Phoenician script
Sign in to saveabjad found in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions across the Mediterranean from the 11th–2nd centuries BCE
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The Phoenician script was an ancient writing system used by Canaanite and Aramaic speakers across the Mediterranean region between the 11th and 2nd centuries BCE. It was an abjad, meaning it represented consonants but not vowels, and served as a practical writing tool for peoples engaged in trade and communication across a vast geographic area during this historical period.
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The Phoenician alphabet is an abjad (consonantal alphabet) that was used across the Mediterranean civilization of Phoenicia for most of the 1st millennium BC. It was one of the first alphabets, attested in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions found across the Mediterranean basin. In the history of writing systems, the Phoenician script also marked the first to have a fixed writing direction—while previous systems were multi-directional, Phoenician was written horizontally, from right to left. It developed directly from the Proto-Sinaitic script used during the Late Bronze Age, which was derived in turn from Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The Phoenician alphabet was used to write Canaanite languages spoken during the Early Iron Age, sub-categorized by historians as Phoenician, Hebrew, Moabite, Ammonite and Edomite. It was widely disseminated outside of the Canaanite sphere by Phoenician merchants across the Mediterranean, where it was adopted and adapted by other cultures. The Phoenician alphabet proper was used in Ancient Carthage until the 2nd century BC, where it was used to write the Punic language. Its direct descendant scripts include the Aramaic and Samaritan alphabets, several Alphabets of Asia Minor, and the Archaic Greek alphabets.