It is probably the most used script in the world. The script evolved from the Etruscan script, a descendant of the Greek script. Many Greek letterforms were borrowed unchanged. The oldest recorded written samples in the script date back to stone and metal inscriptions from the 6th century BCE. Letterforms were standardised during the Roman Republic (510–27 BCE), largely evolving into the ones still in use today. From medieval times onwards, European colonialism brought the script to language communities outside its traditional home in Europe, from Polynesia to South America, from Siberia to Southern Africa. Some languages are switching to the script even in modern times.