The classical Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is a writing system that evolved from the visually similar Cumaean Greek version of the Greek alphabet. The Greek alphabet, including the Cumaean version, descended from the Phoenician abjad while The Phoenician alphabet is derived from Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Etruscans who ruled early Rome adopted and modified the Cumaean Greek alphabet. The Etruscan alphabet was in turn adopted and further modified by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.

During the Middle Ages scribes adapted the Latin alphabet for writing Romance languages, direct descendants of Latin, as well as Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, and some Slavic languages. With the age of colonialism and Christian evangelism, the Latin script spread beyond Europe, coming into use for writing indigenous American, Australian, Austronesian, Austroasiatic, and African languages. More recently, linguists have also tended to prefer the Latin script or the International Phonetic Alphabet (itself largely based on Latin script) when transcribing or creating written standards for non-European languages, such as the African reference alphabet.

Elfdalian or Övdalian (Övdalsk or Övdalską in Elfdalian, Älvdalska or Älvdalsmål in Swedish) is a North Germanic language or dialect spoken by up to 3,000 people who live or have grown up in the parish of Älvdalen (Övdaln), which is located in the southeastern part of Älvdalen Municipality in Northern Dalarna, Sweden.

Like the other Nordic languages, Elfdalian developed from Old Norse, a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300. It developed in relative isolation since the Middle Ages and is considered to have remained closer to Old Norse than the other Dalecarlian dialects.

Traditionally regarded as a Swedish dialect, but by several criteria closer to West Norse dialects, Elfdalian is a separate language by the standard of mutual intelligibility.

A comprehensive Elfdalian–Swedish dictionary was published on the internet in September 2015.

Classification

Elfdalian belongs to the Northern branch/Upper Siljan branch of the Dalecarlian dialects or vernaculars, which in their turn evolved from Old Norse, from which Dalecarlian vernaculars might have split as early as in the 8th or 9th century AD, i.e., approximately when the North Germanic languages split into Western and Eastern branches.