Greek Language/Two-letter Consonants

Like two-letter vowels, the Greek language is also "equipped" with two-letter consonants (Greek: δίψηφα σύμφωνα), in other words, combinations of two consonants having one sound. The two-letter consonants seem to have been introduced to the language to cover the lack of specific phthongs (sounds), like [b],[d] and [g]. Below is a table presenting the two-letter consonants and some instructions about how to pronounce them.

Two-letter consonants	Pronunciation	Notes
μπ	[b] / [mb]	Pronounced like ball or embassy depending on the place it is in the word; If μπ is situated at the beginning of a word it is pronounced [b], otherwise [mb].
ντ	[d]	Pronounced like down or instead.
γκ	[g] / [ng]	Pronounced like goal or song following the same rule as μπ; [g] at the beginning of the word, [ng] otherwise.
γγ	[g] / [ng]	Pronounced the same as γκ, but since there are no Greek words beginning with γγ, just [ng] pronunciation is used.
τσ	[ts]	Pronounced like chain or touch, but with less sharp accent.
τζ	[dz]	Pronounced like joke or engine, but with less sharp accent, as mentioned before for τσ.

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