Latin Alphabet, Part II: The Development of the Latin Alphabet



The Base of the Collumn of Trajan

The Latin alphabet, like all other systems of writing, can be traced back to the Proto-Sumerian Pictographic alphabets that were present prior to 3000 B.C. This evolved into the famed Egyptian Pictographic alphabet, which in turn led to the creation of Proto-Semitic Syllabary. This led to Proto-Phoenician Syllabary, which led to the Greek alphabet, which led to the Etruscan alphabet, which led to the Ancient Latin alphabet, which led to the Latin alphabet of modern times.

Ancient Latin Alphabet

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

V

X

Y

Z

The Latin alphabet that we know today isn’t far removed from the ancient alphabet used by the Romans, however there were some differences. The people of Rome, who spoke Latin, used only twenty-three letters in their writing; the same alphabet as ours, sans J, U, and W. K, Y, and Z, also, were not used in the normal writing of Latin, but were used to write Greek-based words only. Thus, only twenty letters were used to write actual Latin.

In the Middle Ages, in order to represent sounds in Germanic languages that were not a part of Latin, the letter “W” was added, as well as the letters “J” and “U”. Thus, the letter “V” was more or less replaces by the syllable “U”, with “V” going on to only denote a consonant “v” sound, and the letter “J” was added as a consonant sound as well, at times replacing the letter “I” (as in “Julius”).



It is interesting to note the absence of J, U, and W in this alphabet. In the Latin language, there is no “j” sound, nor is there any “v” sound. They also did not distinguish the “w” sound from the “u” sound, using the letter “V” to denote the “u” sound. Ecclesiastical Latin does not always make these distinctions in pronunciation, as it is heavily influenced by modern Italian. Imagine my surprise when I learned in my Latin I class that the phrase  “Veni, vidi, vici,”, a famous supposed quotation of Julius Caesar in 47 BC upon after defeating Pharnaces II of Pontus at Zela, is not pronounced with “v” sounds, but with “u” or “w” sounds, rendering it in Classical Latin as “Weni, widi, wici.” (Also as a side note, the “c” is commonly pronounced as a “ch” sound in accordance with Ecclesiastical Latin, but is pronounced as a “k” in Classical Latin.) In addition, “Julius” would be better written as “Iulius” if one wanted to better portray in modern terms the Classical pronunciation, (or “IVLIVS”, if one wanted to be really Classical). Knowing all this, it is always fun trying to pronounce the word “Vesuvius”, which in ancient Latin would be written as “VESVVIVS.”





A clip from a comic I'm working on featuring
the manor of Senator Augustus.



Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide by Johanna Drucker and Emily McVarish

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/Trajans_Column/home.html

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/latin.htm

http://www.wikipedia.org/