拉丁字母背后的古老历史：罗马字母 G 是怎么来的

注：机翻，未校。

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Latin Alphabet Changes: How the Roman Alphabet Got Its G

The Ancient History Behind Latin Letters

拉丁字母背后的古老历史

Araldo De Luca/Getty Images

By N.S. Gill

Updated on February 23, 2019

The letters of the Latin alphabet were borrowed from the Greek, but scholars believe indirectly from the ancient Italian people known as the Etruscans. An Etruscan pot found near Veii (a city which was sacked by Rome in the 5th century BCE) had the Etruscan abecedary inscribed on it, reminding the excavators of its Roman descendants. By the 7th century BCE, that alphabet was used not just to render Latin in written form, but several others of the Indo-European languages in the Mediterranean region, including Umbrian, Sabellic, and Oscan.
拉丁字母的字母是从希腊字母借来的，但学者们认为这一过程是间接的，源自古意大利的一个民族——伊特鲁里亚人。在维伊（公元前 5 世纪被罗马洗劫的城市）附近发现的一个伊特鲁里亚陶器上刻有伊特鲁里亚字母表，这使考古发掘者想起了它的罗马后代。到公元前7世纪，这种字母不仅被用于以书面形式表示拉丁语，还被用于地中海地区其他几种印欧语言，包括翁布里亚语、萨贝利克语和奥斯坎语。

The Greeks themselves based their written language on a Semitic alphabet, the Proto-Canaanite script which may have been created as long ago as the second millennium BCE. The Greeks passed it on to the Etruscans, the ancient people of Italy, and at some point before 600 BCE, the Greek alphabet was modified to become the alphabet of the Romans.
希腊人自己以闪米特字母为基础编写书面语言，即原始迦南文字，可能早在公元前两千年就已经创建。希腊人将其传给了古意大利民族的伊特鲁里亚人，在公元前 600 年之前的某个时候，希腊字母经过修改，演变为罗马字母。

Creating a Latin Alphabet—C to G 创建拉丁字母 - C 到 G

One of the main differences between the Romans’ alphabet in comparison with the Greeks’ is that the third sound of the Greek alphabet is a g-sound:
与希腊字母表相比，罗马字母表的主要区别之一是希腊字母表的第三个音是 g 音：

• Greek: 1st Letter = Alpha Α, 2nd = Beta Β, 3rd = Gamma Γ…
  希腊语：第 1 个字母 = α Α，第 2 个 = β Β，第 3 个 = γ Γ…

whereas in the Latin alphabet, the third letter is a C, and G is the 6th letter of the Latin alphabet.
而在拉丁字母表中，第三个字母是 C，G 是拉丁字母表的第 6 个字母。

Greek Alphabet 希腊字母表

Upper Case	Lower Case	Letter Name
Α	α	alpha
Β	β	beta
Γ	γ	gamma
Δ	δ	delta
Ε	ε	epsilon
Ζ	ζ	zeta
Η	η	eta
Θ	θ	theta
Ι	ι	iota
Κ	κ	kappa
Λ	λ	lamda
Μ	μ	mu
Ν	ν	nu
Ξ	ξ	xi
Ο	ο	omicron
Π	π	pi
Ρ	ρ	rho
Σ	σ,ς	sigma
Τ	τ	tau
Υ	υ	upsilon
Φ	φ	phi
Χ	χ	chi
Ψ	ψ	psi
Ω	ω	omega

• Latin: 1st Letter = A, 2nd = B, 3rd = C, 4th = D, 5th = E, 6th = G
  拉丁文：第 1 个字母 = A，第 2 个字母 = B，第 3 个字母 = C，第 4 个字母 = D，第 5 个字母 = E，第 6 个字母 = G

This shift resulted from changes to the Latin alphabet over time.
这种转变是由于拉丁字母随着时间的推移而发生变化。

The third letter of the Latin alphabet was a C, as in English. This “C” could be pronounced hard, like a K or soft like an S. In linguistics, this hard c/k sound is referred to as a voiceless velar plosive—you make the sound with your mouth open and from the back of your throat. Not only the C, but also the letter K, in the Roman alphabet, was pronounced like a K (again, hard or voiceless velar plosive). Like the word-initial K in English, the Latin K was rarely used. Usually—perhaps, always—the vowel A followed K, as in Kalendae ‘Kalends’ (referring to the first day of the month), from which we get the English word calendar. The use of the C was less restricted than the K. You can find a Latin C before any vowel.
拉丁字母表中的第三个字母是 C，就像英语中的 C 一样。这个 “C” 可以发硬音，像 K 一样，也可以发软音，像 S 一样。在语言学中，这种硬 C/K 的发音被称为清软腭塞音 —— 用张开的嘴和喉咙后部发出这个声音。不仅 C 字母如此，在罗马字母中，字母 K 的发音也是像 K（同样是硬音或清软腭塞音）。就像英语中词首的 K 一样，拉丁语中的 K 很少使用。通常 —— 也许总是 —— 元音 A 跟随 K，例如 Kalendae（意为“月初”，指每月的第一天），正是这个词源于我们英语中的“calendar”（日历）。相比之下，C 的使用要比 K 更为广泛。C 的使用比 K 的限制要少。你可以在任何元音前找到拉丁语的 C。

无声（voiceless）指的是在发音过程中声带不振动，因此不产生声音。软腭（velar）指的是发音时气流在软腭（位于口腔后部，靠近喉咙的部分）处受到阻碍。爆破音（plosive）或塞音（stop）指的是发音时气流在口腔内完全受阻，然后突然释放，产生一个短暂的爆破声。
在语言学中，这种发音指的是发音时声带不振动，同时气流在口腔后部受到阻碍后突然释放的塞音。这种声音在英语中通常用字母 “K” 来表示，而在拉丁语中，字母 “C” 和 “K” 都可以表示这种发音。
kalends [ˈkælendz] n. 初一（罗马古历的朔日，等于 calends）
在拉丁语中，字母 C 可以出现在任何元音字母之前，没有特定的限制。这与字母 K 的使用形成对比，因为 K 通常后面紧跟着元音 A，并且在拉丁语中使用较少。这种灵活性使得 C 在拉丁语中的使用更为广泛和多样。

The same third letter of the Latin alphabet, C, also served the Romans for the sound of G—a reflection of its origin in the Greek gamma (Γ or γ).
拉丁字母表中的第三个字母 C 也用于罗马人的 G 发音——这反映了它起源于希腊语 gamma（Γ 或 γ）。

Latin: The letter C = sound of K or G
拉丁语：字母 C = K 或 G 的发音

The difference is not as great as it looks since the difference between K and G is what is referred to linguistically as a difference in voicing: the G sound is the voiced (or “guttural”) version of the K (this K is the hard C, as in “card” [the soft C is pronounced like the c in cell, as “suh” and not relevant here]). Both are velar plosives, but the G is voiced and the K is not. At some period, the Romans seem not to have paid attention to this voicing, so the praenomen Caius is an alternative spelling of Gaius; both are abbreviated C.
这种差异并不像看起来的那么大，因为 K 和 G 之间的区别在语言学上被称为“发音”的差异：G 音是 K 的有声（或称“喉音”）版本（这里的 K 是硬音 C，像单词“card”中的发音，而软音 C 发音类似于“cell”中的 c，读作“suh”，与此无关）。两者都是软腭爆破音，但 G 是有声的而 K 是无声的。在某个时期，罗马人似乎没有关注这种发音差异，因此 praenomen Caius 是 Gaius 的另一种拼写；两者都缩写为 C。

When the velar plosives (C and G sounds) were separated and given different letterforms, the second C was given a tail, making it a G, and moved to the sixth place in the Latin alphabet, where the Greek letter zeta would have been, if it had been a productive letter for the Romans. It was not.
当软腭爆破音（C 和 G 音）被区分并赋予不同的字形时，第二个 C 被加上了一个尾巴，变成了 G，并移到了拉丁字母表中的第六位，如果希腊字母 zeta 对罗马人来说是一个有效的字母的话，它本应处于这一位置。但实际上并非如此。

Adding Z Back In 将 Z 重新添加

An early version of the alphabet used by some ancient people of Italy did, in fact, include the Greek letter zeta. Zeta is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet, following alpha (Roman A), beta (Roman B), gamma (Roman C), delta (Roman D), and epsilon (Roman E).
事实上，一些古意大利民族使用的早期字母表确实包括希腊字母 zeta。Zeta 是希腊字母表中的第六个字母，顺序为 alpha（罗马字母 A）、beta（罗马字母 B）、gamma（罗马字母 C）、delta（罗马字母 D）和 epsilon（罗马字母 E）。

• Greek: Alpha Α, Beta Β, Gamma Γ, Delta Δ, Epsilon Ε, Zeta Ζ
  希腊语：α Α、β Β、γ Γ、δ Δ、ε Ε、ζ Ζ

Where zeta (Ζ or ζ) was used in Etruscan Italy, it kept its 6th place.
在意大利伊特鲁里亚使用 zeta（Ζ 或 ζ）的地方，它保持了第 6 位。

The Latin alphabet originally had 21 letters in the first century BCE, but then, as the Romans became Hellenized, they added two letters at the end of the alphabet, a Y for the Greek upsilon, and a Z for the Greek zeta, which then had no equivalent in the Latin language.
拉丁字母表最初在公元前一世纪有 21 个字母，但随着罗马人逐渐希腊化，他们在字母表的末尾添加了两个字母，一个是代表希腊字母 upsilon 的 Y，另一个是代表希腊字母 zeta 的 Z，而这两个字母在拉丁语言中并没有对应的字母。

Latin: 拉丁语：

• a.) Early Alphabet: A B C D E F H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X

• b.) Later Alphabet: A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X

• c.) Still Later:         ~~~~~~~         A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z

Sources

• Gordon AE. 1969. On the Origins of the Latin Alphabet: Modern Views. California Studies in Classical Antiquity 2:157-170.
• Verbrugghe GP. 1999. Transliteration or Transcription of Greek. The Classical World 92(6):499-511.
• Willi A. 2008. Cows, Houses, Hooks: The Graeco-Semitic Letter Names as a Chapter in the History of the Alphabet. The Classical Quarterly 58(2):401-423.

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via：

• Latin Alphabet Changes: How the Roman Alphabet Got Its G

  https://www.thoughtco.com/latin-alphabet-changes-119429