The Greek alphabet began to be used continuously from the end of the 9th to the beginning of the 8th century BC. e. According to researchers, this system of written characters was the first to include both consonants and vowels, as well as the signs used to separate them. What were the ancient Greek letters? How did they appear? Which letter ends the Greek alphabet and which begins? About this and much more later in the article.
How and when did Greek letters appear?
It must be said that in many Semitic languages, letters have independent names and interpretations. It is not entirely clear when exactly the borrowing of signs took place. Researchers offer various dates for this process from the 14th to the 7th centuries BC. e. But most authors agree on the 9th and 10th centuries. Later dating is somewhat implausible, as the earliest finds of Greek inscriptions may date back to around the 8th century BC. e. or even earlier. In the 10th-9th centuries, North Semitic scripts had a certain similarity. But there is evidence that the Greeks adopted the writing systemspecifically the Phoenicians. This is also plausible because this Semitic group was the most widely settled and actively engaged in trade and navigation.
General information
The Greek alphabet has 24 letters. In some dialects of the preclassical era, other signs were also used: heta, sampi, stigma, koppa, san, digamma. Of these, the three letters of the Greek alphabet given at the end were also used to write numbers. In the Phoenician system, each character was called the word that began with it. So, for example, the first written sign is “alef” (bull, meaning), the next one is “bet” (house), the 3rd is gimel (camel) and so on. Subsequently, when borrowing, for greater convenience, changes were made to almost every name. The letters of the Greek alphabet thus became somewhat simpler, having lost their interpretation. So, aleph became alpha, bet became beta, gimel became gamma. Subsequently, when some characters were changed or added to the writing system, the names of the Greek letters became more meaningful. So, for example, "omicron" is a small o, "omega" (the last character in the writing system) - respectively, is a big o.
News
Greek letters were the foundation for the creation of the main European fonts. At the same time, initially the system of written signs was not just borrowed from the Semites. The Greeks made their own changes to it. So, in Semitic writing, the direction of the inscriptioncharacters were either from right to left, or in turn in accordance with the direction of the lines. The second way of writing became known as "boustrophedon". This definition is a combination of two words, translated from Greek as "bull" and "turn". Thus, a visual image of an animal dragging a plow across the field is formed, changing direction from furrow to furrow. As a result, in Greek writing, the direction from left to right became a priority. It, in turn, caused a number of corresponding changes in the form of some symbols. Therefore, later Greek letters are a mirror image of Semitic characters.
Meaning
On the basis of the Greek alphabet, a large number of systems of written characters were created and subsequently developed, which spread in the Middle East and Europe and were used in the writing of many countries of the world. The Cyrillic and Latin alphabets were no exception. It is known that, for example, when creating the Old Slavonic alphabet, mainly Greek letters were used. In addition to being used to write a language, symbols were also used as international mathematical symbols. Today, Greek letters are used not only in mathematics, but also in other exact sciences. In particular, these symbols are called stars (for example, the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet "tau" was used to designate Tau Ceti), elementary particles, and so on.
Archaic Greek letters
These symbols are not part of the classical writing system. Some of them (sampi, koppa, digamma), as mentioned above, were used for numerical records. At the same time, two - sampi and koppa - are still used today. In Byzantine times, the digamma was replaced by the stigma ligature. In a number of archaic dialects, these symbols still had a sound meaning and were used when writing words. The most important representatives of the Greek direction is the Latin system and its varieties. In particular, they include Gaelic and Gothic writing. Along with this, there are other fonts that are directly or indirectly related to the Greek alphabet. Among them, the ogham and runic systems should be noted.
Symbols used in other languages
In a number of cases, Greek letters were used to fix completely different languages (for example, Old Church Slavonic). In this case, new symbols were added to the new system - additional signs that reflected the existing sounds of the language. Over the course of history, separate writing systems often formed in such cases. So, for example, it happened with the Cyrillic, Etruscan and Coptic alphabets. But often the system of written signs remained essentially unchanged. That is, when it was created, Greek letters were predominantly present and only a small amount of additional characters.
Distribution
The Greek alphabet had several varieties. Each species was associated with a particular colony or city-state. But all these varietiesbelong to one of the two main categories used in the western and eastern Greek spheres of influence. The difference between the varieties consisted in the sound functions that were attributed to the symbols added to those already contained in the writing system. So, for example, in the east the sign "psi" was pronounced as ps, in the west as kh, while the sign "chi" in the east was pronounced as kh, in the west - ks. Classical Greek script was a typical example of the Ionic or Eastern type of writing system. It was officially adopted in 404 BC. e. in Athens and subsequently spread throughout Greece. The direct descendants of this script are modern writing systems, such as, for example, Gothic and Coptic, which have survived only in ecclesiastical use. They also include the Cyrillic alphabet, adopted for Russian and a number of other languages. The second main type of Greek writing system - Western - was used in parts of Italy and other western colonies belonging to Greece. It is believed that this type of writing laid the foundation for the Etruscan script, and through it - the Latin, which became the main one in the territory of Ancient Rome and Western Europe.
