History of the Greek alphabet in the context of "Syllabic script"

Lambda(/ˈlæmdə/ ; uppercase Λ, lowercase λ; Greek: λάμ(β)δα, lám(b)da; Ancient Greek: λά(μ)βδα, lá(m)bda), sometimes rendered lamda, labda or lamma, is the eleventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant IPA: [l]; it derives from the Phoenician letter Lamed, and gave rise to Latin L and Cyrillic El (Л). In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. The ancient grammarians typically called it λάβδα (lắbdă, [lábda]) in Classical Greek times, whereas in Modern Greek it is λάμδα (lámda, [ˈlamða]), while the spelling λάμβδα (lámbda) was used (to varying degrees) throughout the lengthy transition between the two.

In early Greek alphabets, the shape and orientation of lambda varied. Most variants consisted of two straight strokes, one longer than the other, connected at their ends. The angle might be in the upper-left, lower-left ("Western" alphabets) or top ("Eastern" alphabets). Other variants had a vertical line with a horizontal or sloped stroke running to the right. With the general adoption of the Ionic alphabet, Greek settled on an angle at the top; the Romans put the angle at the lower-left.

Phoenician (/fəˈniːʃən/ fə-NEE-shən; Phoenician: śpt knʿn 𐤔𐤐𐤕𐤟𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 lit. 'language of Canaan') is an extinct Canaanite Semitic language originally spoken in the region surrounding the cities of Tyre and Sidon. Extensive Tyro-Sidonian trade and commercial dominance led to Phoenician becoming a lingua franca of the maritime Mediterranean during the Iron Age. The Phoenician alphabet spread to Greece during this period, where it became the source of all modern European scripts.

Phoenician belongs to the Canaanite languages and as such is quite similar to Biblical Hebrew and other languages of the group, at least in its early stages, and is therefore mutually intelligible with them.

Simonides of Ceos (/saɪˈmɒnɪˌdiːz/; Ancient Greek: Σιμωνίδης ὁ Κεῖος; c. 556 – 468 BC) was a Greek lyric poet, born in Ioulis on Ceos. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of the nine lyric poets esteemed by them as worthy of critical study. Included on this list were Bacchylides, his nephew, and Pindar, reputedly a bitter rival, both of whom benefited from his innovative approach to lyric poetry. Simonides, however, was more involved than either in the major events and with the personalities of their times.

Lessing, writing in the Enlightenment era, referred to him as "the Greek Voltaire." His general renown owes much to traditional accounts of his colourful life, as one of the wisest of men; as a greedy miser; as an inventor of a system of mnemonics; and the inventor of some letters of the Greek alphabet (ω, η, ξ, ψ). Such accounts include fanciful elements, yet he had a real influence on the sophistic enlightenment of the Classical era. His fame as a poet rests largely on his ability to present basic human situations with affecting simplicity. In the words of the Roman rhetorician Quintilian (35–100 AD):

Epsilon (/ˈɛpsɪlɒn/ , uppercase Ε, lowercase ε or ϵ; Greek: έψιλον) is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a mid front unrounded vowel IPA: [e̞] or IPA: [ɛ̝]. In the system of Greek numerals it also has the value five. It was derived from the Phoenician letter He . Letters that arose from epsilon include the Roman E, Ë and Ɛ, and Cyrillic Е, È, Ё, Є and Э. The name of the letter was originally εἶ (eî [êː]), but it was later changed to ἒ ψιλόν (è psilón 'simple e') in the Middle Ages to distinguish the letter from the digraph ⟨αι⟩, a former diphthong that had come to be pronounced [e], and because the digraph ⟨ει⟩ had become unsuitable due to its own shift to [i]. In Modern Greek, its name has fused into έψιλον (épsilon).

The uppercase form of epsilon is identical to Latin ⟨E⟩ but has its own code point in Unicode: U+0395 Ε GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON. The lowercase version has two typographical variants, both inherited from medieval Greek handwriting. One, the most common in modern typography and inherited from medieval minuscule, looks like a reversed number "3" and is encoded U+03B5 ε GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON. The other, also known as lunate or uncial epsilon and inherited from earlier uncial writing, looks like a semicircle crossed by a horizontal bar: it is encoded U+03F5 ϵ GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL. While in normal typography these are just alternative font variants, they may have different meanings as mathematical symbols: computer systems therefore offer distinct encodings for them. In TeX, \epsilon ( ${\displaystyle \epsilon \!}$ ) denotes the lunate form, while \varepsilon ( ${\displaystyle \varepsilon }$ ) denotes the epsilon number. Unicode versions 2.0.0 and onwards use ɛ as the lowercase Greek epsilon letter, but in version 1.0.0, ϵ was used. The lunate or uncial epsilon provided inspiration for the euro sign, €.