AHC: Greek Alphabet Predominant

As the title says, how can you make the Greek alphabet replace Latin as the dominant writing form of the western world all the way up to the present? Bonus points for having Greek be as widespread as Latin is IOTL. The later the POD the better although I won't place limits on the challenge.
 
A late-ish one that springs to mind is having the Gothic language transliterated into the Greek alphabet (as was, for example, Coptic) rather than getting its own alphabet. Christianisation of Barbaricum proceeds as OTL, with more and more Germanic peoples being taught to use a Greek alphabet to read their bibles in the native language. As these peoples enter the Roman Empire, it's more convenient for the new kings of the West to use the Greek alphabet which is already understood by the Roman elite anyway, rather than switching to a Latin alphabet. Butterflies ensure continued Roman dominance of Syria and Egypt, meaning the Coptic and Syriac languages continue to use Greek letters too, with Arabic following on.
 
Didn't the Eastern Romans switch fully to Greek eventually? How about if the Empire retains Italy, northern and southern? To a certain extent, Italy is one of the drivers of Western European culture and if it is firmly within a Greek dominated political zone that eventually may have effects.
 
Didn't the Eastern Romans switch fully to Greek eventually? How about if the Empire retains Italy, northern and southern? To a certain extent, Italy is one of the drivers of Western European culture and if it is firmly within a Greek dominated political zone that eventually may have effects.

Yes, but the transition was a slow one that took place step by step between the fifth and ninth centuries. If Italy is retained by the ERE in its entirety then it's more likely that Latin will actually get quite a boost in the Roman state. Even in the tenth and eleventh centuries, Byzantine administrators in Dalmatia and Apulia used Latin and the Latin alphabet, and there's some evidence that it was used in the north Balkans after Basil II's reconquest too.
 
Yes, but the transition was a slow one that took place step by step between the fifth and ninth centuries. If Italy is retained by the ERE in its entirety then it's more likely that Latin will actually get quite a boost in the Roman state. Even in the tenth and eleventh centuries, Byzantine administrators in Dalmatia and Apulia used Latin and the Latin alphabet, and there's some evidence that it was used in the north Balkans after Basil II's reconquest too.

I actually wondered if I should have said "regained" instead of retained for that reason.

So imagine I did, say the ERE regains most/all of Italy post Greek transition. Would that help OP?
 
So imagine I did, say the ERE regains most/all of Italy post Greek transition. Would that help OP?

I think it's somewhat doubtful, though not impossible. The best OTL example we have, Apulia, was largely lost and then regained in the later ninth century, and that never stopped that region using Latin throughout the period of restored Byzantine rule. Admittedly, Byzantine Italy was somewhat "semi-detached" from the rest of the Empire but that might very well be the case ITTL as well.
 
Christianisation of Barbaricum proceeds as OTL, with more and more Germanic peoples being taught to use a Greek alphabet to read their bibles in the native language.

The main problem is that translation of the Bibles were at some point more a prestigious device than an actual alphabetisation of the germanic peoples.
That alone wouldn't have removed a possibility of Goths using a Greek alphabet more long that they used Gothic script, but in the same way germanic peoples converted to Orthodoxy (or converted back, as for Burgundians), the fusion between German and western Roman elements that used Latin script including for religious devices since too long to be rooted out would eventually see Latin script being favoured.

As long scholars of romano-german kingdoms are Romans or at least latinists, Germanic culture and script wouldn't have a great chance to impose.
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The most obvious PoD would be a Roman-Screw. Should Rome never manages to really go outside Italy, maybe with a Punic victory, Greek script would have a quite better chance.
Rome, Carthage were quite hellenized already, and would probably continue to do so more intensivlty, maybe not to the point of adopting a Greek script for their languages but not posing a cultural threat to "alphabetizing" of non-scripted languages.

You may see more occurence as OTL Gaul adoption of Greek script to write Gaulish, depending of Greek or Hellenized trade presence in Europe.

I would tend to think, however, that without a political hegemony akin to Rome's; Greek wouldn't have a same impact. The fact Roman Empire, a sole political and economical continuum, used Latin as an administrative language really helped its diffusion.

TTL may see the rize of native script as Futhark, but more influenced by Greek Script rather than Latin. Eventually, not a dominance of Greek Script per se, but a more important influence.
 
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