History of The Latin Alphabet - Origin

Origin

It is generally held that the Latins adopted the western variant of the Greek alphabet in the 7th century BC from Cumae, a Greek colony in southern Italy — making the early Latin alphabet one among several Old Italic alphabets emerging at the time.

From the Cumae alphabet, the Etruscan alphabet was derived. The Latins ultimately adopted 21 of the original 26 Etruscan letters.

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