rough breathing

rough breathing

n.

1. An aspirate sound in ancient Greek like that of the sound (h) in English.

2. The symbol ( ) written over some initial vowels and the letter rho in ancient Greek to indicate that a word begins with the sound (h).

3. In ancient Greek, a word beginning with the sound (h) plus a vowel or diphthong.

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rough breathing

n

(Linguistics / Phonetics & Phonology) (in Greek) the sign (ʿ) placed over an initial letter, or a second letter if the word begins with a diphthong, indicating that (in ancient Greek) it was pronounced with an h Compare smooth breathing