Alphabet used to write the Latin language
For the usage of this alphabet in modern languages, see
Latin script
.
The
Latin alphabet
, also known as the
Roman alphabet
, is the collection of letters originally used by the
ancient Romans
to write the
Latin
language. Largely unaltered with the exception of additions (the letters
⟨J⟩
,
⟨U⟩
, and
⟨W⟩
) and extensions (such as
diacritics
), it forms the
Latin script
that is used to write many modern
European languages
, including
English
and many modern
Asian languages
, including
Malay
(
Standard Malay
and
Indonesian
) and
Modern Standard Syloti
(MSS).
[1]
With modifications, it is also used for other alphabets, such as the
Vietnamese alphabet
. Its modern
repertoire
is standardised as the
ISO basic Latin alphabet
.
Etymology
[
edit
]
The term
Latin alphabet
may refer to either the alphabet used to write Latin (as described in this article) or other alphabets based on the
Latin script
, which is the basic set of letters common to the various alphabets descended from the classical Latin alphabet, such as the
English alphabet
. These
Latin-script alphabets
may discard letters, like the
Rotokas alphabet
, or add new letters, like the
Danish
and
Norwegian
alphabets.
Letter
shapes have evolved over the centuries, including the development in
Medieval Latin
of
lower-case
, forms which did not exist in the Classical period alphabet.
Evolution
[
edit
]
The Latin alphabet evolved from the visually similar
Etruscan alphabet
, which evolved from the
Cumaean Greek version
of the
Greek alphabet
, which was itself descended from the
Phoenician alphabet
, which in turn derived from
Egyptian hieroglyphs
.
[2]
The
Etruscans ruled early Rome
; their alphabet evolved in Rome over successive centuries to produce the Latin alphabet.
During the
Middle Ages
, the Latin alphabet was used (sometimes with modifications) for writing
Romance languages
, which are direct descendants of
Latin
, as well as
Celtic
,
Germanic
,
Baltic
and some
Slavic languages
. With the
age of colonialism
and
Christian evangelism
, the
Latin script
spread beyond
Europe
, coming into use for writing indigenous
American
,
Australian
,
Austronesian
,
Austroasiatic
and
African languages
. More recently,
linguists
have also tended to prefer the Latin script or the
International Phonetic Alphabet
(itself largely based on the Latin script) when transcribing or creating written standards for non-European languages, such as the
African reference alphabet
.
Signs and abbreviations
[
edit
]
Although Latin did not use diacritical marks, signs of truncation of words (often placed above or at the end of the truncated word) were very common. Furthermore, abbreviations or smaller overlapping letters were often used. This was due to the fact that if the text was engraved on stone, the number of letters to be written was reduced, while if it was written on paper or parchment, it saved precious space. This habit continued even in the Middle Ages. Hundreds of symbols and abbreviations exist, varying from century to century.
[3]
History
[
edit
]
Origins
[
edit
]
It is generally believed that the Latin alphabet used by the
Romans
was derived from the
Old Italic alphabet
used by the
Etruscans
.
[4]
That alphabet was derived from the
Euboean alphabet
used by the
Cumae
, which in turn was derived from the
Phoenician alphabet
.
[
citation needed
]
Old Italic alphabet
[
edit
]
The
Duenos inscription
, dated to the 6th century BC, shows the earliest known form of the
Old Latin
alphabet.
Old Italic alphabet
Letters
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
Transliteration
|
A
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
E
|
V
|
Z
|
H
|
Θ
|
I
|
K
|
L
|
M
|
N
|
Ξ
|
O
|
P
|
?
|
Q
|
R
|
S
|
T
|
Y
|
X
|
Φ
|
Ψ
|
F
|
Archaic Latin alphabet
[
edit
]
Archaic Latin alphabet
As Old Italic
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
??
|
As Latin
|
A
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
E
|
F
|
Z
|
H
|
I
|
K
|
L
|
M
|
N
|
O
|
P
|
Q
|
R
|
S
|
T
|
V
|
X
|
Old Latin alphabet
[
edit
]
Latin included 21 different characters. The letter
⟨C⟩
was the western form of the Greek
gamma
, but it was used for the sounds
/?/
and
/k/
alike, possibly under the influence of
Etruscan
, which might have lacked any voiced
plosives
. Later, probably during the 3rd century BC, the letter
⟨Z⟩
? not needed to write Latin properly ? was replaced with the new letter
⟨G⟩
, a
⟨C⟩
modified with a small vertical stroke, which took its place in the alphabet. From then on,
⟨G⟩
represented the
voiced
plosive
/?/
, while
⟨C⟩
was generally reserved for the voiceless plosive
/k/
. The letter
⟨K⟩
was used only rarely, in a small number of words such as
Kalendae
, often interchangeably with
⟨C⟩
.
Old Latin alphabet
Letter
|
A
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
E
|
F
|
Z
|
G
|
H
|
I
|
K
|
L
|
M
|
N
|
O
|
P
|
Q
|
R
|
S
|
T
|
V
|
X
|
Classical Latin alphabet
[
edit
]
After the
Roman conquest of Greece
in the 1st century BC, Latin adopted the Greek letters
⟨Y⟩
and
⟨Z⟩
(or readopted, in the latter case) to write
Greek
loanwords, placing them at the end of the alphabet. An attempt by the emperor
Claudius
to introduce three
additional letters
did not last. Thus it was during the
classical Latin
period that the Latin alphabet contained 21 letters and 2 foreign letters:
Classical Latin alphabet
Letter
|
A
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
E
|
F
|
G
|
H
|
I
|
K
|
L
|
M
|
N
|
O
|
P
|
Q
|
R
|
S
|
T
|
V
|
X
|
Y
|
Z
|
Latin name (majus)
|
a
|
be
|
ce
|
de
|
e
|
ef
|
ge
|
ha
|
?
|
ka
|
el
|
em
|
en
|
o
|
pe
|
q
v?
|
er
|
es
|
te
|
v?
|
ix
|
? graeca
|
zeta
|
Transliteration
|
?
|
b?
|
c?
|
d?
|
?
|
ef
|
g?
|
h?
|
?
|
k?
|
el
|
em
|
en
|
?
|
p?
|
q?
|
er
|
es
|
t?
|
?
|
ix
|
? Graeca
|
z?ta
|
Latin pronunciation (
IPA
)
|
aː
|
beː
|
keː
|
deː
|
eː
|
?f
|
?eː
|
haː
|
iː
|
kaː
|
?l
|
?m
|
?n
|
oː
|
peː
|
kuː
|
?r
|
?s
|
teː
|
uː
|
iks
|
iː ??ra?ka
|
?dzeːta
|
The
apices
in this first-century inscription are very light. (There is one over the
o
in the first line.) The vowel
I
is written taller rather than taking an apex. The
interpuncts
are comma-shaped, an elaboration of a more typical triangular shape. From the shrine of the
Augustales
at
Herculaneum
.
The Latin names of some of these letters are disputed; for example,
⟨H⟩
may have been called
[?aha]
or
[?aka]
.
[5]
In general the Romans did not use the traditional (
Semitic
-derived) names as in Greek: the names of the
plosives
were formed by adding
/eː/
to their sound (except for
⟨K⟩
and
⟨Q⟩
, which needed different vowels to be distinguished from
⟨C⟩
) and the names of the
continuants
consisted as a rule either of the bare sound, or the sound preceded by
/e/
.
The letter
⟨Y⟩
when introduced was probably called "hy"
/hyː/
as in Greek, the name
upsilon
not being in use yet, but this was changed to
i Graeca
("Greek i") as Latin speakers had difficulty distinguishing its foreign sound
/y/
from
/i/
.
⟨Z⟩
was given its Greek name,
zeta
. This scheme has continued to be used by most modern European languages that have adopted the Latin alphabet. For the Latin sounds represented by the various letters see
Latin spelling and pronunciation
; for the names of the letters in English see
English alphabet
.
Diacritics
were not regularly used, but they did occur sometimes, the most common being the
apex
used to mark
long vowels
, which had previously sometimes been written doubled. However, in place of taking an apex, the letter i was written
taller
:
⟨
a e ? o v?
⟩
. For example, what is today transcribed
L?ci? a f?li?
was written
⟨
lv?ci?·a·f?li?
⟩
in the inscription depicted.
Some letters have more than one form in
epigraphy
.
Latinists have treated some of them especially such as
⟨
?
⟩
, a variant of
⟨H⟩
found in
Roman Gaul
.
The primary mark of punctuation was the
interpunct
, which was used as a
word divider
, though it fell out of use after 200 AD.
Old Roman cursive
script, also called
majuscule
cursive and capitalis cursive, was the everyday form of handwriting used for writing letters, by merchants writing business accounts, by schoolchildren learning the Latin alphabet, and even emperors issuing commands. A more formal style of writing was based on
Roman square capitals
, but cursive was used for quicker, informal writing. It was most commonly used from about the 1st century BC to the 3rd century, but it probably existed earlier than that. It led to
Uncial
, a
majuscule
script commonly used from the
3rd
to
8th
centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes.
Tironian notes
were a
shorthand
system consisting of thousands of signs.
New Roman cursive
script, also known as
minuscule
cursive, was in use from the 3rd century to the 7th century, and uses letter forms that are more recognizable to modern eyes;
⟨a⟩
,
⟨b⟩
,
⟨d⟩
, and
⟨e⟩
had taken a more familiar shape, and the other letters were proportionate to each other. This script evolved into a variety of regional medieval scripts (for example, the
Merovingian
,
Visigothic
and
Benevantan
scripts), to be later supplanted by the
Carolingian minuscule
.
Medieval and later developments
[
edit
]
De chalcographiae inventione
(1541,
Mainz
) with the 23 letters.
J
,
U
and
W
are missing.
Jeton
from
Nuremberg
,
c.
1553
It was not until the
Middle Ages
that the letter
⟨
W
⟩
(originally a
ligature
of two
⟨
V
⟩
s) was added to the Latin alphabet, to represent sounds from the
Germanic languages
which did not exist in medieval Latin, and only after the
Renaissance
did the convention of treating
⟨
I
⟩
and
⟨
U
⟩
as
vowels
, and
⟨
J
⟩
and
⟨
V
⟩
as
consonants
, become established. Prior to that, the former had been merely
allographs
of the latter.
[
citation needed
]
With the fragmentation of political power, the
style of writing
changed and varied greatly throughout the Middle Ages, even after the invention of the
printing press
. Early deviations from the classical forms were the
uncial script
, a development of the
Old Roman cursive
, and various so-called minuscule scripts that developed from
New Roman cursive
, of which the
insular script
developed by Irish
literati
and derivations of this, such as
Carolingian minuscule
were the most influential, introducing the
lower case
forms of the letters, as well as other writing conventions that have since become standard.
The languages that use the
Latin script
generally use
capital letters
to begin paragraphs and sentences and
proper nouns
. The rules for
capitalization
have changed over time, and different languages have varied in their rules for capitalization.
Old English
, for example, was rarely written with even proper nouns capitalized, whereas
Modern English
writers and printers of the 17th and 18th century frequently capitalized most and sometimes all nouns,
[6]
e.g. in the preamble and all of the
United States Constitution
:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
This is still systematically done in modern
German
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Jensen, Hans (1970).
Sign Symbol and Script
. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
ISBN
0-04-400021-9
.
Transl. of
Jensen, Hans (1958).
Die Schrift in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart
.
Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften
.
, as revised by the author
- Rix, Helmut
(1993). "La scrittura e la lingua". In
Cristofani, Mauro
(hrsg.) (ed.).
Gli etruschi ? Una nuova immagine
. Firenze: Giunti. pp. S.199?227.
- Sampson, Geoffrey (1985).
Writing systems
. London (etc.): Hutchinson.
- Wachter, Rudolf (1987).
Altlateinische Inschriften: sprachliche und epigraphische Untersuchungen zu den Dokumenten bis etwa 150 v.Chr. Bern (etc.)
.
: Peter Lang.
- Allen, W. Sidney
(1978). "The names of the letters of the Latin alphabet
(Appendix C)
".
Vox Latina ? a guide to the pronunciation of classical Latin
.
Cambridge University Press
.
ISBN
0-521-22049-1
.
- Bikta?, ?amil (2003).
Tu?an Tel
.
External links
[
edit
]