Phoenician
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Phoenician was an ancient Semitic language spoken by the Phoenicians around the Mediterranean region. It matters historically because the Phoenicians were major traders and seafarers whose language and cultural influence spread across the Mediterranean world.
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Phoenician (/fəˈniːʃən/ fə-NEE-shən; Phoenician: śpt knʿn 𐤔𐤐𐤕𐤟𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 lit. 'language of Canaan') is an extinct Canaanite language of the Semitic language family originally spoken in the region surrounding the cities of Tyre and Sidon. Extensive Tyro-Sidonian trade and commercial dominance led to Phoenician becoming a lingua franca of the maritime Mediterranean during the Iron Age. The Phoenician alphabet spread to Greece during this period, where it became the source of all modern European scripts.
Phoenician belongs to the Canaanite languages and as such is quite similar to Biblical Hebrew and other languages of the group, at least in its early stages, and is therefore mutually intelligible with them.
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Canaanite languagesExtinct languages of AsiaHarv and Sfn no-target errorsLanguage articles with Linglist codeLanguage articles with unreferenced extinction dateLanguages attested from the 11th century BCLanguages extinct in the 5th century BCLanguages of SicilyLanguages with ISO 639-2 codePhoenician inscriptionsPhoenician language