--- Marco Cimarosti <marco.cimarosti@...>
wrote:

> How was each letter of the alphabet called in

Latin?...

>

--Reply--
From my reading research, here're the original Latin
names for our letters:

> A [a]
> B [be]
> C [ce] (=/keh/)
> D [de]
> E [e]
> F [ef]
> G [ge]
> H [ha]; later [accha] (=/ak' khah/)
> I [i]
> J --
> K [ka]
> L [el]
> M [em]
> N [en]
> O [o]
> P [pe]
> Q [qu] (=/koo/ velar) or (=/qoo/uvular)
> R [er]
> S [es]
> T [te]
> U [u]
> V [ve] (later in Latin)
> W --
> X [ex] (=/ehks/) or [ix] (=/ihks/)
> Y [ypsilon] (=/�' psee-lohn/ Greek)
> Z [zeta](=/dzey' tah/ Greek)
>

>
> My biggest doubts are with letters "H" (Was it
> really named ['hakka]? If it
> wasn't, where do Italian "acca", and French "hache"
> come from?) and "K" (Did
> it really have a Greek name? If it did, what's the
> reason? Unlike "Y" and
> "Z", "K" has always been in the Latin alphabet?).
>

<H> was originally called 'ha' in Latin; it later was
renamed 'accha', after an attempt to imitate its
traditional sound--therefore, 'aitch' (=/eytch'/
English), 'hache' (=/ahsh'/ French, /ah-cheh'/
Spanish), ... .
<K> was called 'ka' in Latin, although sparingly used
then; <C> was 'ce' (=/keh'/) because that was the
letter normally used for /k/, while <Q> got referred
to as 'qu' (since the Romans only used that in <qu->).
As for <Y> and <Z>, the Romans referred to them by
their original Greek names--<Y> originally for /�/
[much later for /y/ the consonant], and <Z> at first
for the affricate /dz/ (which alternates with /ts/ in
Italian) [later on for our sibilant /z/].

>
> Finally does "modern Latin" have names for modern
> letters derived from "I"
> and "V"?:
>
> i
> j
> u
> v
> w
>
>

<I> is /ee/ while <U> is /oo/! <V> acquired the
original name 've' later on in Latin. <J> got a name
that often alternates with that for <G>, and <W> had
an original name of 'wynn' from Anglo-Saxon--before it
got one on the Latinate 'double-u' or 'double-v'
formula. Similarly, <Y> obtained its current name
'whaye' by modern English ('Greek-y' or 'ypsilon' in
certain languages); <Z> is usually called 'zee' by
Americans, but as 'zed' by Canadians and British, yet
again--as 'izzard' in certain dialects, ... .

Robert Lloyd Wheelock
Augusta, ME USA






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