The inscription of Nestor's Cup, found in Ischia; Cumae alphabet, 8th century BC

A Western (also Chalcidean) variant of the early Greek alphabet was in use in ca. the 8th to 5th centuries BC. It was used in Euboea (in Cuma, excavated in 1992) and anywhere west of Athens, especially in the Greek colonies of southern Italy (the Cumae alphabet of Cumae). The Eastern variant was in use in Anatolia and was adopted in Athens, and with Hellenism spread to the entire Greek speaking world, rendering the Western variant obsolete in the 4th century BC. Image File history File linksMetadata Nestor_Cup_Cumae. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Nestor_Cup_Cumae. ... The term Cup of Nestor or Nestors Cup can refer to: An object described in Homers Iliad, An 8th century BCE drinking vessel found at Pithikoussai, which bears a famous inscription calling itself Nestors cup. ... The island of Ischia near Naples, Italy. ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... Euboea or Negropont (Modern Greek: Εύβοια Evia, Ancient Greek Εúβοια Eúboia; see also List of traditional Greek place names), is the largest island of the Greek archipelago. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Kymi. ... Nickname: City of Athena or Cradle of Democracy Location of the city of Athens (red dot) within the Prefecture of Athens and Periphery of Attica Coordinates: Country Greece Peripheries Attica Prefecture Athens Founded 2000 BC Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis as of 2007 Area    - City 39 km²  - Urban 427 km²  - Metro 3... Cumae (Cuma, in Italian) is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. ... Anatolia lies east of the Bosphorus, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Anatolia is a peninsula of Western Asia which forms the greater part of the Asian portion of Turkey, as opposed to the European portion (Thrace, or traditionally Rumelia). ... Nickname: City of Athena or Cradle of Democracy Location of the city of Athens (red dot) within the Prefecture of Athens and Periphery of Attica Coordinates: Country Greece Peripheries Attica Prefecture Athens Founded 2000 BC Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis as of 2007 Area    - City 39 km²  - Urban 427 km²  - Metro 3... The Hellenistic period of Greek history was the period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the annexation of the Greek peninsula and islands by Rome in 146 BC. Although the establishment of Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic society and culture, which...

The Masiliana abecedarium (ca. 700 BC) shows an archaic variant of the Etruscan alphabet practically identical to the Western Greek alphabet, except for the presence of a Ξ or Samek, and shape of Z still close to Phoenician zayin.

It was this variant that gave rise to the Old Italic alphabets, including the Latin alphabet. Image File history File links Masiliana_tablet. ... Image File history File links Masiliana_tablet. ... Old Italic refers to a number of related historical alphabets used on the Italian peninsula which were used for some non-Indo-European languages (Etruscan and probably North Picene), various Indo-European languages belonging to the Italic branch (Faliscan and members of the Sabellian group, including Oscan, Umbrian, and South... Xi (upper case Ξ, lower case ξ) is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet. ... Samekh or Simketh is the fifteenth letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Hebrew, and Aramaic, representing . ... Zayin or Zain is the seventh letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Hebrew, and Aramaic. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ...

The letter inventory, expressed in standard (Eastern) Greek letters was

ΑΒΓΔΕϜΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΟΠϺϘΡΣΤΥΧΦΨ

i.e. including Digamma, San and Qoppa, but lacking Ξ and Ω. Of these, Δ was written more like Latin D. Σ is actually the Western variant, taken from Phoenician Shin, as opposed to Eastern lunate sigma Ϲ. In some variants, Ρ resembled Latin R. Digamma (upper case , lower case ) is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet, used primarily as a Greek numeral. ... San (uppercase , lowercase ) was a letter of the Greek alphabet, appearing between Pi and Qoppa in alphabetical order, corresponding in position although not in name to the Phoenician tsade. ... Qoppa Qoppa is an obsolete letter of the Greek alphabet and has a numeric value of 90. ... Xi (upper case Ξ, lower case ξ) is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet. ... Omega (Ω ω) is the 24th and last letter of the Greek alphabet. ... Delta (upper case Δ, lower case δ) is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. ... For other uses, see Sigma (disambiguation). ... Shin (also spelled Sin or Sheen) is the twenty-first letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic (in abjadi order, 12th in modern order). ... Look up Σ, σ, Ï‚ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1. ... Look up R, r in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Written from right to left:

Ψ

Φ

Ζ

Some letter values were different from those of the Eastern variant: Η was the consonant [h] (as in Old Attic), and Χ was [ks], the value taken by Eastern Ξ, while Ψ was [kʰ], the value of Eastern Χ. Image File history File links EtruscanX-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanV-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanT-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanS-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanR-01. ... Image File history File links Greek_alphabet_qoppa2. ... Image File history File links Greek_alphabet_san2. ... Image File history File links EtruscanP-01. ... -1... Image File history File links EtruscanN-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanM-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanL-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanK-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanI-01. ... Phoenician Teth. ... Image File history File links EtruscanH-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanF-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanE-01. ... Phoenician Daleth. ... Phoenician Gimel. ... Drawn by User:Nohat after drawings in Encyclopedia Britannica File links The following pages link to this file: B Categories: GFDL images ... Rendered by User:Nohat File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The History of the Greek alphabet starts with the adoption of Phoenician letterforms and continues to the present day. ... Xi (upper case Ξ, lower case ξ) is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet. ... For other uses, see Chi. ...

See also

• History of the Greek alphabet
• Nestor's Cup
• Alphabets of Asia Minor

The History of the Greek alphabet starts with the adoption of Phoenician letterforms and continues to the present day. ... The term Cup of Nestor or Nestors Cup can refer to: An object described in Homers Iliad, An 8th century BCE drinking vessel found at Pithikoussai, which bears a famous inscription calling itself Nestors cup. ... Various alphabetic writing systems were in use in Iron Age Anatolia to record Anatolian dialects and the Phrygian language. ...

References

• http://tickers.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A2451890
• H.Engelmann, Die Inschriften von Kyme (IGSK vol.5, Bonn 1976)