Latin inscriptions do not distinguish between and , represented both by C, K and Q according to position. This is explained by the fact that the Etruscan language did not make this distinction. K was used before A; Q was used (if at all) before O or V; C was used elsewhere. C derived from Greek Gamma (Γ) and Q from Greek Koppa (Ϙ). In later Latin, K survived only in a few forms such as Kalendae; Q survived only before V (representing ), and C was used everywhere else. G was later invented to distinguish between and ; it was originally simply a C with an additional stroke. Phonetics C stood for both and I stood for both and . V stood for both and . Old Latin period K was marginalized in favour of C, which afterward stood for both /ɡ/ and /k/. Probably during the 3rd century BC, the Z was dropped and a new letter G was placed in its position – according to Plutarch, by Spurius Carvilius Ruga – so that afterward, C = /k/, G = /ɡ/. Old Latin could be written from right to left (as were Etruscan and early Greek) or boustrophedon, while writing after the first century BC was almost always left-to-right. Classical Latin period An attempt by the emperor Claudius to introduce three additional letters was short-lived, but after the conquest of Greece in the 1st century BC the letters Y and Z were, respectively, adopted and readopted from the Greek alphabet and placed at the end. Now the new Latin alphabet contained 23 letters: The Latin names of some of the letters are disputed. In general, however, the Romans did not use the traditional (Semitic-derived) names as in Greek, but adopted the simplified names of the Etruscans, which derived from saying the sounds of the letters: the vowels stood for themselves, the names of the stop consonant letters were formed by adding the neutral vowel e, which in Latin became (except for K and Q, which were distinguished from C by appending the vowel which followed them in Etruscan orthography), and the names of the continuant consonants were formed by preceded the sound with . X was named rather than , as could not begin a word in Latin (and possibly Etruscan). When the letter Y was introduced into Latin, it was probably called hy as in Greek (the