Latin alphabet

The Latin, or Roman, alphabet was originally adapted from theEtruscan alphabet during the 7th century BC to write Latin. Since then it has had many different forms, and been adapted to write many other languages.

According to Roman legend, the Cimmerian Sibyl, Carmenta, created the Latin alphabet by adapting the Greek alphabet used in the Greek colony of Cumae in southern Italy. This was introduced to Latium by Evander, her son. 60 years after the Trojan war. There is no historical evidence to support this story, which comes from the Roman author, Gaius Julius Hyginus (64BC - 17AD).

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Versions of the Latin alphabet

Archaic Latin alphabet,Basque-style lettering,Carolingian Minuscule,Classical Latin alphabet,Fraktur,Gaelic script,Merovingian,Modern Latin alphabet,Roman Cursive,Rustic Capitals,Old English,Sütterlin,Visigothic Script

Archaic Latin alphabet

The earliest known inscriptions in the Latin alphabet date from the 6th century BC. It was adapted from theEtruscan alphabet during the 7th century BC. The letters Y and Z were taken from theGreek alphabet to write Greek loan words. Other letters were added from time to time as the Latin alphabet was adapted for other languages.

Ancient Latin alphabet

Notes

This is one version of the Ancient Latin alphabet. Many of the letters have serveral different shapes in different inscriptions and texts.
Latin was original written either from right to left, left to right, or alternating between those two directions (boustrophedon). By the 5th or 4th century BC it was normally written from left to right.
The sounds /g/ and /k/ were not distinguished in the oldest Latin texts. Before A the letter K was used for these sounds, before O or V, Q was used, and C was used elsewhere. The letter G was later added to the alphabet to distinguish these sounds.
Before a vowel or between vowels I was pronounced /j/. Elsewhereit was pronounced /i/.

Sample texts

Sample text in Archaic Latin

This is a version of the earliest known text in Latin. It is known as the Duenos inscription, and was found on the Quirinal Hill in Rome by Heinrich Dressel, a German archaeologist, in 1880. It is thought to date from the 7th to 5th century BC.

Source and more information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duenos_inscription

Sample texts

Old Latin (Prisca Latinitas) (600-500 BC)

Article 1 of the UDHR in Old Latin (600-500 BC)

Transliteration

Opnēs hemones decnotāti et iovesi louberoi et parēs gnāscontor, rationes et comscientiās particapes sont, quois enter sēd comcordiās studēōd agontinom est.

Old Latin (400-300 BC)

Article 1 of the UDHR in Old Latin (400-300 BC)

Transliteration

Obnēs homenēs degnetāte et iouse leiberei et parēs gnāscontor, ratiōnes et cōnscientiaī particepēs sont, queis enter sēd concordiaī studeōd agondom est.

Old Latin translations by Giorgio Nagy

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Other versions of the Latin alphabet

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Modern Latin alphabet

The modern Latin alphabet is used to write hundreds of different languages. Each language uses a slightly different set of letters, and they are pronounced in various ways. Some languages use the standard 26 letters, some use fewer, and others use more.

This is the modern Latin alphabet as used to write English.

English alphabet

Other versions of the Latin alphabet

Accented letters & special characters

Accented letters

Many languages supplement the basic Latin alphabet with a variety of accented letters:

a selection of accented latin letters

Note: the names of these accents varies from language to language. In Czech, for example, the caron is known as aháček [ˈɦaːtʃɛk], which means 'little hook'.

These accented letters can have a number of different functions:

Modifying the pronunciation of a letter. For example in French, e has different sounds depending on the accent on it: é = [e], è & ê = [ɛ] and e = [ə].
Indicating where the stress should fall in a word. For example in Spanish, stress normally falls on the penultimate syllable (second to last). When it doesn't, an acute accent is used -célebre ('famous'),celebre ('[that] he/she celebrates'),celebré ('I celebrated')
Indicating tone of a word or syllable. For example, in Navajo an acute accent indicates a high tone - á, ę́, ó, etc.
Indicating vowel length. For example in Welsh, long vowels are usually marked with a circumflex accent, known as ato bach (‘little roofʼ) in Welsh - â, ê, î, etc.
Visually distinguishing homophones. For example in Spanish,tu = your andtú = you.

How to type accented letters inWindows,Mac andHTML

Some extra letters

Extra Latin letters

Eth, Thorn, Yogh and Wynn were used inOld English; Eth and Thorn are also used inIcelandic; the long s was used in English and other languages to write non-final esses until about the late 18th / early 19th century; the dotted upper case i and dotless lowercase i are used inTurkish, and the schwa is used inAzeri. The other letters are used in various other languages, particularly those spoken in West Africa.

Ligatures (two or three letters joined together)

These are used in a number of languages including French, German, Icelandic, Croatian and Dutch:

Some ligatures used in the Latin alphabet

Clickhere to find out how to type ligatures inWindows,Mac andHTML

Further information about diacritics and their usage
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/dia/diacritics-revised.htm,

Download charts for Latin alphabets (Excel)

Latin language resources on Amazon

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Links

Information about the Latin alphabet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_alphabet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Latin_script
http://la.raycui.com/alphabet.html
http://mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/classics/latalph.htm
http://guindo.pntic.mec.es/jmag0042/LATIN_PALEOGRAPHY.pdf

Alphabets

A-chik Tokbirim,Adinkra,ADLaM,Armenian,Avestan,Avoiuli,Bactrian,Bassa (Vah),Beitha Kukju,Berati,Beria (Zaghawa),Borama / Gadabuursi,Carian,Carpathian Basin Rovas,Chinuk pipa,Chisoi,Coorgi-Cox,Coptic,Cyrillic,Dalecarlian runes,Elbasan,Etruscan,Faliscan,Fox,Galik,Georgian (Asomtavruli),Georgian (Nuskhuri),Georgian (Mkhedruli),Glagolitic,Global Alphabet,Gothic,Greek,Hurûf-ı munfasıla,Irish (Uncial),Kaddare,Kayah Li,Khatt-i-Badíʼ,Khazarian Rovas,Koch,Korean,Latin,Lepontic,Luo Lakeside Script,Lycian,Lydian,Manchu,Mandaic,Mandombe,Marsiliana,Medefaidrin,Messapic,Mongolian,Mro,Mundari Bani,Nag Chiki,Naasioi Otomaung,N'Ko,North Picene,Novo Tupi,Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong,Odùduwà,Ogham,Old Church Slavonic,Oirat Clear Script,Ol Chiki (Ol Cemet' / Santali),Old Italic,Old Nubian,Old Permic,Ol Onal,Orkhon,Osage,Oscan,Osmanya (Somali),Pau Cin Hau,Phrygian,Pollard script,Runic,Székely-Hungarian Rovás (Hungarian Runes),South Picene,Sutton SignWriting,Sunuwar,Tai Viet,Tangsa,Todhri,Toto,Umbrian,(Old) Uyghur,Vellara,Veso Bey,Wancho,Yezidi,Zoulai

Other writing systems

ALPHABETUM - a Unicode font for ancient scripts, including Classical & Medieval Latin, Ancient Greek, Etruscan, Oscan, Umbrian, Faliscan, Messapic, Picene, Iberian, Celtiberian, Gothic, Runic, Old & Middle English, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Old Nordic, Ogham, Kharosthi, Glagolitic, Anatolian scripts, Phoenician, Brahmi, Imperial Aramaic, Old Turkic, Old Permic, Ugaritic, Linear B, Phaistos Disc, Meroitic, Coptic, Cypriot and Avestan.
https://www.typofonts.com/alphabetum.html

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