Boeotian alphabet

Phoenician and Greek alphabets
Phoenician		Greek
	ʼāleph	Α	alpha
	bēth	Β	beta
	gīmel	Γ	gamma
	dāleth	Δ	delta
	hē	Ε	epsilon
	wāw	Ϝ	digamma
		Υ	upsilon
	zayin	Ζ	zeta
	ḥēth	Η	eta
	ṭēth	Θ	theta
	yōdh	Ι	iota
	kaph	Κ	kappa
	lāmedh	Λ	lambda
	mēm	Μ	mu
	nun	Ν	nu
	sāmekh	Ξ	xi
	ʼayin	Ο	omicron
	pē	Π	pi
	ṣādē	Ϻ	san
	qōph	Ϙ	qoppa
	rēš	Ρ	rho
	šin	Σ	sigma
	tāw	Τ	tau
		Φ	phi
		Χ	chi
		Ψ	psi
		Ω	omega

The history of the Greek alphabet starts with the adoption of Phoenician letter forms and continues to the present day. This article concentrates on the early period, before the codification of the now-standard Greek alphabet.

The Phoenician alphabet was strictly speaking one that was consistently explicit only about consonants, though even by the 9th century BC it had developed matres lectionis to indicate some, mostly final, vowels. This arrangement is much less suitable for Greek than for Semitic languages, and these matres lectionis, as well as several Phoenician letters which represented consonants not present in Greek, were adapted according to the acrophonic principle to represent Greek vowels consistently, if not unambiguously.

The Greek alphabet was developed by a Greek with first-hand experience of contemporary Phoenician script. Almost as quickly as it was established in the Greek mainland, it was rapidly re-exported, eastwards to Phrygia, where a similar script was devised. It was also exported westwards with Euboean or West Greek traders, where the Etruscans adapted the Greek alphabet to their own language.

The earliest known fragmentary Greek inscriptions date from this time, 770–750 BC, and they match Phoenician letter forms of c. 800–750 BC. The oldest substantial texts known to date are the Dipylon inscription and the text on the so-called Cup of Nestor, both dated to the late 8th century BC, inscriptions of personal ownership and dedications to a god.

Some scholars argue for earlier dates: Naveh (1973) for the 11th century BC, Stieglitz (1981) for the 14th century, Bernal (1990) for the 18th–13th century, some for the 9th, but none of these are widely accepted.

According to legends recounted by Herodotus, the alphabet was first introduced to Greece by a Phoenician named Cadmus:

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