Phoenician alphabet
Alfabeto fenicio
- Date
- c. 1050 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Byblos, Lebanon
- Credited to
- Phoenician scribes of Byblos, Tyre and Sidon
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A linear alphabet of 22 consonants, simple and easy to learn, written from right to left. It was the model for the Greek alphabet and for Aramaic and, through them, for nearly all later alphabets.
The Byblos inscriptions (Ahiram sarcophagus, c. 1000 BC; its dating is debated) are among the earliest with fixed Phoenician script. The Phoenician form derives from a continuum of Canaanite alphabetic scripts, so fixing an 'invention' date is conventional.
What it led to
- Greek alphabet and, through it, Latin and Cyrillic
- Aramaic alphabet and its derivatives (square Hebrew, Arabic, Brahmi)
- spread of writing to merchants and the middle classes