Phoenician alphabet
| Phoenician script | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | |
Time period | c. 1050–150 BC[1] |
| Direction | right-to-left script  |
| Languages | Phoenician, Punic |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Child systems | |
Sister systems |
|
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Phnx, 115 , Phoenician |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Phoenician |
Unicode range | U+10900–U+1091F |
The Phoenician alphabet is an alphabet (more specifically, an abjad)[3] known in modern times from the Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions found across the Mediterranean region.
The Phoenician alphabet is also called the Early Linear script (in a Semitic context, not connected to Minoan writing systems), because it is an early development of the pictographic Proto- or Old Canaanite script, into a linear, alphabetic script, also marking the transfer from a multi-directional writing system, where a variety of writing directions occurred, to a regulated horizontal, right-to-left script.[4] Its immediate predecessor, the Proto-Canaanite, Old Canaanite or early West Semitic alphabet,[5][4] used in the final stages of the Late Bronze Age first in Canaan and then in the Syro-Hittite kingdoms, is the oldest fully matured alphabet, thought to be derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs.[6]
The Phoenician alphabet was used to write the Early Iron Age Canaanite languages, subcategorized by historians as Phoenician, Hebrew, Moabite, Ammonite and Edomite, as well as Old Aramaic. Its use in Phoenicia (coastal Levant) led to its wide dissemination outside of the Canaanite sphere, spread by Phoenician merchants across the Mediterranean world, where it was adopted and modified by many other cultures. It became one of the most widely used writing systems. The Phoenician alphabet proper remained in use in Ancient Carthage until the 2nd century BC (known as the Punic alphabet), while elsewhere it diversified into numerous national alphabets, including the Aramaic and Samaritan, several Anatolian scripts, and the early Greek alphabets. In the Near East, the Aramaic alphabet became especially successful, giving rise to the Jewish square script and Perso-Arabic scripts, among others.
"Phoenician proper" consists of 22 consonant letters only, leaving vowel sounds implicit, although certain late varieties use matres lectionis for some vowels. As the letters were originally incised with a stylus, they are mostly angular and straight, although cursive versions steadily gained popularity, culminating in the Neo-Punic alphabet of Roman-era North Africa. Phoenician was usually written right to left, though some texts alternate directions (boustrophedon).
History[]
Origin[]
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 Syro-Hittite states 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.[citation needed] The inscriptions found on arrowheads at al-Khader near Bethlehem and dated to c.1100 BCE offered the epigraphists the "missing link" between the two.[4][7] The so-called Ahiram epitaph, whose dating is controversial, engraved on the sarcophagus of king Ahiram in Byblos, Lebanon, one of five known Byblian royal inscriptions, shows essentially the fully developed Phoenician script,[8][dubious ] although the name "Phoenician" is by convention given to inscriptions beginning in the mid-11th century BC.[9]
The German philologist Max Müller believed that the Phoenician alphabet was derived from the Ancient South Arabian script during the rule of the Minaeans of parts of the Eastern Mediterranean.[10]
Spread and adaptations[]
Beginning in the 9th century BC, adaptations of the Phoenician alphabet thrived, including Greek, Old Italic and Anatolian scripts. The alphabet's attractive innovation was its phonetic nature, in which one sound was represented by one symbol, which meant only a few dozen symbols to learn. The other scripts of the time, cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, employed many complex characters and required long professional training to achieve proficiency;[11] which had restricted literacy to a small elite.
Another reason for its success was the maritime trading culture of Phoenician merchants, which spread the alphabet into parts of North Africa and Southern Europe.[12] 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.[13]
The alphabet had long-term effects on the social structures of the civilizations that came in contact with it. Its simplicity not only allowed its easy adaptation to multiple languages, but it also allowed the common people to learn how to write. This upset the long-standing status of literacy as an exclusive achievement of royal and religious elites, scribes who used their monopoly on information to control the common population.[14] 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.
According to Herodotus,[15] 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. Herodotus claims that the Greeks did not know of the Phoenician alphabet before Cadmus. He estimates that Cadmus lived sixteen hundred years before his time (while the historical adoption of the alphabet by the Greeks was barely 350 years before Herodotus).[16]
The Phoenician alphabet was known to the Jewish sages of the Second Temple era, who called it the "Old Hebrew" (Paleo-Hebrew) script.[17][clarification needed]
Notable inscriptions[]
The conventional date of 1050 BC for the emergence of the Phoenician script was chosen because there is a gap in the epigraphic record; there are not actually any Phoenician inscriptions securely dated to the 11th century.[18] The oldest inscriptions are dated to the 10th century.
- KAI 1: Ahiram sarcophagus, Byblos, c. 850 BC.
- KAI 14: Eshmunazar II sarcophagus, 5th century BC.
- KAI 15-16: Bodashtart inscriptions, 4th century BC.
- KAI 24: Kilamuwa Stela, 9th century BC.
- KAI 46: Nora Stone, c. 800 BC.
- KAI 47: Cippi of Melqart inscription, 2nd century BC.
- KAI 26: Karatepe bilingual, 8th century BC
- KAI 277: Pyrgi Tablets, Phoenician-Etruscan bilingual, c. 500 BC.
- Çineköy inscription, Phoenician-Luwian bilingual, 8th century BC.
(Note: KAI = Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften)
Modern rediscovery[]
The Phoenician alphabet was deciphered in 1758 by Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, but its relation to the Phoenicians remained unknown until the 19th century. It was at first believed that the script was a direct variation of Egyptian hieroglyphs,[19] which were deciphered by Champollion in the early 19th century.
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 individual conceiving it, to the Hyksos people forming it from corrupt Egyptian.[20][clarification needed] It was eventually discovered[clarification needed] that the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet was inspired by the model of hieroglyphs.
Table of letters[]
The chart shows the graphical evolution of Phoenician letter forms into other alphabets. The sound values also changed significantly, both at the initial creation of new alphabets and from gradual pronunciation changes which did not immediately lead to spelling changes.[21] The Phoenician letter forms shown are idealized: actual Phoenician writing is less uniform, with significant variations by era and region.
When alphabetic writing began, with the early Greek alphabet, the letter forms were similar but not identical to Phoenician, and vowels were added to the consonant-only Phoenician letters. 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 Italic alphabets (including the Latin alphabet).
The Runic alphabet is derived from Italic, the Cyrillic alphabet from medieval Greek. The Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic scripts are derived from Aramaic (the latter as a medieval cursive variant of Nabataean). Ge'ez is from South Arabian.
| Letter | Name[22] | Meaning | Transliteration | Phoneme | Origin | Corresponding letter in | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Text | Egyptian hieroglyphs | Proto-Sinaitic | Samaritan | Aramaic | Hebrew | Syriac | Parthian | Arabic | South Arabian | Ge'ez | Greek | Latin | Cyrillic | Brahmi | Devanagari | Mongolian | |||
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