Cumae alphabet

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The inscription of Nestor's Cup, found in Ischia; Cumae alphabet, 8th century BC

A Western (also Chalcidean) variant of the early Greek alphabet was in use in ca. the 8th to 5th centuries BC. It was used in Euboea (in Cuma, excavated in 1992) and anywhere west of Athens, especially in the Greek colonies of southern Italy (the Cumae alphabet of Cumae). The Eastern variant was in use in Anatolia and was adopted in Athens, and with Hellenism spread to the entire Greek speaking world, rendering the Western variant obsolete in the 4th century BC.

The Masiliana abecedarium (ca. 700 BC) shows an archaic variant of the Etruscan alphabet practically identical to the Western Greek alphabet, except for the presence of a Ξ or Samek, and shape of Z still close to Phoenician zayin.

It was this variant that gave rise to the Old Italic alphabets, including the Latin alphabet.

The letter inventory, expressed in standard (Eastern) Greek letters was

ΑΒΓΔΕϜΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΟΠϺϘΡΣΤΥΧΦΨ

i.e. including Digamma, San and Qoppa, but lacking Ξ and Ω. Of these, Δ was written more like Latin D. Σ is actually the Western variant, taken from Phoenician Shin, as opposed to Eastern lunate sigma Ϲ. In some variants, Ρ resembled Latin R.

Written from right to left:

Some letter values were different from those of the Eastern variant: Η was the consonant [h] (as in Old Attic), and Χ was [ks], the value taken by Eastern Ξ, while Ψ was [kʰ], the value of Eastern Χ.