Every schoolchild remembers distinctly alphas, betas and gammas the letters from geometry, used to denote angles, triangles and squares, and it is a common knowledge that these letters refer to one of the most ancient alphabets in the history of the Indo-European languages. However, not everyone is aware of the fact that the Greek alphabet took its origin from the Phoenicians, who used the consonantal Semitic alphabet to create their manuscripts. The Greeks added vowels to the existing variant and converted it into the truly phonetic alphabet. Apart from being the oldest alphabet in the Indo-European history, Greek alphabet had one more peculiarity – it was the first to convey each separate sound: vowel and consonant. This property helped to distinguish the Greek speech phonetically and represent it in an accurate way (Katerina Sarri). Thus, enriched and having overcome several alternations, Greek alphabet became the «father» to all modern Western types of scripts. This fact makes it possible to claim that Greek alphabet as the part of the whole Greek culture turned out to have an immense impact on the developing of writing throughout Europe.
The Greek alphabet first came into use around 700 B.C (Marshall McLuhan and R. K. Logan, p.375). What’s more important, is that the Greeks were the first to use valuable alphabet, consisting of consonants and vowels. The Greeks initially borrowed only 22 letters from the Semitic alphabet, which was reflected in the so-called Linear B, a manuscript referred to the Mycenaean period. However, the so-called Greek Dark Ages followed and the Mycenaean culture was forgotten for several centuries, before it had the second birth in the newly formed Greek alphabet. It’s necessary to mark, that the word «alphabet» itself is of Greek origin too. The two initial letters «alpha» and «beta» are known not only, because they are the most frequently used letters, but also because of the fact that they’ve given the word «alphabet» itself. At first, there were a number of different versions of the alphabet and there was no standard spread throughout Greek cities. (Greek Language). This phenomenon caused the development of different variants of the alphabets. According to one of the classifications, these various types were divided into two main groups: Eastern and Western. The Eastern group gave origin to the modern Greek alphabet, whereas the Western type was transformed by the Etruscans, who inhabited the territory of ancient Italy and later the alphabet was turned into Latin script (The online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages). According to another curious classification: all types of Greek alphabet were grouped into three variants: red, blue and green. Blue-type transformed into the modern Greek script and the red one, for example, was the one taken by Etruscans (Greek alphabet).
As it appeared to be later, the letters of Greek alphabet were used not only for writing, but beginning from the 2 B.C they were taken to denote numerals.
Today the influence of Greek alphabet is overwhelming. Mathematics, physics, technologies cannot do without formulas based on the usage of Greek letters. Besides, several letters were included to the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Works cited
Katerina Sarri webtopos. The Greek language and alphabet. 11 Nov. 2012
< http://www.webtopos.gr/eng/languages/greek/index.html>
Marshall McLuhan and R. K. Logan. ‘Alphabet, Mother of Invention’ Et Cetera, December 1977. 11 Nov. 2012
The Greek Language. The Greek alphabet. 11 Nov. 2012
< http://greek-language.com/Alphabet.html>
The online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages. Greek alphabet. 11 Nov. 2012
