When was the Greek alphabet invented?

The Greek alphabet was invented c. 8th century BCE.

Where did the Greek alphabet come from?

The Greek alphabet was derived from the Phoenician script of 22 characters without vowels. The Greek alphabet added vowels and two letters bringing the script up to 24 letters.

Why is it called an "alphabet"?

The Greek alphabet is so-called from the first two characters in the system: alpha (A) and beta (B).

What was the impact of the Greek alphabet?

The Greek alphabet allowed for the development of Greek culture on every level. It was adopted by the Etruscans, who then transmitted it to the Romans, who developed Latin script, which became the basis for modern-day alphabetic script and enabled the written word as it is presently known.

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Article:	Greek Alphabet
Author:	Joshua J. Mark
Narrator:	Richard de Man

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Richard de Man

Both history and acting have been lifelong passions of mine. I spend three years studying history to teach on highschools, and been on stage since I was sixteen.

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Joshua J. Mark

Joshua J. Mark is World History Encyclopedia's co-founder and Content Director. He was previously a professor at Marist College (NY) where he taught history, philosophy, literature, and writing. He has traveled extensively and lived in Greece and Germany.

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Uploaded by Joshua J. Mark, published on 01 August 2023. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

Greek Alphabet

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