Looks like there was a moment between Archaic Latin and Roman when a lot of letters got turned around
this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2025
44 points (97.8% liked)
Latin
1 readers
84 users here now
Salve! Haec communitas de lingua Latina in lemmy est.
Dictata (rules):
- All type of content is allowed, from questions to memes, as long as it is about Latin.
- Think before you post or comment.
- Be kind.
founded 17 hours ago
MODERATORS
Yep, because Phoenician was a RTL language, but its descents are LTR. Later on, they flipped letters to match the direction, since it was uncomfortable to write letters from a right to left language from left to right.
I like how modern is just sans serif Roman (+a few letters).
i don't understand your comment.
how modern is modern latin?
The Roman font is serif, the Modern Latin font is sans serif
it was just a silly observation about font choices.
Besides the sans serif modern (i guess to imply modernity) it's an accurate image. I honestly don't know why they did that, pretty much the same thing.
Oh, my family’s not dyslexic! They’re archaic!!
how did the I becone the Z and the Z became the I? why are half the letters mirrored frim archaic latin to roman?
i wasn't an i. It was a different sound represented by a sign that resembled i.
For the I to Z, I'm not entirely sure, but it doesn't seem too ridiculous.
As for why it was flipped, it's because Phoenician was right to left, and Greek/latin are descended from it, but they are left to right instead. I guess the ancient Greeks/Latin tribes didn't bother just fixing the letters. They eventually catched up and flipped it later on, though.
Language evolution is wacky, but beautiful :)