The Latin alphabet, also called the abecedarium (from the Latin, Abecedarium Latinum) is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, as it is part of the orthography of most of the languages of Western Europe, America, sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific Islands.
Today, the expression ‘Latin alphabet’ is used for any direct derivation of the alphabet used by the Romans. Therefore, the modern Latin alphabet is based on the Roman alphabet, plus the spellings J, U, W and the lower case of each letter (it should be remembered that in ancient times only capital letters were used):
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
To these spellings should be added the variants specific to each language (such as the Ñ in Spanish or the Ç in Catalan).
However, the truth is that the Romans did not invent the alphabet, but merely adopted existing writing systems and adapted them to their needs.
The Phoenician alphabet and the Greco-Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet is an indirect derivative, through Etruscan, of one of the Greek alphabet types; and, in turn, the Greeks adopted the alphabet of the Phoenicians, who are actually credited with the spread of alphabetic writing.
Among the Canaanite states, Phoenicia was the first to make extensive use of the alphabet, since, due to their intense commercial activity in the Mediterranean, the Phoenicians felt the need to create a more simplified writing system in which they could easily record the information related to their transactions.
Greek, on the other hand, had already been written during Mycenaean times in what is known as ‘linear B’, but it was not an alphabet as such, but a syllabary.
These are the capital letters of the classical Greek alphabet:
A, B, Γ, Δ, E, Z, H, Θ, I, K, Λ, M, N, Ξ, O, Π, Ρ, Σ, Τ, Y, Φ, X, Ψ, Ω
However, the Greek alphabet presented numerous variants, largely due to the territorial disintegration of the Hellenes, and the first alphabets appeared in the Magna Graecia, that is to say, in southern Italy.
The alphabet in Italy: the Etruscan alphabet
Alphabetic writing entered Italy through Magna Graecia, and it was the Etruscans who were the first to adopt it. The Marsiliana Tablet, an ivory writing tablet dating from the mid-7th century B.C., is the best known example of the Etruscan alphabet:
The Romans adopted the Etruscan alphabet, so that the first Roman alphabet was strongly influenced by the Etruscan particularities:
- The letter X represented a double consonant [ks].
- Etruscan, unlike Latin, did not distinguish the voiceless stops /p, t, k/ from the voiced stops /b, d, g/, so the letters B, D, G were initially abandoned.
- The digamma (Ϝ), inherited from the Greek, represented the sound [w].
- The sound [k] could be indicated with three different spellings: C, K, Q. In the origin of the Latin script, C + E/I; K + A; Q + O/U were used. In archaic Latin it was still written as virco instead of virgo (girl).
- The alphabet ended with the letter X.
- It was written from right to left.
Evolution of the Latin alphabet
From the Roman adoption of the Etruscan alphabet, a series of changes in the writing system took place until we arrived at what we now know as the Latin alphabet.
Initial changes: (5th century B.C.)
- The Romans recovered the B and D of the Greek alphabet, since Latin, unlike Etruscan, does distinguish between voiceless and voiced stops.
- Regarding the sound [f], the Etruscans already used the Ϝ for the sound [w], so they chose to use a double spelling for the first sound: FH. Eventually, the second element disappeared and the digamma alone (Ϝ) came to represent the sound [f].
Change 2: elimination of the Z (6th-3rd centuries B.C.)
- Neither Latin nor Etruscan had a [dz] or [ts] sound, which was what Z represents in Greek. Therefore, Z was originally used in Latin to represent the sound of a sonorous /s/: [z].
- However, since the distinction between voiced /s/ and voiceless /s/ was not useful in Latin, and the S spelling ended up being used for both.
Change 3: abandonment of K and Q and creation of G (3rd century B.C.)
- Using three graphic symbols, C, K, Q, for a single sound [k] was totally unproductive, so that C ended up imposing itself, roughly speaking, to all contexts.
- The letter K was reserved for a few words (kalendas) and Q only before U (loquor).
- A symbol for the specific sound [g], that is, for the voiced velar stop, was therefore missing. Thus, in the middle of the 3rd century BC, a small stroke was added to the C to distinguish the spelling of the voiceless velar (C) from the voiced one (G).
Change 4: introduction of Y, re-introduction of Z (1st century B.C.)
- Due to the Hellenistic influence and the desire to transcribe Greek terms, the need arose to introduce new letters into the alphabet.
- Thus, Y was introduced to represent the sound of the Greek epsilon [y] (the German ü), while Z was recovered for the sound of the Greek zeta [dz].
Change 5: representation of the Greek Aspirates (1st century B.C.)
- During the Republican era in Rome, the Greek letters Φ, ϴ, Χ, which represented the aspirated deaf sounds [fh, th, kh], respectively, were represented in Latin by the letters P, T, C, as the Latin language did not have aspirated deaf phonemes.
- However, from the 1st century B.C. onwards, under the influence of Hellenism, an H was added to the letters P, T, C to indicate that they came from Greek aspirated deaf, as in the case of the words philologia, theologia and
- The pronunciation and notation of these aspirated consonants only became established in the cultured language.
Medieval and modern additions
Only three letters were added to the Latin alphabet in a post-Roman era: W, J and V.
The primitive form of W was a VV (double V) used in the 7th century by early Anglo-Saxon speakers to represent the sound of the Germanic semi-consonant [w], as it had no correspondence in the Romance languages.
Regarding the I/J and U/V distinction, Latin used I and U for both vowels [i, u] and semi-consonants [j, w]. Therefore, the appearance of the spelling J and the distinction between U and V is a medieval and, fundamentally, humanistic creation.
Thus, once these three spellings are added, the Latin alphabet as we know it today is complete (excluding the Ñ, but that’s another story).
Carlos Sánchez Luis