Romanization of Greek is the
transliteration (
letter-mapping) or
transcription (
sound-mapping) of text from the
Greek alphabet into the
Latin alphabet. The conventions for
writing and
romanizing Ancient Greek and
Modern Greek differ markedly, which can create confusion. The sound of the
English letter B was written as in ancient Greek but is now written as the
digraph , while the modern sounds like the English letter
V instead. The
Greek name became
Johannes in
Latin and then
John in
English but in Greek itself has instead become ; this might be written as
Yannis,
Yanni,
Jani,
Ioannis,
Yiannis, or
Giannis, but not
Giannes or
Giannes as it would have been in ancient Greek. The
masculine Greek word or might variously appear as , , , or , or simply be
translated as "
Holy" or "
Saint" in English forms of
Greek placenames.