The Greek alphabet, consisting of 24 letters and is thought to have come about into existence in the 8th or 9th Century BC.
Greek symbols are also used in computer programming. You see? We have a lot to ‘thank’ the Greeks for.
I could write a whole long post about the Greek Alphabet, but as there is no ‘W’, I’ll let you look at the alphabet table below and research yourself. Suffice to say, I’ve been in Greece 3.5 years and you’ll often find me at the back of the trolley or bus, muttering away to myself out loud when I see signs on shops, etc., trying to pronounce the words. I’m getting there, albeit slowly, and with a lot of odd looks from people.
Featured image courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet
Hi Bex .. good to meet you over on my Castles postings .. your time in Cairo and Greece, et al – as you’ve obviously been to lots of interesting sites – will be great to read.
No W – one of the more challenging languages to learn .. or at least understand .. beautiful place though .. cheers Hilary
As wikipedia helpfully explains: “In Europe, there are only a few languages that use W in native words and all are located in a central-western European zone between Cornwall and Poland.” I had never thought of myself as speaking a language located between Cornwall and Poland, but there you have it and it clearly leaves out Greece.
“W” in English does nothing “o” or “u” cannot do as well phonetically and in other languages in fact do. For example, in Greek transliterations of western place names that start with “W” they use “ou”.