The+Latin+Alphabet

= The Latin Alphabet =

The alphabet isn't just A-Z. It has a long history.


This is the alphabet that most English speakers use. The Latin Alphabet originated as one of the alphabet systems in the Old Italic script. The Old Italic Script was a set of now extinct alphabet systems of the Italian Peninsula. The Etruscan, Greek, and Phoenician alphabets were the main influences of the Latin alphabet. The Latin alphabet is the most used alphabet in writing. It was created in seventh century BC in Italy. It has been altered many times in the last 2,500 years. The Latin alphabet started out as a Greek Alphabet in Cumae, a Greek colony in southern Italy. The Latin alphabet took 21 of the original 26 letters of the Etruscan alphabet. Here are the Formal Latin Alphabets.


 * The Original Latin Alphabet
 * Old Latin Alphabet
 * Classical Latin Alphabet
 * In The Middle Ages

=__The Original Latin Alphabet __= The Original Latin Alphabet went like this: Since the Etruscan language did not make a distinction between the letters C, K, and Q, the /g/ and /k/ sound were pronounced according to their position. K was always used before A, Q was used before O and V (V was U back then), and C was used everywhere else. The letters C and Q were derived from the Greek Gamma and Koppa, and K derived from the Latin Kalendae. Because of all the rules and sound confusions, the letter G was created to separate the three letters.
 * A || B || C || D || E || F || Z || H || I || K || L || M || N || O || P || Q || R || S || T || V || X ||

=__Old Latin Alphabet __= Old Latin referred to all of the forms of Latin used before 75 BC. At this time, the Latin Alphabet still had 21 letters. The letter K was changed to be less used than C, which then stood for /g/ and /k/. Afterwards, the letter G replaced the letter Z so it could represent its own sound, which is the same sound used today. This was the alphabet used after these events and before Classical Latin:
 * A || B || C || D || E || F || G || H || I || K || L || M || N || O || P || Q || R || S || T || V || X ||



=__Classical Latin Alphabet __= During the Classical Latin period, the letters Y and Z were added to the alphabet now having a total of 23 letters. This was also when cursive writing adapted and lower case letters were created. The pronunciations of some letters were different, too. For example, Z was //zeta //, Y was //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">ee ////<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">graika //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">, H was //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">ha //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">, I was //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">ee //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">, and R was //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">er // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">with a small roll of the tongue. The vowel sounds in most of the letters were more firm instead of soft sounding. An emperor named Claudius also created a few new letters, but that was very short-lived. Cursive became the standard writing style when learning the Latin alphabet and writing in general. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;"> media type="youtube" key="0oWWOJW3948" height="315" width="560"
 * A || B || C || D || E || F || G || H || I || K || L || M || N || O || P || Q || R || S || T || V || W || X || Y || Z ||

=__<span style="color: #d11010; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 170%;">In The Middle Ages __= <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">In the Middle Ages, many changes were made to the alphabet. Lowercase letters evolved and uppercase letters were used at the beginning of a word. Because of this, the use of sentences and paragraphs increased. Starting in the Early Modern English Era, most nouns and pronouns were capitalized. W was also created around this time. It looks like a double V instead of a double U because the lower case V was in the shape of the lowercase U in Romance Languages. Also, H's pronunciation became //aitch// as it is said today because it was difficult to distinguish between A. Aside from V, the letter I was used as both a consonant and a vowel. The letter J was created to replace the role of a consonant from I. This is the form of the alphabet that English speakers use today. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">

=__<span style="color: #d11010; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 170%;">My Overall Evaluation __= <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">I think the Old Italic script is a very fascinating thing to find out about because it was the origin of many alphabets including ours. It is easy to see the similarites to all the different alphabets. I knew that some letters were formed from others, but I didn't think that there would be that many letters formed in that situation. I find it interesting that the Latin Alphabet started out as all capitals. I thought it would make more sense that it would've started out as lowercase because we use that more often that capitals. I find it surprising that the Latin alphabet is based off of so many alphabets. It is interesting that only one letter would be changed in the Old Latin era. Also, I didn't know that the use of the alphabet had spread that far. I wonder why Z was removed and placed back as a new letter with the same shape. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">I find it interesting that pretty much all of the letters were in the alphabet back then, even the rarer ones like X and Q. Also, I think that the rules for C, Q, and K were a bit confusing because you had to distinguish them based on where they were located in a word. I think that the old pronunciation for Y is interesting because is sounds nothing like how we pronounce it today. However, it is the same pronunciation as used in the Spanish alphabet. Also, it makes sense that cursive would be the standard writing style because I've seen many works from the past where the writing was not printed and was a lot fancier. I think it is interesting that nouns and pronouns were not capitalized until just 300 years ago since all of the letters were written in capitals even farther ago. I want to know why W was based on lowercase letters instead of uppercase letters because it does look more like two Vs than two Us.



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