Chapter III: The Latin Alphabet

IN its earliest form, the Latin alphabet consisted of 21 characters,- -A, B, C, D, E, F, Z, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X. These letters were derived from the alphabet used by the Dorian Greeks of Campania. At a very early period the letters K and Z fell into disuse, although K continued to occur in a few ancient abbreviations, such as Kal. for _Kalendae_, K. S. for _carus suis_, K. K. for _calumniae causa_ (a legal phrase), KK. for _castrorum_, KA. for _capitalis_; and the use of Z was subsequently revived in transliterating Greek words. Originally, the character C had the sound which was afterwards given to G; but when K was abandoned, C took its place and its sound; while a new letter, G, was formed by slightly changing the original C. Plutarch says that the character G was first employed by Spurius Carvilius about the year 230 B.C. In Cicero's time the letter Y was introduced to represent the sound of the Greek _Υ_; but its presence in a word always marks a foreign origin, so that the character can scarcely be regarded as an essential part of the Roman alphabet. About the year A.D. 44, the Emperor Claudius tried to introduce three new symbols into the alphabet: (1) the inverted diagamma [Picture: inverted diagamma] to mark the consonantal sound of V; (2) the character known as "anti-sigma" [Picture: Anti-sigma] to express the sound denoted by the Greek _ψ_ (_ps_ or _bs_); and (3) the sign [Picture: a Latin form of upsilon], which was to have the sound of the Greek _υ_, i.e. of modern French _u_ or German _ü_. It may be mentioned also, that consonants were not doubled in writing Latin until the practice was adopted from the Greek by Ennius (B.C. 239-169), who in various ways conformed Roman usages to those of the Greeks.

The Roman alphabet, like the early alphabet of the Greeks, lacked distinctive characters for the long and short vowels. This defect, which was partly corrected in Greek by the adoption of the letters _η_ and _ω_ (traditionally ascribed to Epicharmus of Syracuse, B.C. 500), was never fully remedied in Latin, though at different times various devices were employed to distinguish between ā and ă, ē and ĕ, ū and ŭ, ō and ŏ. These were:

(1) The doubling of the vowel when long, as in modern Dutch; thus, _vootum_ = _votum_; _aara_ = āra. This method was persistently used by the poet Attius. [1]

(2) By the use of a species of accent (_apex_) over the long vowel. This became quite general in the Augustan Age.

(3) The length of the vowel ī was denoted sometimes by making it longer than the other letters and sometimes by writing it _ei_; thus, DICO, PVEREI.

_The Roman numerals_ V, X, L, C, D, M originated in various ways. [2]

V represented originally the open palm with the thumb extended, just as our 0 (zero) is thought to represent a closed hand.

X perhaps = [Picture: old form of theta], an old form of _θ_; according to others, it is merely two V's placed together.

L = [Picture: alternate form of chi] = [Picture: another alternate form of chi] or _χ_, a Greek letter which the Romans did not need in their alphabet and hence used only as a numeral.

C = [Picture: alternate form of theta], another form of _θ_, and confounded with C as though standing for _centum_.

M = _φ_, becoming first CI[anti-sigma] and then M, as though standing for _mille_, D is one half of this figure, or I[anti-sigma]. [3]

[1] Quintilian, I. 7, 14. When _i_ is doubled it always denotes the consonantal _i_ (j); e.g. _maiior_.

[2] Cf. Ball's _History of Mathematics_, pp. 119, 120.

[3] See, on the whole subject, Taylor, _The Alphabet_ (London, 1883); Kirchhoff, _Geschichte des Griechischen Alphabets_ (4th ed, Gütersloh, 1887); Berger, _Histoire de L'Écriture dans l'Antiquité_ (Paris, 1891); Cantor, _Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Mathematik_ (Leipzig, 1880); Martin, _Les Signes Numéraux et l'Arithmétique chez les Peuples de L'Antiquité_ (Rome, 1864); and Friedlein, _Die Zahlzeichen_ (Erlangen, 1869).