Information about Cumaean Alphabet

A Western variant of the early Greek alphabet was in use in ca. the 8th to 5th centuries BC. It was used in Euboea (the Euboean alphabet, excavated in 1992 in Cuma) and anywhere west of Athens, especially in the Greek colonies of southern Italy (the Cumae alphabet of Cumae). The Eastern variant was in use in Anatolia and was adopted in Athens, and with Hellenism spread to the entire Greek speaking world, rendering the Western variant obsolete in the 4th century BC.

It was this variant that gave rise to the Old Italic alphabets, including the Latin alphabet.

The letter inventory was,

�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� Σ �� �� �� �� ��

also shown in the following diagram,

expressed in standard (Ionic) Greek letters,

Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ϝ Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ο Π Ϻ Ϙ Ρ Σ Τ Υ Χ Φ Ψ

i.e. including Digamma, San and Qoppa, but lacking Ξ and Ω. Of these, Δ was written more like Latin D. Σ is actually the Western variant, taken from Phoenician Shin, as opposed to Eastern lunate sigma Ϲ. In some variants, Ρ resembled Latin R.

Some letter values were different from those of the Eastern variant: Η was the consonant [h] (as in Old Attic), and Χ was [ks], the value taken by Eastern Ξ, while Ψ was [kʰ], the value of Eastern Χ.

Apart from the omission of samek (Ξ) and the addition of ΥΧΦΨ, the alphabet is identical to the Phoenician alphabet. Υ and Χ were introduced as as variants of waw and samek respectively, so that Φ and Ψ are the only genuinely Greek innovations.

See also

• History of the Greek alphabet
• Nestor's Cup
• Alphabets of Asia Minor

References

• Helmut Engelmann: Die Inschriften von Kyme (= Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien 5), Bonn 1976. ISBN 3-7749-1418-4

External links

• ancientscripts.com (table showing among other variants of Greek alphabet the Euboean alphabet)
• http://tickers.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A2451890