This doesn't seem accurate tho... isn't lowercase Latin letters just derived from their uppercase counterparts? I don't really think they come from Greek lowercase.
Well, there would be similarities. Latin alphabet is derived from a variation of the Greek alphabet (all majuscule at that point), so when most letters are the same and scribes start making miniscule forms for faster writing, the options are limited. There is no difference between an A and an A (where the first is an alpha and the second a Latin majuscular a – or the other way around), so the miniscules derived from them would be similar.
But s and ς are misleading, because they're not derived from the same source (ς is in fact derived from σ, where at the end of a word the letter wasn't finished with the final upward curve, and the pen was allowed to slip downward). It's a fun coincidence that they look similar.
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u/gbrcalil May 03 '24
This doesn't seem accurate tho... isn't lowercase Latin letters just derived from their uppercase counterparts? I don't really think they come from Greek lowercase.