Greek and Latin Alphabet

The Greek and Latin alphabets essentially created the English language. It all began with the Greek alphabet in 1000 BC, which was originally the Phoenician alphabet; it is believed the Greek alphabet may have developed earlier. The Greek alphabet took the Phoenician alphabet and changed five constants to vowels. As you know today we have five vowels in the alphabet; A, E, I, O, and U. Greeks continued to adapt the alphabet to their needs until 400 BC when a version was officially adopted by Athens. Around the second century CE uncials writing style emerged. Uncials are a more rounded writing style that required fewer strokes when writings. This allowed for quicker writing. In the English alphabet today most letters are rounded or straight lines. The Greek alphabet contributed to the creation of many alphabets; the Etruscan, Cyrillic, and even Latin.

Latin is one of the foundation alphabets of most alphabet systems we see today. The English alphabet and language is based off much of the Latin alphabet. The Latin alphabet came from the Etruscans; in 250 BC the letter G was created to replace the Greek letter Z. The Latin alphabet originally contained twenty-one letters but would eventually add five more after the conquest of Greece in the first century BC. Rome would then add the Greek letters & and Z to the alphabet to use Greek words using those sounds. In the middle Ages three more letters were added making the count twenty six. The letter J was formed from the letter I in the fourteenth century. The letter V was the foundation for the letters U and W. U and W were used as different sounds in medieval England. From that time on the alphabet changed more for cosmetic reasons, being slightly adapted to look more appealing, much like what we known today as fonts or adopted writing styles. A lot of adaptations to the Greek alphabet by the Romans continued on into the English alphabet.

The English alphabet still uses the five vowels that were created when the Greeks took the Phoenician alphabet. Also the English alphabet is written as uncials, making it quick to write and more uniform. Once the Romans took on the Greek alphabet and created the Latin alphabet the foundations for the English alphabet were laid. The letters G, Y, U, W, and J were added and Z was readopted back into the alphabet. All the letters from the Latin alphabet carried over to the English alphabet. As sounds and pronunciations evolved so did the English alphabet making the English language the one we all know today.