Latin Alphabet

Latin alphabet

 or Roman alphabet

Most widely used alphabet, the standard script of most languages that originated in Europe. It developed before 600 BC from the Etruscan alphabet (in turn derived from the North Semitic alphabet by way of the Phoenician and Greek alphabets). The earliest known Latin inscriptions date from the 7th–6th cent. BC. The classical Latin alphabet had 23 letters, 21 derived from the Etruscan. In medieval times the letter J became differentiated from I, and U and W became differentiated from V, producing the 26-letter alphabet of modern English. In ancient Roman times there were two types of Latin script, capital letters and cursive. Uncial script, mixing both types, developed in the 3rd century AD.

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Latin Alphabet 

historically, a branch of the Etruscan alphabet, which in turn was derived from the Greek alphabet. It is generally taken to have come into being in the seventh century B.C. The letters were written first from right to left and, on alternate lines, from left to right (the boustrophedon). After the fourth century B.C. they were written from left to right. The names of the letters (bee, dee, ef, and so on), with the exception of yod, zeta, and upsilon, were not Greek or Semitic but rather were either borrowed from the Etruscans or were original inventions. The basic shapes of the letters were established in the first to fifth centuries A.D.

The original Latin alphabet consisted of 20 letters (A B C D E F H I K L M N O P Q R S K V X); the letter C was used to signify k or g, and the sound [k] could be written as C, K, or Q. In about 230 B.C. the letter G was introduced, and almost simultaneously the use of C, K, and Q was regulated: C was the most common representation of [k], Q was used before u, and K was retained in only a few words. The letters Y and Z were introduced at the beginning of the first century B.C. for words of Greek origin. Thus, the alphabet consisted of 23 characters. The regular use of the letters J (as opposed to I), U (as opposed to V), and W began only in the era of the Renaissance.

Beginning in the early Middle Ages, the Latin alphabet served many languages of Europe, and later it was also used for a number of languages of Africa, America, and Asia.

REFERENCES

Diringer, D. Alfavit. Moscow, 1963. Pages 608–15. (Translated from English.)
Gelb, I. J. A Study of Writing. Chicago, 1963.
Jensen, H. Die Schrift. Berlin, 1969.

M. A. ZHURINSKAIA