User:Phoenical/sandbox
Unicode character block / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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[3] 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.
Phoenician alphabet | |
---|---|
Script type | |
Time period | c. 1200–150 BC[1] |
Languages | Phoenician, Punic |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Child systems | Paleo-Hebrew alphabet Aramaic alphabet Greek alphabet ?Libyco-Berber ?Paleohispanic scripts |
Sister systems | South Arabian alphabet |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Phnx (115), Phoenician |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Phoenician |
U+10900–U+1091F | |
This page contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. |
The Phoenician alphabet is derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs.[4] 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.[5] 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.