History of the Latin script
The
Summary of evolution
The Latin alphabet started out as uppercase
However, thanks to
Origin
It is generally held that the Latins derived their alphabet from the Etruscan alphabet. The Etruscans, in turn, derived their alphabet from the Greek colony of Cumae in Italy, who used a Western variant of the Greek alphabet, which was in turn derived from the Phoenician alphabet, itself derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Latins ultimately adopted 21 of the original 26 Etruscan letters.
Legendary origin account in Hyginus
The
Palamedes, too, son of Nauplius, invented eleven letters; Simonides, too, invented four letters – Ó E Z PH; Epicharmus of Sicily, two – P and PS. The Greek letters Mercury is said to have brought to Egypt, and from Egypt Cadmus took them to Greece. Cadmus in exile from Arcadia, took them to Italy, and his mother Carmenta changed them to Latin to the number of 15. Apollo on the lyre added the rest.[3]
Ultimate derivation from Egyptian hieroglyphs
Below is a table synoptically showing selected Proto-Sinaitic signs and the proposed correspondences with Phoenician letters. Also shown are the sound values, names, and descendants of the Phoenician letters.[4]
Hieroglyph | Proto-Sinaitic | IPA value | Reconstructed name | Proto-Canaanite | Phoenician | Archaic Greek | Modern Greek | Etruscan
|
Latin | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
/ʔ/ | ʾalp "ox"
|
Α
|
𐌀 | A | ||||||||||
|
/b/ | bayt "house" | Β
|
𐌁 | B | ||||||||||
|
/g/ | gaml "throwstick" | Γ
|
𐌂 | C G | ||||||||||
|
/d/ | dag "fish" | Δ | 𐌃 | D | ||||||||||
|
/h/ | haw/hillul "praise" | Ε
|
𐌄 | E | ||||||||||
|
/w/ | waw/uph "fowl" | N/A | 𐌅
|
F | ||||||||||
Υ | 𐌖
|
U V W Y | |||||||||||||
|
/z/ | zayn/zayt "sword" | Z | 𐌆
|
Z | ||||||||||
/ð/ | ḏiqq "manacle" | ||||||||||||||
|
/ħ/ | ḥaṣr "courtyard" | Η | 𐌇
|
H | ||||||||||
|
/x/ | ḫayt "thread" | |||||||||||||
|
/j/ | yad "hand" | Ι | I | I J | ||||||||||
|
/k/ | kap "palm" | Κ | 𐌊 | K | ||||||||||
|
/l/ | lamd "goad" | Λ | ϟ
|
L | ||||||||||
|
/m/ | maym "water" | Μ | 𐌌 | M | ||||||||||
|
/n/ | naḥaš "snake" | Ν
|
𐌍 | N | ||||||||||
|
/ʕ/ | ʿayn "eye"
|
Ο | 𐌏 | O | ||||||||||
|
𓎛 | /ɣ/ | ġabiʿ "calyx" | ||||||||||||
|
/p/ | pʿit "corner" | Π | 𐌐
|
P | ||||||||||
|
/kˤ/ or /q/ | qoba "needle/nape/monkey" | Φ
|
𐌘
|
Q | ||||||||||
|
/r/ | raʾš "head" | Ρ
|
𐌓 | R | ||||||||||
|
/ʃ/ | šimš "sun" | Σ
|
𐌔 | S | ||||||||||
|
/ɬ/ | śadeh "field, land" | |||||||||||||
/θ/ | ṯann "bow" | Τ
|
𐌕 | T | |||||||||||
|
/t/ | tāw "mark"
|
|||||||||||||
N/A | Χ
|
𐌗 | X |
Archaic Latin alphabet
The original Latin alphabet was:
A | B | C | D | E | F | Z | H | I | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | V | X |
The oldest Latin inscriptions do not distinguish between /ɡ/ and /k/, represented both by C, K and Q according to position. This is explained by the fact that the Etruscan language did not make this distinction. K was used before A; Q was used (if at all) before O or V; C was used elsewhere. C derived from Greek Gamma (Γ) and Q from Greek Koppa (Ϙ). In later Latin, K survived only in a few forms such as Kalendae; Q survived only before V (representing /kw/), and C was used everywhere else. G was later invented to distinguish between /ɡ/ and /k/; it was originally simply a C with an additional stroke.
Phonetics
- C stood for both /k/ and /ɡ/
- I stood for both /i/ and /j/.
- V stood for both /u/ and /w/.
Old Latin period
K was marginalized in favour of C, which afterward stood for both /ɡ/ and /k/.
Probably during the 3rd century BC, the Z was dropped and a new letter G was placed in its position – according to Plutarch, by Spurius Carvilius Ruga – so that afterward, C = /k/, G = /ɡ/.
Old Latin could be written from right to left (as were Etruscan and early Greek) or boustrophedon, while writing after the first century BC was almost always left-to-right.[5]
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | V | X |
Classical Latin period
An attempt by the emperor Claudius to introduce three additional letters was short-lived, but after the conquest of Greece in the 1st century BC the letters Y and Z were, respectively, adopted and readopted from the Greek alphabet and placed at the end. Now the new Latin alphabet contained 23[6] letters:
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) | á | bé | cé | dé | é | ef | gé | há | ꟾ | ká | el | em | en | ó | pé | qv́ | er | es | té | v́ | ix | ꟾ graeca | zéta |
Latin name | ā | bē | cē | dē | ē | ef | gē | hā | ī | kā | el | em | en | ō | pē | qū | er | es | tē | ū | ix | ī Graeca | zēta |
Latin pronunciation (IPA) | aː | beː | keː | deː | eː | ɛf | ɡeː | haː | iː | kaː | ɛl | ɛm | ɛn | oː | peː | kuː | ɛr | ɛs | teː | uː | iks | iː ˈɡraɪka | ˈdzeːta |
The Latin names of some of the letters are disputed. In general, however, the Romans did not use the traditional (Semitic-derived) names as in Greek, but adopted the simplified names of the Etruscans, which derived from saying the sounds of the letters: the vowels stood for themselves, the names of the
Late Antiquity
The Latin alphabet spread from
Some of the letters had variant shapes in epigraphy:
- ⟨Ꟶ⟩ was used occasionally instead of ⟨H⟩ in Roman Gaul.
- ⟨ꟾ⟩ was sometimes used to mark a long ⟨I⟩.
- ⟨ꟷ⟩ was used in Sub-Roman Britainfor the ⟨I⟩ in some grammatical roles.
Middle Ages
The
The use of the letters I and V for both consonants and vowels proved inconvenient as the Latin alphabet was adapted to Germanic and Romance languages. W originated as a doubled V (VV) used to represent the sound [w] found in Old English as early as the 7th century. It came into common use in the later 11th century, replacing the runic Wynn letter which had been used for the same sound. In the Romance languages, the minuscule form of V was a rounded u; from this was derived a rounded capital U for the vowel in the 16th century, while a new, pointed minuscule v was derived from V for the consonant. In the case of I, a word-final swash form, j, came to be used for the consonant, with the un-swashed form restricted to vowel use. Such conventions were erratic for centuries. J was introduced into English for the consonant in the 17th century (being rare as a vowel), but it was not universally considered a distinct letter in the alphabetic order until the 19th century.
The names of the letters were largely unchanged, with the exception of H. As the sound /h/ disappeared from the Romance languages, the original Latin name hā became difficult to distinguish from A. Emphatic forms such as [aha] and [axxa] were used, developing eventually into acca, the direct ancestor of English aitch.[8]
Typography
With the spread of
In Italy, due to the revival of classical culture, the heavy gothic styles were soon displaced by Venetian Latin types, also called antiqua, which were based on the inscriptional capitals on Roman buildings and monuments. However, humanist scholars of the early 15th century mistook Carolingian minuscule as the authentic writing style of the Romans and redesigned the small Carolingian letter, lengthening ascenders and descenders, and adding incised serifs and finishing strokes to integrate them with the Roman capitals. By the time moveable type reached Italy several decades later, the humanistic writing had evolved into a consistent model known as humanistic minuscule, which served as the basis for Venetian typeface.
Handwriting
Roman cursive
In addition to the aforementioned square capitals used in architecture, in the Roman empire and in the Middle Ages for rapidly written vernacular documents roman cursive or even a form of shorthand, called tironian notes, were used.
Secretary hand
Whereas the meticulously drawn textualis quadrata was the most common script for religious works, starting from the 13th century a common style of handwriting for vernacular work, which were written at speed, was secretary hand, a cursive script, which features amongst several ligatures and contraction distinctive strong "elephant's ear" ascenders and descenders[9]
Italic script
In the 16th–17th centuries secretary hand was slowly replaced by
Additionally this script led to the
Note: "Italic hand" (a semi-cursive script), "Italian hand" (a copperplate cursive script) and "Italic type" (a typeface) are different concepts.
Copperplate and cursive
From the italic scripts after the 16th century, more cursive forms evolved and were known as Copperplate script due to way the calligraphy books were printed and reached their height in the 18–19th century. The main examples were the Italian hand and the English round-hand, which in Britain were taught to men and women respectively, these scripts feature flowing letters which could be written with a single pen lift (with the exception of x and the marks added after writing the word which were dots on i and j and the bar of the ascender of t) with straight or looped ascenders and descenders. In Italy Italian hand is instead known as "posata" (posed).
Several national styles of cursive were developed, such as
Diffusion
With the spread of
As late as 1492, the Latin alphabet was limited primarily to the languages spoken in western, northern and
By the 18th century, the standard Latin alphabet, cemented by the rise of the printing press, comprised the 26 letters we are familiar with today, albeit in Romance languages the letter ⟨w⟩ was until the 19th century very rare.
During
In the late 18th century, the
In 1928, as part of
See also
References
- ^ "Latin alphabet". britannica.com.
- ^ Algeo, J., Butcher, C., The Origins and Development of the English Language, Cengage Learning 2013, p. 128.
- ^ Hyginus, Fabulae
- ^ Based on Simons (2011),
- Figure Two: "Representative selection of proto-Sinaitic characters with comparison to Egyptian hieroglyphs" (p. 38),
- Figure Three: "Chart of all early proto-Canaanite letters with comparison to proto-Sinaitic signs" (p. 39),
- Figure Four: "Representative selection of later proto-Canaanite letters with comparison to early proto-Canaanite and proto-Sinaitic signs" (p. 40).
- ^ Halsey, William D. (1965). Collier's encyclopedia, with Bibliography and Index. USA: The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. p. 595.
- ^ "The Latin alphabet". www.omniglot.com.
- ^ Sampson, 1990. Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction
- ^ Sampson, 1990. Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction, p. 110.
- ^ The Calligrapher's Bible: 100 Complete Alphabets and How to Draw Them, David Harris, 2003