The Latin Alphabet
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The Latin Alphabet Latin uses the same alphabet as English. In fact, it’s called the Roman alphabet because the ancient Romans invented it, building on Etruscan and Greek. In Latin, the letter w is not used, and k only appears in a couple of obsolete words and proper names. The letters j and v are variants of i and u invented in the Renaissance; some editors use these letters in certain circumstances while others never do. The last two letters, y and z, are only used in words borrowed from Greek, not in native Latin words. Here are the letters with their Latin names and a guide to their sounds. form name IPA sounds like a a¯ short: @, long: a: a in father b be¯ b b in big c ce¯ k k in maker, never like s or ch d de¯ d d in dare e e¯ short: e, long: e: e in pet f ef f f in father g ge¯ g g in goat, never as in gem h ha¯ h h in happy i ¯ı short: i, long: i: i in pit k ka¯ (ca)¯ k k in maker l el l l in lemon m em m m in mouse n en n n in nice o o¯ short: o, long: o: o in pot p pe¯ p p in spot q quu¯ (cu)¯ kw q in quick r er r r in read s es s s in sand, never like z t te¯ t t in kitten u u¯ short: u, long: u: u in put x ix ks x in axe y hy¯ short: y, long: y: u¨ in German ¨uber or u in French tu z zeta¯ z z in zebra Later, y comes to be called ¯ıgraeca, since it is only used in Greek loanwords. The Romans used letters to denote numbers: I = 1, V = 5, X = 10, L = 50, C = 100, D = 500, M = 1000. (C stands for centum, the Latin word for 100, and M stands for mille, which means 1000.) To write other numbers we repeat symbols: II = 2, III = 3, IIII = 4; the Romans also wrote IV, “one from five,” for 4, and in the Renaissance this became an invariable rule. Either capital or lower-case letters may be used, and printed books frequently use small capitals, so 7 can be written as VII, vii, or VII. Thus: 1 I 30 XXX 2 II 40 XL 3 III 50 L 4 IV 60 LX 5 V 70 LXX 6 VI 80 LXXX 7 VII 90 XC 8 VIII 100 C 9 IX 110 CX 10 X 123 CXXIII 11 XI 299 CCXCIX 12 XII 547 DXLVII 13 XIII 876 DCCCLXXVI 14 XIV 900 CM 15 XV 950 CML 16 XVI 1000 M 17 XVII 1001 MI 18 XVIII 1200 MCC 19 XIX 1900 MCM 20 XX 2345 MMCCCXLV.