The Latin alphabet, or Latin, is a special alphabetic writing, which first appeared in the 2nd-3rd century BC, and then spread throughout the world. Today it is the basis for most languages โโand has 26 characters that have different pronunciation, name and additional elements.
Features
One of the most common writing options is considered to be Latin. The alphabet originates in Greece, however, it was fully formed in the Latin language of the Indo-European family. To date, this writing system is used by most peoples of the world, including all of America and Australia, most of Europe, as well as half of Africa. Translation into the Latin alphabet is becoming increasingly popular, and at the moment it greatly supplants the Cyrillic alphabet and Arabic script. Such an alphabet is rightfully considered a universal and universal option, and is becoming more and more popular every year.
Especially common are English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Italian Latin. Often, states use it along with other types of writing, in particular in India, Japan, China and other countries.
History
It is believed that the Greeks, in particular estruses, are the original authors of the script, which later received the name "Latin". The alphabet has undeniable similarities with Etruscan writing, but this hypothesis has many controversial points. In particular, it is not known exactly how this culture was able to get to Rome.
Words in Latin began to appear in the 3-4 century BC, and already in the 2nd century BC writing was formed and consisted of 21 characters. During the course of history, some letters were modified, others disappeared and appeared centuries later, and the third characters were divided into two. As a result, in the 16th century, the Latin alphabet became what it is today. Despite this, different languages โโhave their own distinctive features and additional national versions, which, however, are only a certain modification of existing letters. For example, ล, ร, etc.
Difference from Greek writing
Latin is a written language that originates from the Western Greeks, but it also has its own unique features. Initially, this alphabet was quite limited, truncated. Over time, the signs were optimized, and a rule was developed that the letter should go strictly from left to right.
As for the differences, the Latin alphabet is more rounded than the Greek one, and also uses several graphemes to transmit sound [k]. The difference lies in the fact that the letters K and C began to perform almost identical functions, and the sign K, in general, went out of use for a while. This is evidenced by historical evidence, as well as the fact that modern Irish and Spanish alphabets still do not use this grapheme. The letter also has other differences, including a modification of the sign C in G and the appearance of the symbol V from Greek Y.
Characteristics of letters
The modern Latin alphabet has two basic forms: majusculum (capital letters) and minuscule (lowercase characters). The first option is more ancient, since it began to be used in the form of artistic graphics in the 1st century BC. Mayuskul dominated the scriptories of Europe almost until the beginning of the 12th century. The only exceptions were Ireland and Southern Italy, where the national version of writing was used for a long time.
By the 15th century, the minuscule was fully developed. Such famous personalities as Francesco Petrarch, Leonardo da Vinci, as well as other personalities of the Renaissance, did a lot to introduce the Roman alphabet in lowercase letters. Based on this alphabet, national types of writing gradually developed. German, French, Spanish and other options had their changes and additional signs.
Latin alphabet as an international
This type of writing is familiar to almost every person on Earth who can read. This is due to the fact that this alphabet is either native to a person, or he gets to know him in the lessons of a foreign language, mathematics and others. This allows us to assert that the Latin is a written language of international level.
Also, many countries that do not use this alphabet, in parallel, use its standard version. This applies, for example, to states such as Japan and China. Almost all artificial languages โโuse the Latin alphabet as their basis. Among them are Esperanto, Ido, etc. Quite often one can also find transliteration in Latin letters, because sometimes there is no generally accepted name for a specific term in the national language, which makes it necessary to translate into a generally accepted sign system. So, you can write in Latin any word.
Romanization of other alphabets
Latin is used throughout the world to modify languages โโthat use a different type of script. This phenomenon is known by the term "transliteration" (as the Latin translation is sometimes called). It is used to simplify the communication process between representatives of different nationalities.
Almost all languages โโthat use non-Latin script have official transliteration rules. Most often, such procedures are called romanization, since they have romance, i.e. Latin origin. Each language has certain tables, for example, Arabic, Persian, Russian, Japanese, etc., which allow transliterating almost any national word.
Latin is the most widespread literal writing in the world, which originates from the Greek alphabet. It is used by most languages โโas a basis, and is also known to almost every person on Earth. Every year its popularity is growing, which allows us to consider this alphabet as generally accepted and international. For languages โโthat use other types of writing, special tables with national transliteration are offered, allowing you to romanize almost any word. This makes the process of communication between different countries and peoples simple and easy.