In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing (Ancient Greek: δασὺ πνεῦμα dasỳ pneûma or δασεῖα daseîa: modern Greek δασεία dasía; Latin spīritus asper), is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an /h/ sound before a vowel, diphthong, or rho. It remained in the polytonic orthography even after the Hellenistic period, when the sound disappeared from the Greek language. In modern monotonic orthography, that is after 1980, it has been dropped.
The absence of an /h/ sound is marked by the smooth breathing.
Read more about Rough Breathing: History, Usage, Technical Notes
Famous quotes containing the words rough and/or breathing:
“What war has always been is a puberty ceremony. It’s a very rough one, but you went away a boy and came back a man, maybe with an eye missing or whatever but godammit you were a man and people had to call you a man thereafter.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)
“Excuse me sir. There’s breathing in my barn.”
—R.C. Sherriff (1896–1975)