Why do we have upper case and lower case letters?

The terms “uppercase” and “lowercase” come from the way in which print shops were organized hundreds of years ago. The smaller letters, which were used most often, were kept in a lower case that was easier to reach. Capital letters, which were used less frequently, were kept in an upper case.

How did lower case letters develop?

The lower case (minuscule) letters developed in the Middle Ages from New Roman Cursive writing, first as the uncial script, and later as minuscule script. It came into common use in the later 11th century, replacing the runic Wynn letter which had been used for the same sound.

How did the Roman alphabet develop?

Origins. It is generally believed that the Latin alphabet used by the Romans was derived from the Old Italic alphabet used by the Etruscans. That alphabet was derived from the Euboean alphabet used by the Cumae, which in turn was derived from the Phoenician alphabet.

When were upper and lower case letters invented?

The minuscules were in the lower. This case storage system gave rise to the names uppercase and lowercase to refer to majuscule and minuscule scripts, respectively. The terms were first used in the 18th century and filtered into public usage thereafter.

When was Roman alphabet invented?

6th century BC
The Origin of Latin Letters. The Latin alphabet, the basis of the Latin language, was born around 6th century BC in Italy. It is known across almost all Western countries.

How is Roman alphabet?

The Classical Latin alphabet consisted of 23 letters, 21 of which were derived from the Etruscan alphabet. In medieval times the letter I was differentiated into I and J and V into U, V, and W, producing an alphabet equivalent to that of modern English with 26 letters.

Why are there two lower case A?

“The TL;DR is that it’s basically a historical accident: There were loads of variations of the letter ‘a’ and one became standard in printing while a less fancy one became standard in handwriting, presumably because people are lazy when they have to do things by hand,” writes Reddit user F0sh.

Do we use the Roman alphabet?

Latin alphabet, also called Roman alphabet, the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and the languages of most of Europe and those areas settled by Europeans.