Prof.

Smit
11/17/09
Jared Eliason
Portfolio B: Cultural-Chronological Context

Etruscan Cultural Transmission and the Roman Alphabet

One difficulty and a significant distinction arise in the attempt to characterize the
cultural framework of the genesis of the Roman Alphabet. First, is the point to distinguish
the name of the main trunk of European languages, the Roman alphabet, from the
primary milieu of its invention. While it may seem peculiar to emphasize an Etruscan,
rather than Roman or Latin, cultural examination, I take my cue from Steven Fischer who
maintains that from the Etruscan civilization, originating in what is modern day Tuscany,
“The Greek alphabet’s most significant borrowing occurred…” (137). Similarly, David
Sacks notes, “from the West Greek alphabet, the Etruscan letters would provide the
model and inspiration for the Roman alphabet.” (74). As the Early Latin alphabet, with a
few omissions, was almost entirely derived from the Etruscan collection of letters
(Fischer 138, Sacks 81), I take this preponderant borrowing to be akin to invention in its
own right.
The translation of the Greek alphabetic and writing system to the Roman
construction was accomplished primarily through the intermediary of this Etruscan
adoption and adaptation (Robinson 152). Although the later Roman civilization absorbed
(yet also largely originated from) the Etruscan culture and alphabet in its political
dominance of the Italian peninsula by the end of the 2nd century B.C., the role of the
Etruscans in the progression of the history of writing “cannot be overestimated.”
(Diringer 386). While I will highlight the Etruscan transmission of the Greek alphabet to
rudimentary Latin forms, Roman civilization, emerging in political dominance during the
300s B.C., was in no way a peripheral force in advancing the alphabet to A.D. versions.
A complication arises in determining a definite time period— whether a decade,
half-century or more— for which the invention of the Roman alphabet can find its
approximate locus. As many inventions throughout history are more or less extended in
their development and fluid in terms of cultural definition (the “invention” of the 1980s
computer versus today’s re-inventions, re-definitions), so was the Roman alphabet not
born of one mind and a pair of hands during a short succession of moments or days. In its
contemporarily recognizable, Modern European form, the Latin system of letters is rather
an aggregation of multiple cultures (Phoenician, Greek, Etruscan, Roman, European)
over two millennia (Robinson 169, Sacks 81).
Nonetheless, a space-time range can be assigned to the emergence of the Latin
alphabet: around the “shin” of Italy’s boot (central Italy near Naples) and from the late
seventh century to the end of the third century B.C. Tracking the alphabet’s progress
through Greek colonization, Etruscan cultural adoption, and Roman political dominance
will provide a cultural history that incorporates important geographical, political, and
linguistic factors.
Preparing the ground for the Etruscan alphabetic bridge were Greek sailors
(Pallottino 81) who settled in Pithekoussai (modern day Ischia) around 775 B.C.
(Robinson 152). As Etruscan political control moved south from the Tiber River (and
ancient Rome) in the sixth century (Salmon 27), its cultural sphere overlapped with
Greek colonist influence, the most important interaction between Etruscan oral culture
and the Greek’s Phoenician-born alphabet. The main reason why the Etruscan alphabet is
a marked departure from the Greek (Western/Euboean form) is that the Etruscans had no
comparable speech cousins in the Greek empire or on the Italic peninsula (Haynes 1).
The most likely explanation for its differentiation from neighboring tongues is that
Etruscan had non-Indo-European origins (Salmon 26). The Etruscan language behind the
Greek-borrowed alphabet is still shrouded in mystery to this day (Sacks 78, Fischer 137);
its decipherment, Robinson notes, is said to be like “trying to learn English by reading
nothing but (old and worn, I presume) gravestones.” (9).
As Greek trading ports were established farther north and inland, most notably at
Neapolis (Naples), the Etruscan’s contact with these establishments led to cultural
identification with the imported religious and social customs, art, literature, architecture,
and military methods of Greek civilization. While the word “Etruscan” is rooted in the
Roman naming Etrusci or Tusci (Haynes 52), Etruscans became very much Greek in their
societal structure, values, and artistic expressions (Sacks 76). The earliest Greek letters
used by the Etruscans appear on the tombs of political leaders and for inscriptions on
pottery (Haynes 67, Sacks 77).
At the turn of seventh to the sixth century, the Etruscan flow of writing generally
followed the older Semitic and Phoenician direction of right to left, or the odd serpentine
method called boustrophedon, where lines of writing alternate right-to-left, then left-to-
right. However, later Etruscan alphabets reveal a switch to left-to-right orientation, most
likely a Latin influence (Fischer 140). Another significant Etruscan adaptation of the
Greek alphabet came with the abandonment of previous Semitic naming of letters that
signify object-word relationships to a phonetically derived alphabet. One example that
can illuminate the Etruscan shift to sound-letter association is the journey of the letter /L/.
In Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets, L was pronounced lah-med, meaning “ox goad”.
When the Greeks adopted the letter into their novel, vowel-supplemented alphabet, they
called it lambda, dropping the ox-goad association (Sacks 218). Holding the 12th position
as in today’s alphabet, L was incorporated into the Etruscan collection of letters but again
experienced a reduction in its pronunciation. Whereas before L was pronounced lah-med
or lambda, the Etruscans pared it down to “el” according to the vowel system of their
speech (Fischer 140). This adaptation has carried through to today when we hear
recitations of our twenty-six letters, “jay, kay, el, em, en…”. A century after Greek
maritime settlements crept up the coast of central Italy, the Etruscans had virtually
invented a new alphabet. Although many Etruscan letters followed Phoenician and Greek
antecedents, this intermediary culture had transformed the alphabet through their
archaeologically enigmatic oral tradition.
As the early Roman republic (established 509 B.C.) grew in power over the
Etruscan civilization, the morphing alphabet contributed greatly to literacy and the
unification of Roman city-states (Salmon 122). Although the Etruscans were eclipsed
politically by 264 B.C., their writing system served as a social catalyst for the growing
Roman world power. Except for the five letters J, V, W, Y, and Z, and excluding five
letters from the Etruscan twenty-six (Sacks 81), the Latin alphabet shapes assumed a
form that we would be able read and write with today.

Works Cited:
Diringer, David. The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind. Vol. 1. New York:
Funk and Wagnalls, 1968. Print. 2 vols.

Fischer, Steven R. A History of Writing. London: Reaktion Books, 2001. Print.

Haynes, Sybille. Etruscan Civilization . Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000.
Print.

Pallottino, Massimo . The Etruscans. Bloomington & London: Indiana University Press,
1975. Print.

Robinson, Andrew . The Story of Writing. London: Thames and Hudson, 2007. Print.

Sacks, David . Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet From A to Z .
New York: Broadway Books, 2004. Print.

Salmon, E. T. The Making of Roman Italy. Ithaca: Cornel University Press, 1982. Print.