![]() The major difference between the 22-letter Phoenician alphabet and the one we use today is that the Phoenician alphabet had no vowels. Phoenician writing was read from right to left like Hebrew and Arab, but the opposite direction of English. The letter "O" has not changed since it was adopted into the Phoenician alphabet in 1300 B.C. The English alphabet evolved from the Latin, Roman, Greek and ultimately the Phoenician alphabets. The Phoenician alphabet is the ancestor of all European and Middle Eastern alphabets as well as ones in India, Southeast Asia, Ethiopia and Korea. It provided the basis for the Hebrew and Arabic alphabet as well as the Greek alphabet which gave birth to the Latin alphabet which beget the modern alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet had 22 letters, each for sound rather than a word or phrase. It democratized writing, making it something that everyone could understand rather than a small elite. Their system of writing was far simpler than Egyptian hieroglyphics and Mesopotamian cuneiform. Their alphabet caught on because it was practical for trade an it could be learned quickly by other peoples. ![]() ![]() They are credited with inventing letters and the alphabet. The Phoenicians spoke a Semitic language.
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