In its early days of being written, Mycenaean Greek was written using a syllabary. Yet for nearly 2,700 years, Greek has been written using an alphabet. As with other writing systems, different styles of writing developed over time. Similar to how modern English has many variations from italic to script and from upper case to lower case, ancient Greek also had different written variations.

Three major variations were the primitive Greek alphabet (uppercase), the uncial script, and the Greek minuscule script (lowercase).

Ancient Greek Alphabet: Typing with “Caps Lock” On

This is the easiest of the alphabets to learn. The most common place to use letters was to carve them into monuments. To facilitate the carving process, the letters tended to have few curves. They were also of a uniform size similar to what we call “capital” letters today. In fact, many of them are used as capital letters in the Latin script in which English is written.

Here is an example of 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 – Capital letters with some style

The uncial script appeared at the beginning of the first millennium AD. It was very similar to the monumental script. The letters were all in upper case and there were no spaces between the words when it was typed.

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 Minuscule 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 lower case. Others were a mix of the earlier uppercase (uppercase) and lowercase scripts. When the two styles of writing appeared together, the minuscule always prevailed. As in English, proper nouns and the first word of a paragraph will be capitalized. However, in ancient Greek, the first word of every 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 the monumental script has survived as the modern Greek capital letters, the minuscule script exists as the modern Greek minuscule letters. A modern Greek student would learn the upper and lower case scripts in order to be able to read and write the language.