Latin script

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Latin Roman
Script type	Alphabet (impure) and Bicameral
Time period	c. 700 BC – present
Direction	left-to-right
Languages	Most Western European languages, including Latin Many Turkic, Finno-Ugric and Eskimo–Aleut languages Basque Polynesian languages Some African, Austronesian and Austroasiatic languages Official script in: show 129 sovereign states  Albania  Andorra  Angola  Antigua and Barbuda  Argentina  Australia  Austria  Azerbaijan  Bahamas  Barbados  Belgium  Belize  Benin  Bolivia  Botswana  Brazil  Burkina Faso  Burundi  Cameroon  Canada  Cape Verde  Central African Republic  Chile  Colombia  Congo  Costa Rica  Cote D'Ivoire  Croatia  Cuba  Czech Republic  Denmark  Democratic Republic of Congo  Dominica  Dominican Republic  East Timor  Ecuador  El Salvador  Equatorial Guinea  Estonia  Fiji  Finland  France  Gabon  Gambia  Ghana  Germany  Grenada  Guatemala  Guinea  Guyana  Haiti  Honduras  Hungary  Iceland  Indonesia  Ireland  Italy  Jamaica  Kenya  Kiribati  Latvia  Lesotho  Liberia  Liechtenstein  Lithuania  Luxembourg  Madagascar  Malawi  Malaysia  Mali  Malta  Marshall Islands  Mexico  Micronesia  Moldova  Monaco  Mozambique  Namibia  Nauru  Netherlands  New Zealand  Nicaragua  Niger  Nigeria  Norway  Palau  Panama  Papua New Guinea  Paraguay  Peru  Philippines  Poland  Portugal  Romania  Rwanda  Samoa  San Marino  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Saint Lucia  São Tomé and Príncipe  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  Senegal  Sierra Leone  Slovakia  Slovenia  Solomon Islands  South Africa  Spain  South Sudan  Suriname  Swaziland  Sweden   Switzerland  Tanzania  Togo  Tonga  Trinidad and Tobago  Turkey  Turkmenistan  Tuvalu  Uganda  United Kingdom  United States  Uruguay  Uzbekistan  Vanuatu   Vatican City  Venezuela  Vietnam  Zambia  Zimbabwe Co-official script in: show 14 sovereign states  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Chad  China  Djibouti  Eritrea  India  Kazakhstan  Mauritania  Montenegro  Pakistan  Serbia  Singapore [a]  Somalia  Sudan  European Union  United Nations
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic script Phoenician alphabet Greek alphabet Old Italic script Latin
Child systems	Fraser alphabet (Lisu) Osage script Latin alphabet (partially) several phonetic alphabets, such as IPA, which have been used to write languages with no native script (partially) Pollard script (Miao) (partially) Caroline Island script (Woleaian) (indirectly) Cherokee syllabary (indirectly, partially) Yugtun script
Sister systems	Cyrillic script Glagolitic script Armenian alphabet Georgian script Coptic alphabet Runes
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Latn, 215 , ​Latin
Unicode
Unicode alias	Latin
Unicode range	See Latin characters in Unicode
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Latin script, also known as Roman script, is a set of graphic signs (script) based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet. This is derived from a form of the Cumaean Greek version of^{[citation needed]} the Greek alphabet used by the Etruscans. Several Latin-script alphabets exist, which differ in graphemes, collation and phonetic values from the classical Latin alphabet.

The Latin script is the basis of the International Phonetic Alphabet and the 26 most widespread letters are the letters contained in the ISO basic Latin alphabet.

Latin script is the basis for the largest number of alphabets of any writing system^[1] and is the most widely adopted writing system in the world (commonly used by about 70 percent of the world's population). Latin script is used as the standard method of writing in most Western, Central, as well as in some Eastern European languages, as well as in many languages in other parts of the world.

Name[]

The script is either called Latin script or Roman script, in reference to its origin in ancient Rome. In the context of transliteration, the term "romanization" (British English: "romanisation") is often found.^[2][3] Unicode uses the term "Latin"^[4] as does the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).^[5]

The numeral system is called the Roman numeral system, and the collection of the elements is known as the Roman numerals. The numbers 1, 2, 3 ... are Latin/Roman script numbers for the Hindu–Arabic numeral system.

History[]

Old Italic alphabet[]