The Greeks made several crucial adaptations to the Phoenician alphabet, shaping it to suit their own language's requirements.
A to Alpha and E to Epsilon: The Greeks introduced their own vowel characters for alpha (A) and epsilon (E).
Separate Vowels and Consonants: The Greeks identified vowel sounds and designated specific characters for them, distinguishing vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u) from consonant letters. In contrast, Phoenician script assigned a consonant sound to each letter, and vowels had to be interpolated mentally during reading.
Additional Consonants: To accommodate sounds prevalent in Greek that were absent in Phoenician, the Greeks introduced new consonant letters, such as gamma (Γ) for the 'g' sound and phi (Φ) for the 'ph' sound.
Directionality: The Phoenicians wrote from right to left. After experimenting briefly with this style, the Greeks reversed the writing direction to left to right.
Greek Alphabet Order: The Greeks organized their alphabet in a sequence different from the Phoenician alphabet, likely following the natural patterns of their language and pedagogical preferences.
The final Greek alphabet consisted of 24 letters, including 7 vowels (a, e, i, o, u, y, w) and 17 consonants (b, g, d, z, th, k, l, m, n, x, p, r, s, t, ph, ch, ps).
Thus, the Greeks transformed the Phoenician alphabet to create a new and refined writing system that catered to the specific needs of their language and cultural context. The resulting Greek alphabet became the foundation for many other alphabets, including the Cyrillic, Latin, and Coptic scripts, shaping written communication in Europe and beyond.