Latin Alphabet, Part I: The Spread of the Latin Alphabet

The Latin alphabet is noted for being the most ubiquitous system of alphabetic writing, especially in western civilization. This comes as no surprise. The Roman empire (the first users of the Latin alphabet),  at its peak, controlled every Mediterranean coastline and a good portion of Europe, spreading the writing system to the places that would become Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Germany, and England (among others).



The Extent of the Roman Empire, 100 AD





The Latin language led to the creation of the Romance Languages. The most well-known Romance Languages are French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian, but also include more obscure languages such as Catalan, Occitan, Sardinian, and Rhaeto-Romance. These languages evolved from dialects of Vulgar Latin during different periods of Roman occupation. Many of these languages are widespread, with Spanish being spoken by over 358 million people worldwide. As these languages spread, so did the Latin alphabet on which they were based.

Also because of Rome’s imperialism, the Latin alphabet is used for Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, and even some Slavic Languages.

Centuries later, many of the victims of Rome’s , such as Spain, France, and England, would become mighty forces of imperialism themselves and would carry this writing system around the globe, including to what would later be the United States of America, noted for its political and economic influence.

Now, the majority of countries use the Latin alphabet either as their primary system of writing, or in addition to another system. Even in countries that use another system of writing, the Latin alphabet is still often used because of the widespread use of Romance and Germanic languages, and also because of the ease of communication and the incentives of capitalism.

In short, the spread of the Latin alphabet is equally as zealous and infectious as the influence of the empires, countries, and people that utilize it, and the aggressive colonization of the Roman empire has left a legacy that affects even our method of speech around the world.

http://www.britannica.com/

http://www.wikipedia.org/

The World Book Encyclopedia

http://www.euratlas.net/history/europe/100/index.html