Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Page 459

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THE ALPHABET
Classical Greek Alphabet Gradually, the Greek local alphabets approximated more and more to one another. In 403 B.C. the lonic alphabet of Miletus was officially adopted at Athens, and later also in the other states; for instance, about 370 B.C. in Beotia. Generally speaking, by the middle of the fourth century B.c, all the local alphabets had disappeared in favour of the Ionic, which thus became the common, classical Greek alphabet of twenty-four letters (Fig. 201, col. 1).
The Ionians having felt the need of distinguishing short and long 4, and having lost the sound ), used the sign H for long e, and the halves of it (F and , which through the forms and became and ") for the rough and smooth breathings, which in time lost any distinction in pronunciation. However, by adopting this system of rough and smooth breathing (spiritus asper and spiritus lenis) for the vowel sounds, or, in other words, by aspirating them or leaving them unaspirated, the Greek alphabet helped to preserve flexibility in the Greek speech. The three accents, acute, grave and circumflex, which were rarely employed in ancient times, were apparently invented about the middle of the third century B.C. by Aristophanes of Byzantium in order to assist students, especially foreigners, in the correct pronunciation of Greek. These accents marked, it is important to remember, musical tone or pitch, not stress.
Development of Greek Writing The subsequent development (Fig. 201) of the Greek characters consists essentially in the transformation of the writing to make it more expeditious. While the classical alphabet was always retained as the monumental script and for the capital letters in manuscript, being still employed for the capitals in the modern printed Greek alphabet, more cursive forms, all of them being developments from the classical alphabet, were employed in writing on parchment, papyrus, wax and other soft writing material.
Thus from the classical alphabet there sprang the Greck uncial script (Fig. 201-203), the cursive script, and the minuscule (Fig. 201, 203). consciously adapted as a book hand about A.D. 8oo, after which uncial quickly went out of use for books. The cursive scripts developed into the modern Greek minuscule (Fig. 201, 203). The capitals of modern Greek handwriting are partly borrowed from the Latin handwriting,
Greek Inscriptions and Manuscripts So many inscriptions have been discovered all over the Hellenic world that they can scarcely be counted: annals, codes of laws, decrees, lists of