The Greek alphabet, introduced around 800 BC, was the first complete alphabet with letters for each vowel and consonant. Before it were the Semitic alphabet and Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Greek alphabet introduced five vowels and three new consonants. It was derived from Linear B, which was descended from Linear A of the Minoan civilization. Homer’s epic poems were the earliest written pieces with the Greek alphabet. Athens adopted the Ionian script in 403 BC as its standard alphabet.
The first complete alphabet in world history is the Greek alphabet, as it emerged around the beginning of Ancient Greece, about 800 BC. It is the world’s first complete alphabet, meaning it has a letter to represent each unique vowel and consonant character. The Greek alphabet is not the first alphabet in the world in general – that title goes to the Semitic alphabet, devised by Semitic workers in Egypt around 1800 BC Before both the Semitic and Greek alphabets there were Egyptian hieroglyphs, which they were considered a complete alphabet, because they had symbols for consonants but no vowels.
Some scholars object to the notion that the Greek alphabet was the first complete alphabet, pointing instead to the Phoenician alphabet, which by convention is believed to have originated around 1050 BC. These scholars argue that others confuse alphabets with systems of transcription and that the Phoenician alphabet does indeed include simple ways of representing vowels.
In any case, the Greek alphabet introduced five vowels: Α (alpha), Ε (epsilon), Ι (iota), Ο (omicron) and Υ (upsilon). You can see that all of these are preserved in most modern languages. English also has the addition of “U”. The language also introduced three new consonant letters not present in previous scripts: Φ (phi), Χ (chi), and Ψ (psi). Three other letters initially introduced eventually fell out of use: Ϻ (san), Ϝ (wau, later called digamma), and Ϙ (qoppa).
The Greek alphabet associated with Ancient Greece emerged soon after the end of the Greek Middle Ages, derived from the script known as Linear B, which in turn was descended from Linear A, the writing system of the ancient Minoan civilization. The Minoan civilization, which originated in 2700 BC, was the first major European civilization. The civilization collapsed in 1450 BC, probably due to a massive volcanic eruption on the island where they lived, Crete.
The earliest piece of writing with which the Greek alphabet is associated are Homer’s epic poems, published around 800 BC, which are still studied in schools today, as well as being commonly available in libraries. This was the introduction of the modern writing tradition, rather than passing stories by word of mouth, which is now some 2,800 years old.
At the time it was initially introduced, the Greek alphabet had several variations. In 403 BC Athens adopted the Ionian script for its standard alphabet and shortly thereafter all competing versions disappeared.
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