Greek Adaptation of the Phoenician Alphabet

Around 800 BCE, Greek-speaking communities adapted the Phoenician consonantal writing system by repurposing letters for consonant sounds absent in Greek to represent vowels, producing the first script to systematically record both consonants and vowels. Phoenician letters aleph, he, yod, ayin, and waw became the Greek vowels alpha, epsilon, iota, omicron, and upsilon. The earliest surviving Greek inscriptions, including the Dipylon Vase from Athens and the Cup of Nestor from Pithekoussai, date to approximately 750-725 BCE.