Phoenician Alphabet

• The Phoenician Alphabet was the Alphabet of the spoken Phoenician language
• Phoenicia was a group of Maritime cities dominated by Sidon, which existed between 1500-30 BCE and were located in modern Lebanon and Syria.

Description

• The Phoenician Alphabet had 22 letters which were all consonants. The Alphabet was itself derived from the Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
• The Latin and Greek Alphabets were derived from the Phoenician Alphabet.

Boustrophedon

• Phoenician text was generally written from right to left.
• However, it could be also be written in Boustrophedon, meaning it reversed direction at the end of each line.

Basis for other Alphabets

• The Phoenician Alphabet formed the basis of the following languages:
  • Greek Alphabet
  • Latin Alphabet
    • Cyrillic Alphabet
    • Coptic Alphabet
  • Etruscan Alphabet
  • Aramaic Alphabet

Sidon, Mother City of Phoenicia