The spread of the Latin script has a long history, from its archaic beginnings in Latium to its rise as the dominant writing system in modernity. The ancestors of Latin letters are found in the Phoenician, Greek, and Etruscan alphabets. As the Roman Empire expanded in classical antiquity, the Latin script and language spread along with its conquests, and remained in use in Italy, Iberia, and Western Europe after the Western Roman Empire's disappearance. During the early and high Middle Ages, the script was spread by Christian missionaries and rulers, replacing the indigenous writing systems of Central Europe, Northern Europe, and the British Isles. In the Age of Discovery, the first wave of European colonization saw the adoption of Latin alphabets primarily in the Americas and Australia, whereas sub-Saharan Africa, maritime Southeast Asia, and the Pacific were Latinised in the period of New Imperialism. Realizing that Latin was now the most widely used script on Earth, the Bolsheviks made efforts to develop and establish Latin alphabets for all languages in the lands they controlled in Eastern Europe, North and Central Asia. However, after the Soviet Union's first three decades, these were gradually abandoned in the 1930s in favour of Cyrillic. Some post-Soviet Turkic-majority states decided to reintroduce the Latin script in the 1990s, following the 1928 example of Turkey. In the early 21st century, non-Latin writing systems were only still prevalent in most parts of the Middle East and North Africa, the post-Soviet states, Asia, and some Balkan countries.
Protohistory
The Latin script originated in archaic antiquity in the Latium region in central Italy. It is generally held that the Latins, one of many ancient Italic tribes, adopted the western variant of the Greek alphabet in the 7th century BCE from Cumae, a Greek colony in southern Italy – making the early Latin alphabet one among several Old Italic scripts emerging at the time. The early Latin script was heavily influenced by the then regionally dominant Etruscan civilization; the Latins ultimately adopted 22 of the original 26 Etruscan letters, which derived from Western Greek as well. It is highly probable that the Latins received their alphabet via the Etruscans rather than directly from the Greek colonists.
Antiquity
Latinisation of Italy
Along with the Latin language, the Latin writing system first spread over the Italian Peninsula with the rise of the Roman Republic from the 4th to the 1st century BCE. By the 4th century, the Latin alphabet had been standardised by the city of Rome and begun to dominate Latium. Other local alphabets in Latium fell into disuse, particularly after the Latin War (340–338 BCE). There is evidence for a phase of bilingualism and digraphia in the late 4th and 3rd centuries in Etruria, Campania, Umbria, and most other Central Italian regions that were conquered by the Romans (primarily during the Samnite Wars of 343–290 BCE), or maintained frequent contact with the Romans and other Latins, who set up numerous coloniae in annexed and allied territories. The participation of Italic peoples in the Roman army accelerated the Romanisation and Latinisation process. Umbria seems to have switched from its own script in the 2nd century BCE to Latin in the 1st. After the subjugation of Southern Italy in the Pyrrhic War (280–275 BCE), Messapic (using a Greek-derived alphabet) disappeared completely, and with the exception of the two Griko enclaves that still exist in the 21st century, Latin replaced all Greek in Magna Graecia. Livy reports that the local government of Cumae – the Greek colony that may have originally spread its alphabet to the Latins via the Etruscans – made an unsolicited request in the 2nd century BCE to henceforth use Latin in public affairs. After the First Punic War (264–241 BCE), the Latin script gradually took over written communication on Sardinia from Paleo-Sardinian (also termed "Nuragic"), on Corsica from Paleo-Corsican, and on Sicily from Greek and the local Sicula, Sicani, and Elymian languages. The Roman conquest of Mediolanum (Milan) in 222 BCE commenced the Latinisation of the Po Valley. The Latinisation of Italy was resisted by various ethnic groups, however, most notably the Samnites, who regarded their Oscan language and script as part of their identity, and employed it in clear opposition to Rome, for example in coinage during the Social War (91–87 BCE). The Veneti, though steadfast allies of the Romans for centuries, retained their own alphabet until the end of the Roman Republic (27 BCE). According to Lomas (2004), the crucial factor in Latinising these remaining groups that resisted full integration was granting them Roman citizenship (most notably by the Lex Iulia de Civitate Latinis et Sociis Danda in 90 BCE), thereby leading them to participate in Roman–Latin society and gradually abandon their Italic, Etruscan, Celtic etc. cultural independence.
Western Mediterranean and Gaul
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