How was the Phoenicians alphabet similar?

The first signs of the Phoenician alphabet found at Byblos are clearly derived from Egyptian hieroglyphics, and not from cuneiform. Like Hebrew and Arabic, Phoenician was written from right to left, and vowels were omitted (which makes deciphering Phoenician even harder).

What made the Phoenician alphabet attractive to other cultures?

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.

What language was most closely related to the Phoenician alphabet?

Aramaic language, Semitic language of the Northern Central, or Northwestern, group that was originally spoken by the ancient Middle Eastern people known as Aramaeans. It was most closely related to Hebrew, Syriac, and Phoenician and was written in a script derived from the Phoenician alphabet.

How are the Phoenician alphabet and cuneiform writing different?

Cuneiform and the Phoenician alphabet work very similarly, yet very different. Cuneiform used symbols to represent certain things or words. The Phoenician Alphabet, in contrast, has 22 consonant letters, and no vowels. Also, it was perhaps the first alphabetic script to be widely-used.

Did the Phoenician alphabet have vowels?

The Phoenician alphabet consists of 22 characters with vowel sounds built into the symbols. The Greeks modified the Phoenician alphabet by changing some of the symbols as well as creating separate vowels. They also made their alphabet more phonetically correct.

What alphabet did the Etruscans use?

The Etruscans in Italy were familiar with the Phoenician alphabet, as shown on the Pyrgi gold plates at the top of this page. Their plate on the left was written in Phoenician, and the other one in Etruscan.

What was the relationship between the Etruscans and Phoenicians like?

But the Etruscans reemerged as a local power during 800 – 700 B.C, spreading their trade to Corsica, Sardinia and Iberia and creating a powerful navy to guard their interests. The Phoenicians and Etruscans became trading partners and rivals, exchanging goods and opportunistic raids with each other.

Where did the Phoenicians go to find tin?

Sea traders from Phoenicia and Carthage (a Phoenician colony traditionally founded in 814 B.C.) even ventured beyond the Strait of Gibraltar as far as Britain in search of tin.

What languages were written in the Phoenician alphabet?

In the Early Iron Age, the Phoenician alphabet was used to write Northwest Semitic languages, more specifically early Phoenician, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Hebrew and Old Aramaic .