Roman Alphabets

In the area of west central Italy was a region known as Latium (modern Lazio). The people of Latium were known as the Latins, an ancient tribe that lived in a region on the south side of the River Tiber, with the Etruscans living on the other side of the river, known as Etruria (modern Tuscany). Their southeastern neighbour was the region of Campania, with some cities, such as Cumae, which were founded and colonised by the Greeks.

Within Latium was the city of Rome. The Latins spoke an Italic language, known as Latin, a language that the Romans adopted.

The Italic language is a subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages, confined to the regions of Italy. Other Italic languages spoken in ancient Italy were the Faliscan, Oscan, Umbrian and Venetic.

The Etruscan language was not an Italic language; in fact, the Etruscan language is a unique, but extinct language, which doesn't even belong to the Indo-European language family. Some linguistic experts believe that Etruscan probably has its origin in the Anatolian language family, but so far this hasn't been proven.

The Etruscan alphabet was derived from the Greek, and the Greeks derived it from the Semitic (Phoenician) alphabet (see the Greek Alphabet). The Etruscan alphabet contained 21 letters.

Why am I talking about the Etruscan language, you may ask? Well, despite Etruscan being a distinctive language from Latin, the Etruscan alphabet played a major role in forming the Roman or Latin writing system.

When the Etruscans conquered much of central Italy, including Latium and Campania, a large group of Etruscans settled in Rome. Under the Etruscan kings in Rome, the Romans learned engineering skills such as architecture, town planning, road building and aqueduct systems. The Romans even adopted some of the Etruscan culture and religious customs, as well as the Etruscan writing system.

The Roman alphabet, or more properly the Latin alphabet, became the most widely used alphabet in Europe, but the Latin alphabet was truly indebted to the Etruscan writing system.

Classical Latin has 23 letters, in which the Romans adopted all 21 of the Etruscan characters. Like the Etruscan alphabet, Latin has added on four vowels. Phonetics in the Latin alphabet were identical or similar to English pronunciation.

Centuries of conquests and settlements in the Empire provinces also allowed the spread of the Latin language and writing system. Though the alphabet remained unchanged since then, the language spoken in the provinces began to diverge from classical Latin which was spoken in Rome. This is because the people in the provinces introduced new vocabulary and accents into Latin. Late Latin (after the third century AD) became known as Vulgar Latin.

What emerged from Vulgar Latin were the Romance languages. Though Latin was still used widely among medieval clerics and scholars, the Romance languages gradually replaced spoken Latin. There are five major Romance languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian. There are also several minor languages found in Spain, France and Switzerland. I won't go to any more details about the Romance languages.

In the medieval period, Latin developed a further three letters (J, U and W).

Many Latin words still persist in modern times, and are often used in other European languages such as English and German. Often, in the field of science, we attach a Latin name to an object, mainly for the scientific purpose of categorising.

In the case of classical mythology, medieval and modern scholars would often use Latin names in preference to the Greek names, such as Jupiter instead of Zeus, Mars instead of Ares, Hercules instead of Heracles, and the list goes on and on.