2. Latin alphabet
• This slide is written in the Latin alphabet
• that’s a script
• not a language
• Languages using this alphabet: English,
Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, German, Italian,
Spanish, Catalan, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian,
Polish, Sami, Portuguese, Maltese, …
• But where does it come from?
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3.
4. Etruscans
• Ancient civilisation in Italy 800 BCE - 250 BCE
• spoke a language unrelated to any other
• eventually conquered and assimilated by the Romans
• Had their own alphabet, which the Romans
adopted
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The Marsiliana tablet abecedarium, ca. 700 BC
7. But … G?
• Latin originally didn’t distinguish between K and G
• A surname like “Ruga” would be written “Ruca”
• unfortunate, because “ruca” means “fart” in Latin
• Spurius Carvilius Ruga got tired of this
• 3rd century BCE invented G by modifying C
• sources: Quintus Terentius Scaurus and Plutarch
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9. Phoenician
• Precursor of Greek
• appeared around 1200 BCE
• from what is now Lebanon
• Not an alphabet, but an abjad
• that is, only consonants are written
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12. Why no vowels?
• These were all Semitic languages
• like Arabic and Hebrew
• Based around consontantal roots
• k-t-b = to write
• can derive huge number of words
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