# Phoenician Alphabet # Phoenician Alphabet ## Overview The Phoenician alphabet (~1050 BCE) was the first widely-used phonetic alphabet, consisting of 22 consonant letters. It is the ancestor of virtually all modern alphabets including Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew. ## Key Facts - Origin: Phoenicia (modern Lebanon), ~1050 BCE - Type: Abjad (consonantal alphabet, no vowels) - Number of letters: 22 - Direction: Right to left - Derived from: Proto-Sinaitic/Proto-Canaanite script (~1800 BCE) [^1] ## Descendants - Greek alphabet (~800 BCE): Added vowels, adapted letter forms - Aramaic alphabet: Ancestor of Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and many Asian scripts - Latin alphabet (via Greek and Etruscan): Used by most of the modern world - South Arabian script: Ancestor of Ethiopic (Ge'ez) [^2] ## Significance - Simplified writing from hundreds of signs (cuneiform, hieroglyphics) to 22 letters - Made literacy more accessible beyond scribal elites - Spread across the Mediterranean through Phoenician trade networks --- [^1]: Sass, B. *The Genesis of the Alphabet* (1988) [^2]: Daniels, P.T. & Bright, W. *The World's Writing Systems* (Oxford, 1996) --- ## Review Queue - [ ] `@q[temporal]` Line 10: "Origin: Phoenicia (modern Lebanon), ~1050 BCE" - when was this true? > - [ ] `@q[temporal]` Line 11: "Type: Abjad (consonantal alphabet, no vowels)" - when was this true? > - [ ] `@q[temporal]` Line 12: "Number of letters: 22" - when was this true? > - [ ] `@q[temporal]` Line 13: "Direction: Right to left" - when was this true? > - [ ] `@q[temporal]` Line 14: "Derived from: Proto-Sinaitic/Proto-Canaanite script (~1800 BCE) [^1]" - when was this true? > - [ ] `@q[temporal]` Line 17: "Greek alphabet (~800 BCE): Added vowels, adapted letter forms" - when was this true? > - [ ] `@q[temporal]` Line 18: "Aramaic alphabet: Ancestor of Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and many Asian scripts" - when was this true? > - [ ] `@q[temporal]` Line 19: "Latin alphabet (via Greek and Etruscan): Used by most of the modern world" - when was this true? > - [ ] `@q[temporal]` Line 20: "South Arabian script: Ancestor of Ethiopic (Ge'ez) [^2]" - when was this true? > - [ ] `@q[temporal]` Line 23: "Simplified writing from hundreds of signs (cuneiform, hieroglyphics) to 22 le..." - when was this true? > - [ ] `@q[temporal]` Line 24: "Made literacy more accessible beyond scribal elites" - when was this true? > - [ ] `@q[temporal]` Line 25: "Spread across the Mediterranean through Phoenician trade networks" - when was this true? > - [ ] `@q[missing]` Line 10: "Origin: Phoenicia (modern Lebanon), ~1050 BCE" - what is the source? > - [ ] `@q[missing]` Line 11: "Type: Abjad (consonantal alphabet, no vowels)" - what is the source? > - [ ] `@q[missing]` Line 12: "Number of letters: 22" - what is the source? > - [ ] `@q[missing]` Line 13: "Direction: Right to left" - what is the source? > - [ ] `@q[missing]` Line 17: "Greek alphabet (~800 BCE): Added vowels, adapted letter forms" - what is the source? > - [ ] `@q[missing]` Line 18: "Aramaic alphabet: Ancestor of Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and many Asian scripts" - what is the source? > - [ ] `@q[missing]` Line 19: "Latin alphabet (via Greek and Etruscan): Used by most of the modern world" - what is the source? > - [ ] `@q[missing]` Line 23: "Simplified writing from hundreds of signs (cuneiform, hieroglyphics) to 22 le..." - what is the source? > - [ ] `@q[missing]` Line 24: "Made literacy more accessible beyond scribal elites" - what is the source? > - [ ] `@q[missing]` Line 25: "Spread across the Mediterranean through Phoenician trade networks" - what is the source? > - [ ] `@q[stale]` Line 14: "Derived from: Proto-Sinaitic/Proto-Canaanite script (~1800 BCE) [^1]" - Sass source from 1988 may be outdated, is this still accurate? > - [ ] `@q[stale]` Line 20: "South Arabian script: Ancestor of Ethiopic (Ge'ez) [^2]" - Daniels source from 1996 may be outdated, is this still accurate? >