Archaic Greek alphabets: Difference between revisions

Many local variants of the [[Greek alphabet]] were employed in [[ancient Greece]] during the [[Archaic period in Greece|archaic]] and [[Classical period in Greece|early classical]] periods, until they were replaced by the classical 24-letter alphabet that is the standard today, around 400 BC. All forms of the Greek alphabet were originally based on the shared inventory of the 22 symbols of the [[Phoenician alphabet]], with the exception of the letter [[Samekh]], whose Greek counterpart [[Xi (letter)|Xi]] ({{lang|grc|Ξ}}) was used only in a sub-group of Greek alphabets, and with the common addition of [[Upsilon]] ({{lang|grc|Υ}}) for the vowel {{IPA|/u, ū/}}.{{sfn|Woodard|2010|pp=26–46}}{{sfn|Jeffery|1961|pp=21ff}} The local, so-called ''epichoric'', alphabets differed in many ways: in the use of the consonant symbols {{lang|grc|[[Chi (letter)|Χ]]}}, {{lang|grc|[[Phi|Φ]]}} and {{lang|grc|[[Psi (letter)|Ψ]]}}; in the use of the innovative long vowel letters ({{lang|grc|[[Ω]]}} and {{lang|grc|[[Η]]}}), in the absence or presence of Η in its original consonant function ({{IPA|/h/}}); in the use or non-use of certain archaic letters ({{lang|grc|[[Ϝ]]}} = {{IPA|/w/}}, {{lang|grc|[[Ϙ]]}} = {{IPA|/k/}}, {{lang|grc|[[Ϻ]]}} = {{IPA|/s/}}); and in many details of the individual shapes of each letter. The system now familiar as the standard 24-letter Greek alphabet was originally the regional variant of the [[Ionia]]n cities in Asia Minor. It was officially adopted in [[Athens]] in 403 BC and in most of the rest of the Greek world by the middle of the 4th century BC.