Expert: Maria - 10/21/2011

Question
Hello Maria, can you please tell me if there is any specific Spartan alphabet or is it just greek ? And if there is where can i find it

Answer
Hello,

there is no specific Spartan alphabet, but only the ancient Greek alphabet you can find at http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html

This because the Doric  alphabet used in the Doric  dialect spoken by the Spartans was the same  as the alphabet of the other two Greek dialects (Ionic-Attic and Aeolic) from which Ancient  Greek [also known as Koiné  Greek (Common Greek)], is derived.

The Doric /Spartan dialect  had  in fact only little differences from the Ionic-Attic and Aeolic dialects, like chiefly the preservation of the long  vowel A (alpha) instead of the long open E (eta) used by the other dialects,  but these differences disappeared  at a very early date, as we see in the poems of the Spartan  poet Tyrtaeus, flourished middle of the 7th century BC.

In short, the Spartan alphabet was just the Greek alphabet, apart from some phonetic differences like for example Doric/Spartan  γᾶ  μάτηρ, transliterated as “gā mātēr“ ,  instead of the Attic / Greek “γῆ  μήτηρ “, transliterated as “gē mētēr”, both  meaning  "earth mother",

Best regards,
Maria