pointergr/greek-to-greeklish

A PHP library for converting Greek text to Greeklish (Greek words written with Latin characters)

v1.0.2 2025-02-27 13:09 UTC

Requires

• php: >=7.2.5
• ext-mbstring: *

Requires (Dev)

• phpunit/phpunit: ^9.0

MIT

• Thomas Papamichail

README

A PHP library for converting Greek text to Greeklish (Greek words written with Latin characters).

Features

• Converts Greek text to Greeklish maintaining proper case (uppercase/lowercase)
• Handles special Greek diphthongs (αυ, ευ, μπ, etc.)
• Preserves non-Greek characters in the text
• Supports all Greek characters and accents
• Produces readable and linguistically appropriate transliterations

Installation

Install the package via composer:

composer require pointergr/greek-to-greeklish

Usage

Basic Usage

<?php

require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

use Pointergr\GreekToGreeklish\GreekToGreeklish;

// Create a new instance
$converter = new GreekToGreeklish();

// Convert a Greek string to Greeklish
$greeklishText = $converter->convert('Καλημέρα Ελλάδα');

echo $greeklishText; // Outputs: "Kalimera Ellada"

Examples

$converter = new GreekToGreeklish();

// Single words
echo $converter->convert('Ελλάδα');      // Ellada
echo $converter->convert('Αθήνα');       // Athina
echo $converter->convert('Θεσσαλονίκη'); // Thessaloniki

// Phrases
echo $converter->convert('Καλημέρα, πώς είσαι;');  // Kalimera, pos eisai?

// Special diphthongs
echo $converter->convert('Αύριο');    // Avrio (αυ + vowel = av)
echo $converter->convert('Αυτός');    // Aftos (αυ + consonant = af)
echo $converter->convert('Εύκολο');   // Efkolo (ευ + consonant = ef)
echo $converter->convert('Ευάγγελος'); // Evangelos (ευ + vowel = ev)

// Mixed case
echo $converter->convert('ΕΛΛΑΔΑ');   // ELLADA
echo $converter->convert('Ελλάδα');   // Ellada
echo $converter->convert('ΕλΛάΔα');   // ElLaDa

Testing Functionality

The library includes a comprehensive test suite to verify correct transliteration:

$converter = new GreekToGreeklish();
$results = $converter->runTests();

echo "Tests passed: {$results['passedTests']} of {$results['totalTests']}";
echo "Success rate: {$results['successRate']}%";

// Access detailed test results
foreach ($results['results'] as $result) {
    echo "Original: {$result['original']}\n";
    echo "Expected: {$result['expected']}\n";
    echo "Actual: {$result['actual']}\n";
    echo "Passed: " . ($result['passed'] ? 'Yes' : 'No') . "\n";
    
    if (!$result['passed']) {
        echo "Difference: {$result['diff']}\n";
    }
    
    echo "\n";
}

Testing

The package comes with PHPUnit tests to ensure the conversion is working correctly:

# Install dev dependencies
composer install --dev

# Run the tests
composer test

You can also run the tests directly with PHPUnit:

./vendor/bin/phpunit

Transliteration Rules

The converter follows specific rules for transliterating Greek to Latin characters:

1. Simple character mapping:

   • α → a, β → v, γ → g, δ → d, etc.

2. Diphthongs:

   • αι, αί → ai
   • ει, εί → ei
   • οι, οί → oi
   • ου, ού → ou
   • ντ → nt
   • μπ → mp (within word) or b (at beginning)
   • γγ → ng
   • γκ → gk

3. Context-sensitive substitutions:

   • αυ, ευ before vowels → av, ev
   • αυ, ευ before consonants → af, ef
   • μπ depending on position → mp or b

4. Special cases for beginning of words:

   • θ → th (with proper capitalization)
   • χ → ch (with proper capitalization)
   • ψ → ps (with proper capitalization)

Requirements

• PHP 7.0 or higher
• mbstring PHP extension

License

This package is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.