In its earliest days of being written, Mycenaean Greek was written using a syllabary. However, for nearly 2,700 years, Greek has been written using an alphabet. As with other writing systems, different writing styles developed over time. Similar to how modern English has many variations from cursive to script and from uppercase to lowercase, ancient Greek also had many different script variations.
Three major variations were the early Greek alphabet (uppercase), the uncial script, and the Greek minuscule script (lowercase).
Ancient Greek Alphabet – Writing with “Caps Lock” on
This is the easiest of the alphabets to learn. The most common place to use letters was to carve them on monuments. To facilitate the carving process, the letters tended to have few curves. They also had a uniform size similar to what we now call “caps” letters. In fact, many of them are used as capital letters in the Latin writing system in which English is written.
Here is an example from early Greek monumental writing:
Α, Β, Γ, Δ, Ε, Ζ, Η, Θ, Ι, Κ, Λ, Μ, Ν, Ξ, Ο, Π, Ρ, Σ, Τ, Υ, Φ, Χ, Ψ, Ω
The primitive alphabet was written without spaces or punctuation. The burden of differentiating between words and sentences would fall on the reader. A great example of this type of writing can be found on the Rosetta Stone.
Back Uncial Script – Capitals with some flair
Uncial writing appeared at the beginning of the first millennium AD It was very similar to monumental writing. The letters were all capital letters and there were no spaces between the words when it was written.
This script was often used to write on parchment and vellum. This is a key scripture to study for those interested in Greek, as a large volume of Greek works come from this period, including early Christian writings.
Greek lowercase script: Good things come in small packages
At some point in the last two thousand years, the Greek letters shrank. A style of writing known as minuscule (similar to lowercase letters) developed. Some works were written entirely in lowercase. Others were a mix of the earlier uppercase (uppercase) and lowercase scripts. When the two writing styles appeared together, the minuscule always prevailed. As in English, proper nouns and the first word of a paragraph would be capitalized. However, in ancient Greek, the first word of each sentence was not capitalized (unless it was a proper noun or the beginning of a paragraph as mentioned above).
Here is the lowercase alphabet:
α, β, γ, δ, ε, ζ, η, θ, ι, κ, λ, μ, ν, ξ, ο, π, ρ, σ, τ, υ, φ, χ, ψ, ω
Just as monumental script has survived as modern Greek capital letters, minuscule script exists as modern Greek lowercase letters. A student of modern Greek would learn the uppercase and lowercase scripts to be able to read and write the language.
