Latin Alphabet

The Latin alphabet is the alphabet that was used by the Romans to write the Latin language. It is now used for many of the languages of Europe, including English.

The Latin alphabet was derived from that of the Etruscans, who derived theirs from the Greek alphabet, who derived theirs from the Phoenician alphabet.

By the 1st century BC the Latin alphabet consisted of A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, V and X. The letters Y and Z where soon added to aid in transcriptions of Greek words. J, U and W were not added until the Middle Ages to represent variant uses of I and V.