greek phonology|Hellenistic]] times. It has been dropped in the modern monotonic orthography.

==History==
The origin of the sign is thought to be the right-hand half ( '''┤''' ) of the letter H, which was used in some [[archaic Greek alphabets]] as {{IPAblink|h}} while in others it was used for the vowel [[eta]]. It was developed by [[Aristophanes of Byzantium]] to help readers discern between similar words. For example, ὅρος ''horos'' 'boundary' (rough breathing) and ὄρος ''oros'' 'mountain' (smooth breathing).<ref name="aris">{{cite journal |last1=Sturtevant |first1=E.H. |title=The Smooth Breathing |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/283256 |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association |year=1937 |volume=68 |pages=112–119 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |doi=10.2307/283256 |jstor=283256 |access-date=29 January 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In medieval and modern script, it takes the form of a closing half moon (reverse C) or a closing single quotation mark:
<DIV STYLE="FONT-SIZE: X-LARGE" >
* {{lang|grc|ἀ}}
* {{lang|grc|Ἀ}}
</DIV >

Smooth breathings were also used in the [[early Cyrillic alphabet|early Cyrillic]] and [[Glagolitic alphabet]]s when writing the [[Old Church Slavonic]] language. Today it is used in [[Church Slavonic language|Church Slavonic]] according to a simple rule: if a word starts with a vowel, the vowel has a psili over it. From the [[Russian alphabet|Russian writing system]], it was eliminated by [[Peter the Great]] during his alphabet and font-style reform (1707). All other Cyrillic-based modern writing systems are based on the Petrine script, so they have never had the smooth breathing.

==Coronis==
The coronis ({{lang|grc|κορωνίς}}, ''korōnís'', "[[crow]]'s beak" or "bent mark"), the symbol written over a vowel contracted by [[crasis]],{{refn|Note on terminology:<br/>''Crasis'' in English usually refers to merging of words, but the sense of the word in the original Greek used to be more general,<ref name=OED>{{OED|crasis}}</ref> referring to most changes related to vowel contraction, including [[synaeresis]], though this is no longer the case.}} was originally{{when|date=October 2014}} an [[apostrophe]] after the letter: {{lang|grc|τα᾽μά}}. In present use, its appearances in [[Ancient Greek]] are written over the medial vowel with the smooth breathing mark&mdash;{{lang|grc|τἀμά}}&mdash;and appearances of crasis in [[modern Greek]] are not marked.

== Letters with smooth breathing mark==
{{anchor|Letters with smooth breathing}}
{{Letters with diacritic/header}}<!--
-->{{hlist|{{Letters with diacritic/diacritic|format=char|d=smooth breathing}}<!--
-->{{Letters with diacritic/scriptname|1=Greek}}Ἀ{{NNBSP}}ἀ
| Ἐ{{NNBSP}}ἐ
| Ἠ{{NNBSP}}ἠ
| Ἰ{{NNBSP}}ἰ
| Ὀ{{NNBSP}}ὀ
| {{NNBSP}}ῤ
| {{NNBSP}}ὐ
| Ὠ{{NNBSP}}ὠ
}}{{Letters with diacritic/footer}}<!--

-->

==Unicode==
In [[Unicode]], the [[code point]]s assigned to the smooth breathing are {{unichar|0313|COMBINING COMMA ABOVE|cwith=◌}} for Greek and {{unichar|0486|COMBINING CYRILLIC PSILI PNEUMATA|use=script|use2=Cyrs|cwith=◌}} for Cyrillic. The pair of space + spiritus lenis is {{unichar|1FBF|GREEK PSILI}}. The coronis is assigned two distinct code points, {{unichar|1FBD|GREEK KORONIS}} and {{unichar|0343|COMBINING GREEK KORONIS|cwith=◌}}.

== See also ==
* [[Greek diacritics]]
** [[Rough breathing]]
* [[Modifier letter right half ring|Modifier letter right half ring (ʾ)]]
** [[Aleph]]

==References==
{{reflist|25em}}

{{Navbox diacritical marks}}

[[Category:Greek-script diacritics]]
[[Category:Cyrillic-script diacritics]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek]]