From a South Arabian variant of the earliest Semitic alphabet the Ethiopians developed a syllabic writing still in use for the languages of Ethiopia. Maltese uses the Latin alphabet. Graphical chart that presents the evolution of the Phoenician alphabet to Greek, Etruscan and Latin, on one side, and to Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic on the other. To dowload a Phoenician typeface or font which conforms with standard U.S. English key-mapping, click on Eshmoon.suit.hqx for Mac TrueType font or eshmoon.zip for Windows TrueType font. Windows.zip for Windows TrueType font.
All fonts are patented freeware.
The alphabet remained, however, essentially a Semitic alphabet of 22 letters, written from right to left, with only consonants represented and phonetic values unchanged from the North Semitic script. According to the ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, the Phoenicians introduced their alphabet to Greece. Cadmus the Phoenician is attributed with the credit for this introduction. Further, Phoenician trade was the vessel which speeded the spread of this alphabet along side Phoenician trade which went to the far corners of the Mediterranean. Phoenician alphabet is the ancestor of the Greek alphabet and, hence, of all Western alphabets.