CUMA

CUMA (also known as the Cumaean Alphabet) is an ancient script used in the region of Cuma, an ancient Greek colony located near Naples, Italy. The script is a variant of the Greek alphabet, adapted to suit the phonetic requirements of the local Italic languages.

History

The Cumaean alphabet was developed in the 8th century BC, during the period of Greek colonization in Southern Italy. The alphabet was used primarily in the city of Cuma, which was the first Greek colony on the Italian peninsula. The Cumaean alphabet is considered a direct descendant of the Phoenician alphabet, which was adapted by the Greeks and subsequently by the Italic peoples.

Characteristics

The Cumaean alphabet consists of 20 letters, each representing a distinct phoneme. The script is written from right to left, a characteristic it shares with the Phoenician and early Greek alphabets. The Cumaean alphabet is notable for its inclusion of the letter 'F', which was not present in the original Greek alphabet but was added to represent a sound common in Italic languages.

Legacy

The Cumaean alphabet played a significant role in the development of the Latin alphabet, which was adapted from the Etruscan alphabet, itself a variant of the Cumaean. The Latin alphabet, used to write the Latin language, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today.

See also

• History of the alphabet
• Greek alphabet
• Phoenician alphabet
• Latin alphabet

References

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