The Greek Writing System

The Greek writing system originally developed out of a modified Phoenician alphabet over 2,700 years ago and then split into several different versions among Greek cities.¹ One of the writing system versions - Ionic - became the standard for Athens in 403 BC, and as a result of that city state's influence slowly became the standard for all other Greek-speaking areas as well.

Greek Translators

One of the most innovative aspects of the 24-letter Greek alphabet was its introduction of vowels, which the original Phoenician alphabet did not contain (in Phoenician and other Semitic writing systems such as Hebrew and Arabic vowels are implied).² Of the 24 letters in the Greek alphabet, 7 are vowels and 17 are consonants.

The direction in which Greek is written has evolved from its original right-to-left orientation to a back-and-forth or boustrophedon system in which each line is written in the opposite direction of the previous line (boustrophedon means "as the ox plows"). Sometime around 500 BC Greek adopted its current orientation of left-to-right writing.

Different cases were introduced into the Greek writing system during the Middle Ages. The original forms of the Greek characters were kept as upper-case or "monumental" letters, and lower-case forms of the same characters began to take over (these lower-case forms are also known as "miniscule").

Additional resources on the Greek writing system can be found on the Web at:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/greek.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet#History

http://www.cogsci.indiana.edu/farg/harry/lan/grkphon.htm

¹ "Greek alphabet (ελληνικά γράμματα)" Omniglot: A Guide to Writing Systems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet
[Accessed December 24, 2004]

² "Greek language" Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9037921
[Accessed December 24, 2004]