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So ... prepping my #WritingSystems class for next fall, and looking at the origins of the Latin alphabet. The Latin writing system is (mainly) derived from Etruscan (a language spoken around what is now central and northern Italy), which had adapted its writing from Greek.
Okay, but it was a particular flavour of Greek writing the Etruscans used, from Euboea (Εὔβοια). There are two really cool things about Euboean Greek. (1/3)
The first is that some Euboean letter forms differed from their normal Greek counterparts in ways that foreshadowed (in hindsight) how Latin would look. Gamma, for example, was more of a "𐌂" in Euboea, where regular Greek Gamma was more "Γ". This is the letter that became our "C". And Greek delta "Δ" was more kind of lifted on the right - and sometimes rounded - like "𐌃". Thus our "D". There are others - sigma and rho. Cool!
(2/3)
The second is maybe just interesting to me: Euboea is an old way of transcribing Εὔβοια, the name of the large Greek island where this variety of Greek was spoken and written. In my Masters degree in Edinburgh, I had a classmate, Evia. She is named for that island, and "Evia" is the modern transliteration of Εὔβοια.
So, in a way, she is named after a place that turned out to be a nursery for an early version of the Latin alphabet.
(3/3)
(Also, I remember Evia - the person - lamenting to me that her name actually derives from roots meaning "good ox". I think it's a lovely name - more now that I know the alphabet connection.)
Τα λέμε!