What Is the Latin Alphabet?

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How can Latin be useless and alive on the similar time? We don’t converse it each day (until you’re a Latin instructor or scholar), and but simply by studying this sentence proper now, you’re utilizing Latin. That’s as a result of the Latin alphabet is alive and properly all through trendy world languages—with a number of minor tweaks.

Uncover how the Latin alphabet got here to be the preferred writing system on the planet, centuries after the language itself fell out of widespread utilization. Study which languages use the Latin alphabet right this moment, whether or not the Latin and Roman alphabet are the identical factor, and how one can begin studying a language with a brand new alphabet right this moment.

Origin of the Latin alphabet

While you write in English (or Spanish, or Italian, or many different languages), you’re writing within the Latin alphabet. In the present day’s trendy 26-letter Latin alphabet isn’t too totally different from Previous Latin, which first appeared in historic inscriptions round 700 B.C.E. 

The Previous Latin alphabet was derived from the Etruscan alphabet, which got here from the Greek alphabet, and consisted of 20-21 letters and no areas (generally known as scriptio continua). After 75 B.C.E., Classical Latin emerged, which had 23 letters and have become the literary orthography (spelling normal) for Roman intellectuals and writers. 

Early within the 1st century C.E., Roman Emperor Claudius tried so as to add three further letters to the Latin alphabet (Ↄ, Ⅎ, Ⱶ), however they fell out of use in the course of the Classical interval. Later types of Latin included Medieval Latin in the course of the Center Ages, Fashionable Latin in the course of the Renaissance, and Up to date Latin, which is taught and studied right this moment and contains all 26 letters shared by the English alphabet.

What letters are within the Latin alphabet?

In case you’ve ever seen an historical artifact with a Latin inscription, or a literary message written in Previous Latin, you could have seen that one thing didn’t look fairly proper. Some letters that you’re used to seeing have been lacking, for instance, or different letters have been standing in for others. And the letters all ran collectively, since Previous Latin used no areas!

The Previous Latin alphabet solely had 20-21 letters (relying on the supply and date in historical past) and consisted of solely capital letters and cursive script. Lowercase Latin letters emerged in the course of the Center Ages and have been primarily used for copying books and manuscripts. 

See the variations between the Previous Latin alphabet and the Fashionable Latin alphabet under:

Lacking and uncommon letters within the Latin alphabet

The letters G, J, U, W, and Y are lacking from the Classical Latin alphabet, as they weren’t in use till later in historical past. The letters Y and Z have been derived from the Greek letters upsilon (Y) and zeta (Z), and have been dropped from the Latin alphabet as Latin didn’t use these sounds a lot, solely to be added again in in the course of the 1st century C.E. to accommodate Greek loanwords in the course of the Classical Latin period. That’s why you received’t see many Latin phrases with “Y” or “Z” that didn’t come from Greek or one other language.

The letter G was additionally impressed by a Greek letter, gamma (Γ), and was added into Z’s former place (the seventh alphabet place, the place zeta falls in Greek) when Z was eliminated. Its function was to separate the softer “guh” sound from the more durable “kuh” sound of C, which is why capital G and C look so comparable.

The letters U and W got here from the Latin V, which was pronounced the best way we are saying W now (“wuh”). Each letters appeared within the Latin and English alphabets after the Norman invasion of 1066 to symbolize their corresponding sounds in Germanic phrases. The letter J was added to the alphabet within the seventeenth century to switch the letter I as an preliminary consonant sound.

And whereas some letters made their means from Greek to Latin, they have been hardly ever used. The letter Ok, for instance, had the identical sound because the Latin C and Q, so it wasn’t a typical spelling selection in Classical Latin. It existed primarily in Greek loanwords (like kalendae) and later turned extra frequent in different languages that use the Latin alphabet.

Latin alphabet pronunciation variations

Most consonants and vowels in Latin have the identical pronunciations right this moment, corresponding to B sounding like buh, M sounding like muh, and vowels having each lengthy and quick sounds. Nevertheless, there are a number of pronunciation variations in Previous and Classical Latin:

• V made a W sound (and was additionally used for U in writing).
• C at all times had a tough sound (like reduce, not cite).
• CH seemed like Ok (extra like “ckh”).
• G at all times had a tough sound (like good, not gem).
• PH seemed like “puh,” not “fuh” (that pronunciation got here from Greek).
• An I in entrance of a phrase or vowel seemed like Y (as in younger), or later, J.
• R was at all times trilled or rolled, just like Spanish or Italian.
• Double consonants have been pronounced as separate sounds (as in NN or PP).

One similarity between the Classical and Fashionable Latin alphabets is that Q is at all times paired with U (though it was spelled V within the early alphabet days). Additionally, a number of diphthongs are the identical, together with “EI”, “UI”, and “AU,” together with “OE” (feels like “oi”) and “AE” (feels like “ai”).

What languages use the Latin alphabet?

Regardless that Latin is taken into account a useless language by many, the Latin alphabet is probably the most extensively used alphabet on the planet. Its vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and pronunciation are additionally current in lots of languages all through the Western Hemisphere, together with the Americas and Europe, in addition to many African and Oceanic languages. Latin-based Romance languages use the Latin alphabet, as do most Germanic languages all over the world.

Latin’s historic unfold all through the Roman Empire, plus the restricted availability of printing characters in the course of the Center Ages and Renaissance, led to a standardization of the Latin alphabet, and accordingly, the languages that use it. Uncover which languages use the Latin alphabet right this moment, and the way they’ve altered their writing methods to mirror their language’s pronunciation and grammar patterns.

English

Whereas the trendy English alphabet makes use of the Latin alphabet with few alterations, that wasn’t at all times the case. Previous English was written within the Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet known as Futhorc till the Latin alphabet, however made its means into English with the unfold of Christianity within the seventh century C.E. 

Previous English initially included further letters to mirror the “th” sound—thorn (þ) and eth (ð)—in addition to ash (æ) for the lengthy “a” sound, however dropped them in the course of the unfold of printed supplies. In case you’ve ever seen the phrase ye, which means “the,” in Previous English writing, you’re most likely seeing a remnant of the letter þ, as printers usually substituted the hard-to-find þ for the similar-looking Y. Fashionable Icelandic nonetheless makes use of the þ letter right this moment.

French

The French alphabet makes use of the identical 26 letters as English and Latin. However anybody who’s studied or spoken each languages is aware of that the similarities usually finish there, as French pronunciation is sort of totally different from each these languages. 

French started as a Gaulish dialect of the Celtic language group, adopting Vulgar Latin as a vernacular and the Latin alphabet when the Romans took energy all through Europe. It was additionally closely influenced by Germanic languages within the surrounding areas, which affected its spelling conventions and phrase pronunciation.

Like Latin, French vocabulary hardly ever makes use of the letters Ok and W, besides in phrases it has borrowed from different languages. It makes use of diacritics (accent marks) to its letters, corresponding to ç, é, â, or ü, so as to add sounds current in French however not in Latin. 

German

Like English, German makes use of the Latin alphabet though it’s not a Romance language. The German alphabet has the identical 26 letters as English, Latin, and French, though it contains particular characters—umlauted vowels (ä, ö, ü) and the Eszett (ß)—to precisely depict German sounds within the Latin alphabet. Some German writing guides might depict these characters as an additional 4 letters on the finish of the alphabet.

German started utilizing the Latin alphabet across the eighth century C.E., equally to when different European nations adopted the writing system together with Christianity. Earlier than that point, it used an analogous runic alphabet to English (Futhark).

Italian

The fashionable Italian alphabet is taken into account to be probably the most just like the Previous Latin alphabet, because it solely contains 21 letters and shares most of the similar pronunciation kinds as Latin. Earlier than the standardization and implementation of the Latin alphabet, Italian used the Etruscan alphabet in its writing, the ancestor orthography of the Latin language.

Like Latin, Italian phrases typically don’t embrace J, W, X, or Y until the phrase comes from one other language. It additionally excludes Ok, and in contrast to Latin, the Italian alphabet does use the letter Z. Italian additionally makes use of accents (corresponding to á and ó) to mirror its pronunciation, however these accented letters aren’t thought-about separate letters.

Spanish

In case you’ve ever spoken or studied Spanish, you already know that its alphabet is fairly just like Latin—with a number of exceptions. The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters, including the eñe (ñ) letter for a sound not depicted within the Latin alphabet. It additionally included the letters ch and ll, however they have been eliminated within the late twentieth century. Some Spanish writing guides would additionally embrace digraphs rr and ll, additionally distinctive sounds in Spanish, alongside the alphabet. Spanish additionally doesn’t use Ok, W, or X exterior loanwords from different languages. 

Earlier than adopting the Latin alphabet as its writing system, the Spanish language primarily used the Iberian alphabet to depict its vocabulary. As soon as the Roman Empire made its means into Spain, Spanish started to make use of the extra in style Latin alphabet.

Swedish

Swedish additionally makes use of the Latin alphabet, although it provides a number of letters to mirror the Germanic language’s number of sounds. The Swedish alphabet has 29 letters, including å, ä, and ö after the letter Z. Moreover, the Latin J feels like Y in Swedish, as within the phrases ja (sure) and jul (Christmas). Different distinct Swedish feels like sj and stj are widespread in Swedish vocabulary, however don’t seem within the alphabet itself.

The historical past of the Swedish language is just like English and German, however differs in its adoption of Latin on account of Sweden’s extra distant geography on the European continent. Like English and German, Swedish used a runic alphabet (Futhark) previous to utilizing the Latin alphabet, which didn’t develop into in style in Swedish-speaking communities till across the eleventh century C.E. Different Nordic languages, corresponding to Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic, additionally use the Latin alphabet with their very own variations and added letters.

Different languages that use the Latin alphabet

The listing of languages that use the Latin alphabet contains round 100-200 in complete, relying on how a lot the language adapts the Latin lettering and spelling system. 

Different generally spoken languages that use the Latin alphabet embrace:

• Afrikaans
• Bosnian
• Croatian
• Danish
• Dutch
• Finnish
• Frisian
• Hawaiian
• Hungarian
• Malay
• Māori
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Swahili
• Turkish
• Vietnamese
• Zulu

What languages don’t use the Latin alphabet?

Regardless that the Latin alphabet is the most typical sort of writing system on the planet, it definitely isn’t the one one. A number of the most extensively spoken languages on the planet use different alphabets and writing methods in addition to Latin, together with:

• Armenian (Armenian alphabet)
• Greek (Greek alphabet)
• Japanese (Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana syllabaries)
• Korean (Hangul alphabet)
• Mandarin Chinese language (Hanzi characters)
• Russian (Cyrillic alphabet)
• Yiddish (Hebrew abjad)

Writing methods like syllabaries, logographies, and abjads depict concepts and ideas in methods aside from single letters put collectively to create which means. That’s why studying one other language that makes use of the Latin alphabet could also be simpler than studying a language with a unique writing system (though it’s undoubtedly doable to be taught a brand new alphabet!).

Latin alphabet vs. Roman alphabet

What’s the distinction between the Latin alphabet and the Roman alphabet? It’s primarily a historic distinction, though the phrases “Latin alphabet” and “Roman alphabet” are often used interchangeably. In case you’re referring to a Roman alphabet, chances are you’ll be speaking in regards to the historic unfold of the Latin writing system all through the Roman Empire. The time period “Latin alphabet” often refers back to the Latin language as an entire, together with its trendy iterations and adoptions into different languages. 

Nevertheless, Roman alphabet letters are the identical, as are their pronunciations and spelling guidelines. If somebody refers to English utilizing the Roman alphabet, they’d technically be appropriate (though some linguists would nonetheless favor “Latin alphabet”).

Mix classical research with trendy studying

The recognition of the Latin alphabet connects right this moment’s written phrase with centuries of literary and political historical past. It connects English with various different languages all over the world, making it simpler than ever to select up a brand new language with studying methods like Rosetta Stone.

For extra data on selecting your new language (and even if you happen to’re concerned with studying Latin!), uncover extra about how Rosetta Stone works, and whether or not it’s the subsequent step in your language studying journey.