Phoenician alphabet - wikipedia Phoenician alphabet Phoenician alphabet Type Abjad Languages Phoenician, Punic Time period c. 1200 -- 150 BC Parent systems Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto - Sinaitic Phoenician alphabet Child systems Paleo - Hebrew alphabet Aramaic alphabet Greek alphabet ? Libyco - Berber ? Paleohispanic scripts Sister systems South Arabian alphabet Direction Right - to - left ISO 15924 Phnx, 115 Unicode alias Phoenician Unicode range U + 10900 -- U + 1091F This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help : IPA. This article contains special characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols. History of the alphabet Egyptian hieroglyphs 32 c. BCE Hieratic 32 c. BCE Demotic 7 c. BCE Meroitic 3 c. BCE Proto - Sinaitic 19 c. BCE Ugaritic 15 c. BCE Epigraphic South Arabian 9 c. BCE Ge'ez 5 -- 6 c. BCE Phoenician 12 c. BCE Paleo - Hebrew 10 c. BCE Samaritan 6 c. BCE Libyco - Berber 3 c. BCE Tifinagh Paleohispanic ( semi-syllabic ) 7 c. BCE Aramaic 8 c. BCE Kharoṣṭhī 4 c. BCE Brāhmī 4 c. BCE Brahmic family ( see ) E.g. Tibetan 7 c. CE Devanagari 13 c. CE Canadian syllabics 1840 Hebrew 3 c. BCE Pahlavi 3 c. BCE Avestan 4 c. CE Palmyrene 2 c. BCE Syriac 2 c. BCE Nabataean 2 c. BCE Arabic 4 c. CE N'Ko 1949 CE Sogdian 2 c. BCE Orkhon ( old Turkic ) 6 c. CE Old Hungarian c. 650 CE Old Uyghur Mongolian 1204 CE Mandaic 2 c. CE Greek 8 c. BCE Etruscan 8 c. BCE Latin 7 c. BCE Cherokee ( syllabary ; letter forms only ) c. 1820 CE Runic 2 c. CE Ogham ( origin uncertain ) 4 c. CE Coptic 3 c. CE Gothic 3 c. CE Armenian 405 CE Georgian ( origin uncertain ) c. 430 CE Glagolitic 862 CE Cyrillic c. 940 CE Old Permic 1372 CE Hangul 1443 ( probably influenced by Tibetan ) Thaana 18 c. CE ( derived from Brahmi numerals ) The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto - Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, is the oldest verified alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet is an abjad consisting of 22 letters, all consonants, with matres lectionis used for some vowels in certain late varieties. It was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia. The Phoenician alphabet is derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs. It became one of the most widely used writing systems, spread by Phoenician merchants across the Mediterranean world, where it evolved and was assimilated by many other cultures. The Paleo - Hebrew alphabet is a local variant of the Phoenician alphabetical script. Another derivative script is the Aramaic alphabet, which was the ancestor of the modern Arabic script. The Modern Hebrew script is a stylistic variant of the Aramaic script. The Greek alphabet ( and by extension its descendants, such as Latin, Cyrillic, Runic, and Coptic ) was also derived from Phoenician. As the letters were originally incised with a stylus, most of the shapes are angular and straight, although more cursive versions are increasingly attested in later times, culminating in the Neo-Punic alphabet of Roman - era North Africa. Phoenician was usually written from right to left, although there are some texts written in boustrophedon. Contents 1 History 1.1 Origin 1.2 Spread of the alphabet and its social effects 1.3 Modern rediscovery 2 Development 3 Letter names 4 Numerals 5 Unicode 5.1 Block 5.2 History 6 Derived alphabets 6.1 Middle Eastern descendants 6.2 Derived European scripts 6.3 Brahmic scripts 7 Surviving examples 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links 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, from about 1200 BC, 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 -- such as Greek, Old Italic, Anatolian, and the Paleohispanic scripts -- were very successful. The alphabet 's success was due in part to its phonetic nature ; Phoenician was the first widely used script in which one sound was represented by one symbol, which meant that there were only a few dozen symbols to learn. This simple system contrasted with the other scripts in use at the time, such as cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, which employed many complex characters and were difficult to learn. Another reason for its success was the maritime trading culture of Phoenician merchants, which spread the use of the alphabet into parts of North Africa and 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. Phoenician had long - term effects on the social structures of the civilizations that came in contact with it. Its simplicity not only allowed it to be used in multiple languages, but it also allowed the common people to learn how to write. This upset the long - standing status of writing systems only being learned and employed by members of the royal and religious hierarchies of society, who used writing as an instrument of power to control access to information by the larger 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. This idea was especially popular due to the recent decipherment of hieroglyphs. 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 man conceiving it, to the Hyksos people forming it from corrupt Egyptian. This latter notion is reminiscent of the eventual discovery that the proto - Sinaitic alphabet was inspired by the model of hieroglyphs. Development The Phoenician letter forms shown here are idealized : actual Phoenician writing was cruder and more variable in appearance. There were also significant variations in Phoenician letter forms by era and region. When alphabetic writing began in Greece, the letter forms used were similar but not identical to the Phoenician ones and vowels were added because the Phoenician alphabet did not contain any vowels. 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 often changed significantly, both during the initial creation of new alphabets and from pronunciation changes of languages using the alphabets over time. Letter Name Meaning Phoneme Origin Corresponding letter in Image Text Hebrew Syriac Arabic South Arabic Ge'ez Greek Latin Cyrillic Georgian 𐤀 ‬ ʾālep ox ʾ ( ʔ ) 𓃾 א ܐ ا 𐩱 አ Α α Aa А а ა / ⴀ / Ⴀ 𐤁 ‬ bēt house 𓉐 ב ܒ ب 𐩨 በ Β β Bb Б б, В в ბ / ⴁ / Ⴁ 𐤂 ‬ gīml throwing stick / camel g ( ɡ ) 𓌙 ג ܓ ج 𐩴 ገ Γ γ Cc, Gg Г г, Ґ ґ გ / ⴂ / Ⴂ 𐤃 ‬ dālet door d ( d ) 𓇯 ד ܕ د, ذ 𐩵 ደ Δ δ Dd Д д დ / ⴃ / Ⴃ 𐤄 ‬ hē window h ( h ) 𓀠 ה ܗ ه 𐩠 ሀ Ε ε Ee Е е, Є є, Э э ე / ⴄ / Ⴄ 𐤅 ‬ wāw hook w ( w ) ו ܘ و 𐩥 ወ ( Ϝ ϝ ), Υ υ Ff, Uu, Vv, Yy, Ww ( Ѵ ѵ ), У у, Ў ў ვ / ⴅ / Ⴅ 𐤆 ‬ zayin weapon z ( z ) 𓏭 ז ܙ ز 𐩹 ዘ Ζ ζ Zz З з ზ / ⴆ / Ⴆ 𐤇 ‬ ḥēt wall, courtyard ḥ ( ħ ) 𓉗 ח ܚ ح, خ 𐩢, 𐩭 ሐ, ኀ Η η Hh И и, Й й ი / ⴈ / Ⴈ 𐤈 ‬ ṭēt wheel ṭ ( tʕ ) 𓄤 ט ܛ ط, ظ 𐩷 ጠ Θ θ -- ( Ѳ ѳ ) თ / ⴇ / Ⴇ 𐤉 ‬ yōd hand y ( j ) 𓂝 י ܝ ي 𐩺 የ Ι ι Ii, Jj І і, Ї ї, Ј ј ჲ 𐤊 ‬ kāp palm ( of a hand ) k ( k ) 𓂧 כך ܟ ك 𐩫 ከ Κ κ Kk К к კ / ⴉ / Ⴉ 𐤋 ‬ lāmed goad l ( l ) 𓌅 ל ܠ ل 𐩡 ለ Λ λ Ll Л л ლ / ⴊ / Ⴊ 𐤌 ‬ mēm water m ( m ) 𓈖 מם ܡ م 𐩣 መ Μ μ Mm М м მ / ⴋ / Ⴋ 𐤍 ‬ nūn serpent n ( n ) 𓆓 נן ܢ ن 𐩬 ነ Ν ν Nn Н н ნ / ⴌ / Ⴌ 𐤎 ‬ sāmek fish, djed s ( s ) 𓊽 ס ܣ, ܤ -- 𐩪 ሰ Ξ ξ, poss. Χ χ poss. Xx ( Ѯ ѯ ), poss. Х х ს / ⴑ / Ⴑ 𐤏 ‬ ʿayin eye ʿ ( ʕ ) 𓁹 ע ܥ ع, غ 𐩲 ዐ Ο ο, Ω ω Oo О о ო / ⴍ / Ⴍ 𐤐 ‬ pē mouth p ( p ) 𓂋 פף ܦ ف 𐩰 ፈ Π π Pp П п პ / ⴎ / Ⴎ 𐤑 ‬ ṣādē ? ( papyrus ? ) ṣ ( sʕ ) צץ ܨ ص, ض 𐩮 ጸ, ጰ, ፀ ( Ϻ ϻ ) -- Ц ц, Ч ч, Џ џ ც / ⴚ / Ⴚ 𐤒 ‬ qōp needle eye q ( q ) 𓃻 ק ܩ ق 𐩤 ቀ ( Ϙ ϙ ), poss. Φ φ, Ψ ψ Qq ( Ҁ ҁ ) ქ / ⴕ / Ⴕ 𐤓 ‬ rēš head r ( r ) 𓁶 ר ܪ ر 𐩧 ረ Ρ ρ Rr Р р რ / ⴐ / Ⴐ 𐤔 ‬ šīn tooth š ( ʃ ) 𓌓 ש ܫ ش, س 𐩦 ሠ Σ σς Ss С с, Ш ш, Щ щ შ / ⴘ / Ⴘ 𐤕 ‬ tāw mark 𓏴 ת ܬ ت, ث 𐩩 ተ, ፐ ( ? ) Τ τ Tt Т т ტ / ⴒ / Ⴗ Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal Plain Emphatic Nasal m n Stop Voiceless p tʕ k q ʔ Voiced d ɡ Fricative Voiceless s sʕ ʃ ħ h Voiced z ʕ Trill r Approximant l j w Letter names Phoenician used a system of acrophony to name letters. The names of the letters are essentially the same as in its parental scripts, which are in turn derived from the word values of the original hieroglyph for each letter. The original word was translated from Egyptian into its equivalent form in the Semitic language, and then the initial sound of the translated word became the letter 's value. 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 they actually were tools of war, similar to the original drawings. 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 combined with a preceding numeral in a multiplicatory way, e.g. the combination of `` 4 '' and `` 100 '' yielded 400. Their 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 27 ( + 27 ) 5.2 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. Block Phoenician Official Unicode Consortium code chart ( PDF ) 0 5 6 7 8 9 U + 1090x 𐤀 ‬ 𐤁 ‬ 𐤂 ‬ 𐤃 ‬ 𐤄 ‬ 𐤅 ‬ 𐤆 ‬ 𐤇 ‬ 𐤈 ‬ 𐤉 ‬ 𐤊 ‬ 𐤋 ‬ 𐤌 ‬ 𐤍 ‬ 𐤎 ‬ 𐤏 ‬ U + 1091x 𐤐 ‬ 𐤑 ‬ 𐤒 ‬ 𐤓 ‬ 𐤔 ‬ 𐤕 ‬ 𐤖 ‬ 𐤗 ‬ 𐤘 ‬ 𐤙 ‬ 𐤚 ‬ 𐤛 ‬ 𐤟 ‬ Notes 1. ^ As of Unicode version 10.0 2. ^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points 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 / 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 / 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 L2 / 07 - 206 N3284 Everson, Michael ( 2007 - 07 - 25 ), Proposal to add two numbers for the Phoenician script Jump up ^ Proposed code points and characters names may differ from final code points and names 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 one ( in many early writings it is impossible to distinguish between the two ). The Samaritan alphabet, used by the Samaritans, is a direct descendant of the Paleo - Hebrew alphabet. 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 power / political borders ) 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 that is 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. However, Herodotus ' writings are not used as a standard source by contemporary historians. The Greek alphabet is derived from the Phoenician alphabet. The phonology of Greek being different from that of Phoenician, the Greeks modified the Phoenician script to better suit their language. 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. ( Or perhaps, the Phoenicians were simply following the lead of the Egyptians, who never wrote vowels. After all, Akkadian cuneiform, which wrote a related Semitic language, always indicated vowels. ) In any case, the Greeks adapted the signs of the Phoenician consonants not present in Greek ; each such name was shorn of its leading sound, and the sign took the value of the now leading vowel. For example, ʾāleph, which designated a glottal stop in Phoenician, was re-purposed 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. ) The 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, and 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 Hebrew alphabet Greek alphabet Old Turkic script Paleo - Hebrew alphabet Tanakh at Qumran Tifinagh Ugaritic alphabet Notes Jump up ^ Earliest attestation in the Bronze Age collapse period, classical form from about 1050 BC ; gradually died out during the Hellenistic period as its evolved forms replaced it ; obsolete with the destruction of Carthage in 149 BC. Jump up ^ Himelfarb, Elizabeth J. `` First Alphabet Found in Egypt '', Archaeology 53, Issue 1 ( Jan. / Feb. 2000 ) : 21. Jump up ^ Fischer, Steven Roger ( 2004 ). A history of writing. Reaktion Books. p. 90. Jump up ^ Michael C. Howard ( 2012 ). Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies. P. 23. Jump up ^ Reinhard G. Kratz ( 11 November 2015 ). Historical and Biblical Israel : The History, Tradition, and Archives of Israel and Judah. OUP Oxford. p. 64. ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 104448 - 9. (... ) scribes wrote in Paleo - Hebrew, a local variant of the Phoenician alphabetic script (... ) Jump up ^ Coulmas ( 1989 ) p. 141. Jump up ^ Markoe ( 2000 ) p. 111 Jump up ^ Hock and Joseph ( 1996 ) p. 85. Jump up ^ Daniels ( 1996 ) p. 94 - 95. Jump up ^ `` Discovery of Egyptian Inscriptions Indicates an Earlier Date for Origin of the Alphabet ''. Retrieved 20 April 2017. Jump up ^ Fischer ( 2003 ) p. 68 - 69. Jump up ^ Jensen ( 1969 ) p. 256. Jump up ^ Jensen ( 1969 ) p. 256 - 258. Jump up ^ http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U10900.pdf Jump up ^ after Fischer, Steven R. ( 2001 ). A History of Writing. London : Reaction Books. p. 126. Jump up ^ Jensen ( 1969 ) p. 262. Jump up ^ Jensen ( 1969 ) p. 262 - 263. Jump up ^ Yigael Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands. McGraw - Hill, 1963. The Samech - a quick war ladder, later to become the ' $ ' dollar sign drawing the three internal lines quickly. The ' Z ' shaped Zayin - an ancient boomerang used for hunting. The ' H ' shaped Het - mammoth tuffs. Jump up ^ `` Phoenician numerals in Unicode ), ( http://www.dma.ens.fr/culturemath/histoire%20des%20maths/htm/Verdan/Verdan.htm Systèmes numéraux '' ( PDF ). Retrieved 20 April 2017. External link in title = ( help ) Jump up ^ `` Number Systems ''. Retrieved 20 April 2017. Jump up ^ `` Unicode character database ''. The Unicode Standard. Retrieved 2016 - 07 - 09. Jump up ^ `` Enumerated Versions of The Unicode Standard ''. The Unicode Standard. Retrieved 2016 - 07 - 09. Jump up ^ Herodotus, Histories, Book V, 58. Jump up ^ Herodotus. Histories, Book II, 145 ^ Jump up to : Humphrey, John William ( 2006 ). Ancient technology. Greenwood guides to historic events of the ancient world ( illustrated ed. ). Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 219. ISBN 9780313327636. Retrieved 2009 - 10 - 18. Jump up ^ Spurkland, Terje ( 2005 ) : Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions, translated by Betsy van der Hoek, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, pp. 3 - 4 Jump up ^ Richard Salomon, `` Brahmi and Kharoshthi '', in The World 's Writing Systems References Wikimedia Commons has media related to Phoenician alphabet. 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. Types of writing systems Overview History of writing Grapheme Lists Writing systems undeciphered inventors constructed Languages by writing system / by first written accounts Types Abjads Numerals Aramaic Hatran Arabic Pitman shorthand Hebrew Ashuri Cursive Rashi Solitreo Tifinagh Manichaean Nabataean Old North Arabian Pahlavi Pegon Phoenician Paleo - Hebrew Proto - Sinaitic Psalter Punic Samaritan South Arabian Zabur Musnad Sogdian Syriac ʾEsṭrangēlā Serṭā Maḏnḥāyā Teeline Shorthand Ugaritic Abugidas Brahmic Northern Asamiya ( Ôxômiya ) Bānglā Bhaikshuki Bhujinmol Brāhmī Devanāgarī Dogri Gujarati Gupta Gurmukhī Kaithi Kalinga Khojki Khotanese Khudawadi Laṇḍā Lepcha Limbu Mahajani Meitei Mayek Modi Multani Nāgarī Nandinagari Odia ' Phags - pa Newar Ranjana Sharada Saurashtra Siddhaṃ Soyombo Sylheti Nagari Takri Tibetan Uchen Umê Tirhuta Tocharian Zanabazar Square Zhang - Zhung Drusha Marchen Marchung Pungs - chen Pungs - chung Southern Ahom Balinese Batak Baybayin Bhattiprolu Buhid Burmese Chakma Cham Grantha Goykanadi Hanunó'o Javanese Kadamba Kannada Karen Kawi Khmer Kulitan Lanna Lao Leke Lontara Malayalam Maldivian Dhives Akuru Eveyla Akuru Thaana Mon Old Makassarese Old Sundanese Pallava Pyu Rejang Rencong Sinhala Sundanese Tagbanwa Tai Le Tai Tham Tai Viet Tamil Telugu Thai Tigalari Vatteluttu Kolezhuthu Malayanma Visayan Others Boyd 's syllabic shorthand Canadian syllabics Blackfoot Déné syllabics Fox I Ge'ez Gunjala Gondi Japanese Braille Jenticha Kayah Li Kharosthi Mandombe Masaram Gondi Meroitic Miao Mwangwego Sorang Sompeng Pahawh Hmong Thomas Natural Shorthand Alphabets Linear Abkhaz Adlam Armenian Avestan Avoiuli Bassa Vah Borama Carian Caucasian Albanian Coorgi -- Cox alphabet Coptic Cyrillic Deseret Duployan shorthand Chinook writing Early Cyrillic Eclectic shorthand Elbasan Etruscan Evenki Fox II Fraser Gabelsberger shorthand Garay Georgian Asomtavruli Nuskhuri Mkhedruli Glagolitic Gothic Gregg shorthand Greek Greco - Iberian alphabet Hangul Hanifi IPA Kaddare Latin Beneventan Blackletter Carolingian minuscule Fraktur Gaelic Insular Kurrent Merovingian Sigla Sütterlin Tironian notes Visigothic Luo Lycian Lydian Manchu Mandaic Medefaidrin Molodtsov Mongolian Mru Neo-Tifinagh New Tai Lue N'Ko Ogham Oirat Ol Chiki Old Hungarian Old Italic Old Permic Orkhon Old Uyghur Osage Osmanya Pau Cin Hau Runic Anglo - Saxon Cipher Dalecarlian Elder Futhark Younger Futhark Gothic Marcomannic Medieval Staveless Sidetic Shavian Somali Tifinagh Vagindra Visible Speech Vithkuqi Wancho Zaghawa Non-linear Braille Maritime flags Morse code New York Point Semaphore line Flag semaphore Moon type Ideograms / Pictograms Adinkra Aztec Blissymbol Dongba Ersu Shaba Emoji IConji Isotype Kaidā Míkmaq Mixtec New Epoch Notation Painting Nsibidi Ojibwe Hieroglyphs Siglas poveiras Testerian Yerkish Zapotec Logograms Chinese family of scripts Chinese Characters Simplified Traditional Oracle bone script Bronze Script Seal Script large small bird - worm Hanja Idu Kanji Chữ nôm Zhuang Chinese - influenced Jurchen Khitan large script Sui Tangut Cuneiform Akkadian Assyrian Elamite Hittite Luwian Sumerian Other logo - syllabic Anatolian Bagam Cretan Isthmian Maya Proto - Elamite Yi ( Classical ) Logo - consonantal Demotic Hieratic Hieroglyphs Numerals Hindu - Arabic Abjad Attic ( Greek ) Muisca Roman Semi-syllabaries Full Celtiberian Northeastern Iberian Southeastern Iberian Khom Redundant Espanca Pahawh Hmong Khitan small script Southwest Paleohispanic Zhuyin fuhao Somacheirograms ASLwrite SignWriting si5s Stokoe Notation Syllabaries Afaka Bamum Bété Byblos Cherokee Cypriot Cypro - Minoan Ditema tsa Dinoko Eskayan Geba Great Lakes Algonquian syllabics Iban Japanese Hiragana Katakana Man'yōgana Hentaigana Sogana Jindai moji Kikakui Kpelle Linear B Linear Elamite Lisu Loma Nüshu Nwagu Aneke script Old Persian Cuneiform Vai Woleai Yi ( Modern ) Yugtun Braille ⠃ ⠗ ⠁ ⠊ ⠇ ⠇ ⠑ Braille cell 1829 braille International uniformity ASCII braille Unicode braille patterns Braille scripts French - ordered scripts ( see for more ) Albanian Amharic Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Belarusian Bharati Devanagari ( Hindi / Marathi / Nepali ) Bengali Punjabi Sinhalese Tamil Urdu etc. Bulgarian Burmese Cambodian Cantonese Catalan Chinese ( Mandarin, mainland ) Czech Dutch Dzongkha ( Bhutanese ) English ( Unified English ) Esperanto Estonian Faroese French Georgian German Ghanaian Greek Guarani Hawaiian Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Inuktitut ( reassigned vowels ) Iñupiaq IPA Irish Italian Kazakh Kyrgyz Latvian Lithuanian Maltese Mongolian Māori Navajo Nigerian Northern Sami Persian Philippine Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Samoan Scandinavian Slovak South African Spanish Tatar Taiwanese Mandarin ( largely reassigned ) Thai & Lao ( Japanese vowels ) Tibetan Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese Welsh Yugoslav Reordered scripts Algerian Braille ( obsolete ) Frequency - based scripts American Braille ( obsolete ) Independent scripts Japanese Korean Two - Cell Chinese Eight - dot scripts Luxembourgish Kanji Gardner -- Salinas braille codes ( GS8 ) Symbols in braille Braille music Canadian currency marks Computer Braille Code Gardner -- Salinas braille codes ( GS8 / GS6 ) International Phonetic Alphabet ( IPA ) Nemeth braille code Braille technology Braille e-book Braille embosser Braille translator Braille watch Mountbatten Brailler Optical braille recognition Perforation Perkins Brailler Refreshable braille display Slate and stylus Braigo Persons Louis Braille Charles Barbier Valentin Haüy Thakur Vishva Narain Singh Sabriye Tenberken William Bell Wait Organisations Braille Institute of America Braille Without Borders Japan Braille Library National Braille Association Blindness organizations Schools for the blind American Printing House for the Blind Other tactile alphabets Decapoint Moon type New York Point Night writing Vibratese Related topics Accessible publishing Braille literacy RoboBraille Electronic writing systems Emoticons Emoji iConji Leet Unicode Internet slang dialects 3arabizi Alay ( Indonesia ) Denglisch Doge Fingilish ( Persian ) Greeklish Gyaru - moji ( Japan ) Jejemon ( Philippines ) Leet ( `` 1337 '' ) Lolspeak / LOLspeak / Kitteh Martian language ( Chinese ) Miguxês ( Portuguese ) Padonkaffsky jargon ( Russian ) Translit Volapuk See also English internet slang ( at Wiktionary ) SMS language The Northwest Semitic abjad ʾ g d h w z ḥ ṭ y k l m n s ʿ p ṣ q r š 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 200 300 400 History Phoenician Paleo - Hebrew Hebrew Aramaic Syriac Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phoenician_alphabet&oldid=841684067 '' Categories : Scripts with ISO 15924 four - letter codes Typography Phoenician alphabet Memory of the World Register Obsolete writing systems Phoenician language Scripts encoded in Unicode 5.0 Canaanite writing systems Unicode blocks Hidden categories : CS1 errors : external links Articles containing Phoenician - language text Articles containing Ancient Greek - language text All accuracy disputes Articles with disputed statements from March 2010 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from October 2015 Articles with unsourced statements from March 2010 Articles with text from the Semitic languages collective Talk Contents About Wikipedia Languages Afrikaans Alemannisch Asturianu বাংলা Bahasa Banjar Беларуская Български Boarisch Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Чӑвашла Čeština Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Gaelg Galego 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית Basa Jawa ქართული Қазақша Kurdî Latina Latviešu Lietuvių Magyar Македонски მარგალური Bahasa Melayu Nederlands नेपाल भाषा 日本 語 Norsk Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی Polski Português Română Русский Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska தமிழ் Taqbaylit ไทย Тоҷикӣ Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt 文言 粵語 Zazaki 中文 Lingua Franca Nova 65 more Edit links This page was last edited on 17 May 2018, at 11 : 10. 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Question: which type of writing did the phoenician alphabet develop from
Answer: Egyptian hieroglyphs