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Phoenician alphabet

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Phoenician alphabet

pre-deletion version of Phoenician alphabet

intro

Phoenician alphabet
Script type	Abjad
Time period	c. 1200–150 BC
Languages	Phoenician, Punic
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician alphabet
Child systems	Aramaic alphabet Greek alphabet Paleo-Hebrew alphabet Paleohispanic script
Sister systems	South Arabian alphabet
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Phnx (115), ​Phoenician
Unicode
Unicode alias	Phoenician
Unicode range	U+10900–U+1091F

The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, is the oldest verified alphabet. It is an alphabet of abjad type, consisting of 22 consonant letters only, leaving vowel sounds implicit, although certain late varieties use matres lectionis for some vowels. It was used to write Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the ancient civilization of Phoenicia in modern-day Lebanon, coast of Syria and northern Israel.

The Phoenician alphabet, which the Phoenicians adapted from the early West Semitic alphabet, is ultimately derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs. It became one of the most widely used writing systems, spread by Phoenician merchants across the Mediterranean world, where it was adopted and modified by many other cultures. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet is a local variant of Phoenician, as is the Aramaic alphabet, the ancestor of the modern Arabic. Modern Hebrew script is a stylistic variant of the Aramaic. The Greek alphabet (with its descendants Latin, Cyrillic, Runic, and Coptic) also derives from the Phoenician.

As the letters were originally incised with a stylus, they are mostly angular and straight, although cursive versions steadily gained popularity, culminating in the Neo-Punic alphabet of Roman-era North Africa.

Phoenician was usually written right to left, though some texts alternate directions (boustrophedon).

History

Further information: Abjad

Origin

Further information: Proto-Sinaitic script and Proto-Canaanite script

The earliest known alphabetic (or "proto-alphabetic") inscriptions are the so-called Proto-Sinaitic (or Proto-Canaanite) script sporadically attested in the Sinai and in Canaan in the late Middle and Late Bronze Age. The script was not widely used until the rise of new Semitic kingdoms in the 13th and 12th centuries BC.

The Phoenician alphabet is a direct continuation of the "Proto-Canaanite" script of the Bronze Age collapse period. The so-called Ahiram epitaph, whose dating is controversial, engraved on the sarcophagus of king Ahiram in Byblos, Lebanon, one of five known Byblian royal inscriptions, shows essentially the fully developed Phoenician script, although the name "Phoenician" is by convention given to inscriptions beginning in the mid-11th century BC.

Spread of the alphabet and its social effects

Further information: History of the alphabet

Beginning in the 9th century BC, adaptations of the Phoenician alphabet thrived, including Greek, Old Italic, Anatolian, and the Paleohispanic scripts. The alphabet's attractive innovation was its phonetic nature, in which one sound was represented by one symbol, which meant only a few dozen symbols to learn. The other scripts of the time, cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, employed many complex characters and required long professional training to achieve proficiency.

Another reason for its success was the maritime trading culture of Phoenician merchants, which spread the alphabet into parts of North Africa and Southern Europe. Phoenician inscriptions have been found in archaeological sites at a number of former Phoenician cities and colonies around the Mediterranean, such as Byblos (in present-day Lebanon) and Carthage in North Africa. Later finds indicate earlier use in Egypt.

The alphabet had long-term effects on the social structures of the civilizations that came in contact with it. Its simplicity not only allowed its easy adaptation to multiple languages, but it also allowed the common people to learn how to write. This upset the long-standing status of literacy as an exclusive achievement of royal and religious elites, scribes who used their monopoly on information to control the common population. The appearance of Phoenician disintegrated many of these class divisions, although many Middle Eastern kingdoms, such as Assyria, Babylonia and Adiabene, would continue to use cuneiform for legal and liturgical matters well into the Common Era.

Modern rediscovery

The Phoenician alphabet was first uncovered in the 17th century, but up to the 19th century its origin was unknown. It was at first believed that the script was a direct variation of Egyptian hieroglyphs, which had been spectacularly deciphered shortly before. However, scholars could not find any link between the two writing systems, nor to hieratic or cuneiform. The theories of independent creation ranged from the idea of a single individual conceiving it, to the Hyksos people forming it from corrupt Egyptian. It was eventually discovered that the proto-Sinaitic alphabet was inspired by the model of hieroglyphs.

The Phoenician alphabet was known by the Sages of Israel, but called by them under a different name: the "Old Hebrew" (paleo-Hebrew) script. Although inconclusive, this designation may have been the result of their thinking that the early invention of this alphabet was made by Eber, the progenitor of the Hebrew nation, or else by one of his descendants.

Development

The Phoenician letter forms shown here are idealized: actual Phoenician writing was cruder and less uniform, with significant variations by era and region.

When alphabetic writing began in Greece, the letter forms were similar but not identical to Phoenician, and vowels were added to the consonant-only Phoenician letters. There were also distinct variants of the writing system in different parts of Greece, primarily in how those Phoenician characters that did not have an exact match to Greek sounds were used. The Ionic variant evolved into the standard Greek alphabet, and the Cumae variant into the Latin alphabet, which accounts for many of the differences between the two. Occasionally, Phoenician used a short stroke or dot symbol as a word separator.

The chart shows the graphical evolution of Phoenician letter forms into other alphabets. The sound values also changed significantly, both at the initial creation of new alphabets and from gradual pronunciation changes which did not immediately lead to spelling changes.

Letter		Name	Possible Meaning	Phoneme	Origin	Corresponding letter in
Image	Text					Aramaic	Syriac/ Assyrian	Hebrew	Arabic	Maledivan Thaana	South Arabian	Ethiopian Ge'ez	Greek	Egyptian Coptic	Anatolian Lydian	Old Italic	Germanic Runes	Latin	Slavic Cyrillic	Georgian	Armenian	Old Turkic	Mongolian	Tibetan	Indic Devanagari	Bengali	Burmese	Sinhala	Khmer	Thai	Lao	Javanese
	𐤀	ʾalp	ox	ʾ [ʔ]	𓃾	𐡀‬	ܐ	א	ﺍ	އ	𐩱	አ	Αα	Ⲁⲁ	𐤠	𐌀	ᚨ	Aa	Аа	ა/ⴀ/Ⴀ	Ա/ա	𐰀		ཨ	अ, आ, ओ, औ, अं, अः, ॲ, ऑ	অ, আ, ও, ঔ	အ	ꦨ, ආ, ඇ, ඈ	អ	อ	ອ	ꦄ
	𐤁	bēt	house, cow	b [b]	𓉐	𐡁‬	ܒ	ב	ﺏ	ބ	𐩨	በ	Ββ	Ⲃⲃ	𐤡	𐌁	ᛒ	Bb	Бб, Вв	ბ/ⴁ/Ⴁ	Բ/բ	𐰉		བ, མ	ब, भ	ব, ভ	ဗ, ဘ	බ, භ	ប, ផ	บ	ບ	ꦧ, ꦨ
	𐤂	gimel	throwing stick, camel, calf, drink	g [ɡ]	𓌙	𐡂‬	ܓ	ג	ﺝ	ޖ ,ޗ	𐩴	ገ	Γγ	Ⲅⲅ	𐤢	𐌂	ᚷ, ᛃ	Cc, Gg	Гг, Ґґ	გ/ⴂ/Ⴂ	Գ/գ	𐰍		ག	ग	গ	ဂ	ග	គ	ค, ฅ	ຄ	ꦒ
	𐤃	dalt	door, udder, bucket	d [d]	𓇯	𐡃‬	ܕ	ד	د, ذ	ޑ, ޛ	𐩵	ደ	Δδ	Ⲇⲇ	𐤣	𐌃	ᛞ	Dd	Дд	დ/ⴃ/Ⴃ	Դ/դ	𐰑	–	ད	ध	গ	ဒ	ධ	ឌ	ฎ	ດ	ꦣ
	𐤄	hē	window, feather, pen	h [h]	𓀠	𐡄‬	ܗ	ה	ه	ހ	𐩠	ሀ	Εε	Ⲉⲉ	𐤤	𐌄	ᛖ	Ee	Ее, Єє, Ээ	ე/ⴄ/Ⴄ	Ե/ե, Է/է, Ը/ը	–	–	–	ह	এ	ဧ	එ	ហ	ห	ຫ	ꦌ, ꦍ
	𐤅	wāw	hook, hoe	w [w]	𓏲	𐡅‬	ܘ	ו	ﻭ	ވ, ޥ	𐩥	ወ	(Ϝϝ), Υυ	Ⲩⲩ	𐤥,𐤱,𐤰	𐌅, 𐌖	ᚹ	Ff, Uu, Vv, Yy, Ww	(Ѵѵ), Уу, Ўў	ვ/ⴅ/Ⴅ	Վ/վ	–		ཝ	ह	ব	ဝ	ව	វ	ว	ວ	ꦮ
	𐤆	zēn	weapon, plough, grain-wagon	z [d͡z]	𓏭	𐡆‬	ܙ	ז	ﺯ	ޒ, ޜ	𐩹	ዘ	Ζζ	Ⲍⲍ	–	𐌆	ᛉ	Zz	Зз	ზ/ⴆ/Ⴆ	Զ/զ	𐰔		ཇ, ཛ, ཛྷ	ज, झ	জ, ঝ	ဇ, ဈ	ජ, ඣ	ជ	ช, ซ	ຊ	ꦗ, ꦙ
	𐤇	ḥēt	wall, courtyard	ḥ [x]	𓉗 or 𓈈	𐡇‬	ܚ	ח	ح, خ	ޙ, ޚ	𐩢, 𐩭	ሐ, ኀ	Ηη	Ⲏⲏ	–	𐌇	ᚺ/ᚻ	Hh	Ии, Йй	ი/ⴈ/Ⴈ	Ի/ի, Խ/խ	–		གྷ	घ	ঘ	ဃ	ඝ	ឃ	ฆ	–	ꦓ
	𐤈	ṭēt	wheel	ṭ [t]	𓄤	𐡈‬	ܛ	ט	ط, ظ	ޘ, ދ	𐩷	ጠ	Θθ	Ⲑⲑ	–	𐌈	ᚦ	Þþ	(Ѳѳ)	თ/ⴇ/Ⴇ	Թ/թ	𐰦	–	ཐ	थ, ठ, ट	ট	ဈ	ඣ	ដ	ฏ	–	ꦛ
	𐤉	yad	hand, shovel, handle	y [j]	𓂝	𐡉‬	ܝ	י	ي	ޔ	𐩺	የ	Ιι	Ⲓⲓ	𐤦	𐌉	ᛁ	Ii, Jj	Іі, Її, Јј	ჲ	Յ/յ	𐰖		ཡ	य	য	ယ, ရ	ය	យ	ย	ຢ	ꦪ
	𐤊	kap	palm of a hand, dustpan	k [k]	𓂧	𐡊‬	ܟ	כך	ﻙ	ކ	𐩫	ከ	Κκ	Ⲕⲕ	𐤨	𐌊	ᚲ	Kk	Кк	კ/ⴉ/Ⴉ	Կ/կ	𐰚		ཀ	क	ক	က	ක	ក	ก	ກ	ꦏ
	𐤋	lamed	goad	l [l]	𓌅	𐡋‬	ܠ	ל	ﻝ	ލ, ޅ	𐩡	ለ	Λλ	Ⲗⲗ	𐤩	𐌋	ᛚ	Ll	Лл	ლ/ⴊ/Ⴊ	Լ/լ	𐰞		ལ	ल	ল	လ, ဠ	ළ	ល	ล	ລ	ꦭ
	𐤌	mēm	water	m [m]	𓈖	𐡌‬	ܡ	מם	ﻡ	މ	𐩣	መ	Μμ	Ⲙⲙ	𐤪	𐌌	ᛗ	Mm	Мм	მ/ⴋ/Ⴋ	Մ/մ	𐰢		མ	म	ম	မ	ම	ម	ม	ມ	ꦩ
	𐤍	nūn	fish, serpent	n [n]	𓆓	𐡍‬	ܢ	נן	ﻥ	ނ, ޏ	𐩬	ነ	Νν	Ⲛⲛ	𐤫	𐌍	ᚾ	Nn	Нн	ნ/ⴌ/Ⴌ	Ն/ն	𐰣		ང, ཉ, ན	न, ण, ञ, ङ	ঙ, ঞ, ণ, ন	င, ဉ, ည, ဏ, န	ඞ, ඤ, ණ, න	ង, ញ, ណ	ง, ณ, น	ງ, ຍ, ນ	ꦔ, ꦚ, ꦟ, ꦤ
	𐤎	sāmek	fishbone, fish, djed	s [s]	𓊽	𐡎‬	ܣ, ܤ	ס	س	—	𐩪	ሰ	Ξξ, Χχ	Ⲝⲝ, Ⲭⲭ	–	𐌎, 𐌗	ᛊ,ᛋ	Xx	(Ѯѯ), Хх	ს/ⴑ/Ⴑ	Ս/ս	𐰽‬	–	ས	ष, स	ষ, স	သ	ස	ស, ឞ	ส, ษ	ສ, ຊ	ꦯ, ꦰ
	𐤏	ʿēn	eye, water-spring	ʿ [ʕ]	𓁹	𐡏‬	ܥ	ע	ع, غ	ޢ, ޣ	𐩲	ዐ	Οο, Ωω	Ⲟⲟ, Ⲱⲱ	𐤬	𐌏	ᛟ	Oo	Оо	ო/ⴍ/Ⴍ	Օ/օ	𐰆		–	ए, ऐ	এ,ঐ	ဩ, ဪ	ඔ	អុ	–	–	ꦎ, ꦎꦴ
	𐤐	pē	mouth, well	p [p]	𓂋	𐡐‬	ܦ	פף	ف	ފ, ޕ	𐩰	ፐ, ፈ	Ππ	Ⲡⲡ	–	𐌐	ᛈ	Pp	Пп	პ/ⴎ/Ⴎ	Պ/պ	𐰯	–	པ, ཕ	प, फ	প, ফ	ပ, ဖ	ප, ඵ	ព, ភ	ป	ປ, ຜ	ꦥ, ꦦ
	𐤑	ṣade	plant/sapling, fishnet, fishing hook	ṣ [t͡s]	𓇑	𐡑‬	ܨ	צץ	ص, ض	ޞ, ޟ	𐩮	ጸ, ጰ, ፀ	(Ϻϻ)	–	—	𐌑	—	–	Цц, Чч, Џџ	ც/ⴚ/Ⴚ	Ց/ց	–		ཅ, ཆ, ཙ, ཚ	च, छ	চ, ছ	စ, ဆ	ච, ඡ	ច, ឆ	จ, ฉ	ຈ	ꦕ, ꦖ
	𐤒	qūp	needle eye	q [q]	𓃻	𐡒‬	ܩ	ק	ﻕ	ޤ, ގ‎	𐩤	ቀ	(Ϙϙ), Φφ, Ψψ	Ϥϥ, Ⲫⲫ, Ⲯⲯ	–	𐌒, 𐌘, 𐌙	–	Qq	(Ҁҁ, Фф)	ქ/ⴕ/Ⴕ	Ք/ք, Փ/փ, Ֆ/ֆ	𐰴	–	ཁ	ख	খ	ခ	ඛ	ខ	ข, ฃ	ຂ	ꦑ
	𐤓	rūš	head, harpoon	r [r]	𓁶	𐡓‬	ܪ	ר	ﺭ	ރ	𐩧	ረ	Ρρ	Ⲣⲣ	𐤭	𐌓	ᚱ	Rr	Рр	რ/ⴐ/Ⴐ	Ր/ր	𐰺		ར	र	র	–	ර	រ	ร	ຣ	ꦫ
	𐤔	šīn	tooth, toothed knife	š [ʃ]	𓌓	𐡔‬	ܫ	ש	ش, س	ޝ, ސ	𐩦	ሠ	Σσς	Ⲋⲋ, Ⲥⲥ, Ϣϣ	𐤮	𐌔	ᛊ/ᛋ	Ss	Сс, Шш, Щщ	შ/ⴘ/Ⴘ	Շ/շ	𐱁		ཤ	श	শ	–	–	ឝ	ศ	–	ꦯ
	𐤕	tāw	mark	t [θ]	𓏴	𐡕‬	ܬ	ת	ت, ث	ތ, ޘ	𐩩	ተ	Ττ	Ⲋⲋ, Ⲧⲧ	𐤯	𐌕	ᛏ	Tt	Тт	ტ/ⴒ/	Տ/տ	𐱃		ཏ	त	ত	တ	ත	ត	ต, ด	ຕ	ꦠ

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
				Plain	Emphatic
Nasal		m		n
Stop	Voiceless	p		t			k	q		ʔ
	Voiced	b		d			ɡ
Affricate	Voiceless			t͡s
	Voiced			d͡z
Fricative	Voiceless		θ	s		ʃ	x			h
	Voiced								ʕ
Trill				r
Approximant				l		j	w

Letter names

Phoenician used a system of acrophony to name letters: a word was chosen with each initial consonant sound, and became the name of the letter for that sound. These names were not arbitrary: each Phoenician letter was based on an Egyptian hieroglyph representing an Egyptian word; this word was translated into Phoenician (or a closely related Semitic language), then the initial sound of the translated word became the letter's Phoenician value. For example, the second letter of the Phoenician alphabet was based on the Egyptian hieroglyph for "house" (a sketch of a house); the Semitic word for "house" was bet; hence the Phoenician letter was called bet and had the sound value b.

According to a 1904 theory by Theodor Nöldeke, some of the letter names were changed in Phoenician from the Proto-Canaanite script. This includes:

• gaml "throwing stick" to gimel "camel"
• digg "fish" to dalet "door"
• hll "jubilation" to he "window"
• ziqq "manacle" to zayin "weapon"
• naḥš "snake" to nun "fish"
• piʾt "corner" to pe "mouth"
• šimš "sun" to šin "tooth"

Yigael Yadin (1963) went to great lengths to prove that there was actual battle equipment similar to some of the original letter forms.

Numerals

The Phoenician numeral system consisted of separate symbols for 1, 10, 20, and 100. The sign for 1 was a simple vertical stroke (𐤖). Other numbers up to 9 were formed by adding the appropriate number of such strokes, arranged in groups of three. The symbol for 10 was a horizontal line or tack (𐤗). The sign for 20 (𐤘) could come in different glyph variants, one of them being a combination of two 10-tacks, approximately Z-shaped. Larger multiples of ten were formed by grouping the appropriate number of 20s and 10s. There existed several glyph variants for 100 (𐤙). The 100 symbol could be multiplied by a preceding numeral, e.g. the combination of "4" and "100" yielded 400. The system did not contain a numeral zero.

Unicode

Phoenician
Range	U+10900..U+1091F (32 code points)
Plane	SMP
Scripts	Phoenician
Assigned	29 code points
Unused	3 reserved code points
Unicode version history
5.0 (2006)	27 (+27)
5.2 (2009)	29 (+2)
Note:

The Phoenician alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in July 2006 with the release of version 5.0. An alternative proposal to handle it as a font variation of Hebrew was turned down. (See PDF summary.)

The Unicode block for Phoenician is U+10900–U+1091F. It is intended for the representation of text in Palaeo-Hebrew, Archaic Phoenician, Phoenician, Early Aramaic, Late Phoenician cursive, Phoenician papyri, Siloam Hebrew, Hebrew seals, Ammonite, Moabite, and Punic.

The letters are encoded U+10900 𐤀 aleph through to U+10915 𐤕 taw, U+10916 𐤖, U+10917 𐤗, U+10918 𐤘 and U+10919 𐤙 encode the numerals 1, 10, 20 and 100 respectively and U+1091F 𐤟 is the word separator.

History

The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Phoenician block:

Version	Final code points	Count	L2 ID	WG2 ID	Document
5.0	U+10900..10919, 1091F	27		N1579	Everson, Michael (1997-05-27), Proposal for encoding the Phoenician script
			L2/97-288	N1603	Umamaheswaran, V. S. (1997-10-24), "8.24.1", Unconfirmed Meeting Minutes, WG 2 Meeting # 33, Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 20 June – 4 July 1997
			L2/99-013	N1932	Everson, Michael (1998-11-23), Revised proposal for encoding the Phoenician script in the UCS
			L2/99-224	N2097, N2025-2	Röllig, W. (1999-07-23), Comments on proposals for the Universal Multiple-Octed Coded Character Set
				N2133	Response to comments on the question of encoding Old Semitic scripts in the UCS (N2097), 1999-10-04
			L2/00-010	N2103	Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2000-01-05), "10.4", Minutes of WG 2 meeting 37, Copenhagen, Denmark: 1999-09-13—16
			L2/04-149		Kass, James; Anderson, Deborah W.; Snyder, Dean; Lehmann, Reinhard G.; Cowie, Paul James; Kirk, Peter; Cowan, John; Khalaf, S. George; Richmond, Bob (2004-05-25), Miscellaneous Input on Phoenician Encoding Proposal
			L2/04-141R2	N2746R2	Everson, Michael (2004-05-29), Final proposal for encoding the Phoenician script in the UCS
			L2/04-177		Anderson, Deborah (2004-05-31), Expert Feedback on Phoenician
			L2/04-178	N2772	Anderson, Deborah (2004-06-04), Additional Support for Phoenician
			L2/04-181		Keown, Elaine (2004-06-04), REBUTTAL to “Final proposal for encoding the Phoenician script in the UCS”
			L2/04-190	N2787	Everson, Michael (2004-06-06), Additional examples of the Phoenician script in use
			L2/04-187		McGowan, Rick (2004-06-07), Phoenician Recommendation
			L2/04-206	N2793	Kirk, Peter (2004-06-07), Response to the revised "Final proposal for encoding the Phoenician script" (L2/04-141R2)
			L2/04-213		Rosenne, Jony (2004-06-07), Responses to Several Hebrew Related Items
			L2/04-217R		Keown, Elaine (2004-06-07), Proposal to add Archaic Mediterranean Script block to ISO 10646
			L2/04-226		Durusau, Patrick (2004-06-07), Statement of the Society of Biblical Literature on WG2 N2746R2
			L2/04-218	N2792	Snyder, Dean (2004-06-08), Response to the Proposal to Encode Phoenician in Unicode
			L2/05-009	N2909	Anderson, Deborah (2005-01-19), Letters in support of Phoenician
5.2	U+1091A..1091B	2		N3353 (pdf, doc)	Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2007-10-10), "M51.14", Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting 51 Hanzhou, China; 2007-04-24/27
			L2/07-206	N3284	Everson, Michael (2007-07-25), Proposal to add two numbers for the Phoenician script
			L2/07-225		Moore, Lisa (2007-08-21), "Phoenician", UTC #112 Minutes

Derived alphabets

Each letter of Phoenician gave way to a new form in its daughter scripts. Left to right: Latin, Greek, Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic

Middle Eastern descendants

See also: Languages currently written with the Arabic alphabet

The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, used to write early Hebrew, was a regional offshoot of Phoenician; it is nearly identical to the Phoenician (in many early writings they are impossible to distinguish). The Samaritan alphabet is a direct descendant of the Paleo-Hebrew. The current Hebrew alphabet is a stylized form of the Aramaic alphabet, itself a descendant of the Phoenician script.

The Aramaic alphabet, used to write Aramaic, is another descendant of Phoenician. Aramaic, being the lingua franca of the Middle East, was widely adopted. It later split off (due to political divisions) into a number of related alphabets, including Hebrew, Syriac, and Nabataean, the latter of which, in its cursive form, became an ancestor of the Arabic alphabet currently used in Arabic-speaking countries from North Africa through the Levant to Iraq and the Persian Gulf region, as well as in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries.

The Sogdian alphabet, a descendant of Phoenician via Syriac, is an ancestor of the Old Uyghur, which in turn is an ancestor of the Mongolian and Manchu alphabets, the former of which is still in use and the latter of which survives as the Xibe script.

The Arabic script is a descendant of Phoenician via Aramaic.

The Coptic alphabet, still used in Egypt for writing the Christian liturgical language Coptic (descended from Ancient Egyptian), is mostly based on the Greek alphabet, but with a few additional letters for sounds not in Greek at the time. Those additional letters are based on Demotic script.

Derived European scripts

According to Herodotus, the Phoenician prince Cadmus was accredited with the introduction of the Phoenician alphabet—phoinikeia grammata, "Phoenician letters"—to the Greeks, who adapted it to form their Greek alphabet, which was later introduced to the rest of Europe. Herodotus estimates that Cadmus lived sixteen hundred years before his time, or around 2000 BC, and claims that the Greeks did not know of the Phoenician alphabet before Cadmus.

Modern historians agree that Greek alphabet is derived from the Phoenician. With a different phonology, the Greeks adapted the Phoenician script to represent their own sounds, including the vowels absent in Phoenician. It was possibly more important in Greek to write out vowel sounds: Phoenician being a Semitic language, words were based on consonantal roots that permitted extensive removal of vowels without loss of meaning, a feature absent in the Indo-European Greek. However, Akkadian cuneiform, which wrote a related Semitic language, did indicate vowels, which suggests the Phoenicians simply accepted the model of the Egyptians, who never wrote vowels. In any case, the Greeks repurposed the Phoenician letters of consonant sounds not present in Greek; each such letter had its name shorn of its leading consonant, and the letter took the value of the now-leading vowel. For example, ʾāleph, which designated a glottal stop in Phoenician, was repurposed to represent the vowel /a/; he became /e/, ḥet became /eː/ (a long vowel), ʿayin became /o/ (because the pharyngeality altered the following vowel), while the two semi-consonants wau and yod became the corresponding high vowels, /u/ and /i/. (Some dialects of Greek, which did possess /h/ and /w/, continued to use the Phoenician letters for those consonants as well.)

Cyrillic script was derived from the Greek alphabet. Some Cyrillic letters (generally for sounds not in Mediaeval Greek) are based on Glagolitic forms, which in turn were influenced by the Hebrew or even Coptic alphabets.

The Latin alphabet was derived from Old Italic (originally a form of the Greek alphabet), used for Etruscan and other languages. The origin of the Runic alphabet is disputed: the main theories are that it evolved either from the Latin alphabet itself, some early Old Italic alphabet via the Alpine scripts, or the Greek alphabet. Despite this debate, the Runic alphabet is clearly derived from one or more scripts that ultimately trace their roots back to the Phoenician alphabet.

Brahmic scripts

See also: Aramaic hypothesis

Many Western scholars believe that the Brahmi script of India and the subsequent Indic alphabets are also derived from the Aramaic script, which would make Phoenician the ancestor of virtually every alphabetic writing system in use today.

However, due to an indigenous-origin hypothesis of Brahmic scripts, no definitive scholarly consensus exists.

Surviving examples

• Ahiram sarcophagus
• Bodashtart
• Çineköy inscription
• Cippi of Melqart
• Eshmunazar
• Karatepe
• Kilamuwa Stela
• Nora Stone
• Pyrgi Tablets
• Temple of Eshmun

See also

• Arabic alphabet
• Aramaic alphabet
• Armenian alphabet
• Avestan alphabet
• Greek alphabet
• Hebrew alphabet
• Old Turkic script
• Paleo-Hebrew alphabet
• Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus scroll
• Tanakh at Qumran
• Tifinagh
• Ugaritic alphabet

References

Sources

• Jean-Pierre Thiollet, Je m'appelle Byblos, H & D, Paris, 2005. ISBN 2-914266-04-9
• Maria Eugenia Aubet, The Phoenicians and the West Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, London, 2001.
• Daniels, Peter T., et al. eds. The World's Writing Systems Oxford. (1996).
• Jensen, Hans, Sign, Symbol, and Script, G.P. Putman's Sons, New York, 1969.
• Coulmas, Florian, Writing Systems of the World, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford, 1989.
• Hock, Hans H. and Joseph, Brian D., Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship, Mouton de Gruyter, New York, 1996.
• Fischer, Steven R., A History of Writing, Reaktion Books, 1999.
• Markoe, Glenn E., Phoenicians. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22613-5 (2000) (hardback)
• Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic on Coins, reading and transliterating Proto-Hebrew, online edition. (Judaea Coin Archive)

External links

• Ancient Scripts.com (Phoenician)
• Omniglot.com (Phoenician alphabet)
• official Unicode standards document for Phoenician (PDF file)
• [1] Free-Libre GPL2 Licensed Unicode Phoenician Font
• GNU FreeFont Unicode font family with Phoenician range in its serif face.
• [2] Phönizisch TTF-Font.