Alphabet phenician

The alphabet phenician is old a Alphabet of the type Abjad used by the Phénicie NS to note their language. It was borrowed by several people the Mediterranean NS to give in particular:

the paléo-Hebraic Alphabet, from which is resulting:

the Alphabet Samaritan, always used by the Samaritans;

the Greek alphabet, of which are in their turn resulting:

the Etruscan Alphabet, which gave the Latin alphabet;
the Cyrillic alphabet;
the gotic Alphabet;
the Copt alphabet;

the Aramean alphabet, from which are resulting:

History

It is probable that the alphabet phenician is resulting from a model known as Alphabet linear and used to note idioms Proto-cananéen S, which would come from simplifications of the Hiéroglyphe S Egyptians. The oldest inscriptions probably date from before the Christian era but one still regards them as the linear one. The city phenician of Byblos seems to have played a decisive part in the diffusion of the alphabet which, with, is established perfectly (what makes it possible to pose the date of separation, altogether artificial, of 1050 before the Christian era, between the linear model and the model phenician).

The alphabet phenician follows the order Levantine, which it will transmit to all his descendants.

List Graphème S

The name of the letters phenicians is not directly known for us. One chose here possible values, restored starting from the Hebrew . The “significance” of the letters is a recall of what the hieroglyphic Pictogramme at the origin of the character represented. Many significances given here are assumptions, often moved by the direction that with the Hebrew letter.

The Translittération follows the usual conventions for the Semitic Langues. The phonological values are given in API. The “emphatic ” of the Semitic languages being interpreted like old éjectives, one, here, analyzed them like such.

It will be noted that all the Greek letters do not appear. Indeed, the Greek letters Υ , Φ , Χ , Ψ and Ω were added after the loan of the letters phenicians. They appear besides at the end of the alphabet in the Greek alphabet. Also let us note that all the Greek letters were not used in the same way in the Greek world and that regional disparities existed.

Memory of the world

Since 2005, UNESCO classified on the Liste Memory of the world, which counts since 1997 the elements of the documentary inheritance being of universal interest, the alphabet registered on the Sarcophage of Ahiram, king de Byblos (XII E), which is the oldest known example of the alphabetical writing, in opposition to the writings wedge-shaped and hieroglyphic. This written form, only made up of Consonant S, gave its base to the Greek alphabet which will bring the Voyelle S and was used as model for the development of a great number of alphabets thereafter, and in particular the Aramean alphabet, which itself will give rise to the Hebrew and to the Arab . The sarcophagus is with the National museum of Beirut, with the Lebanon.

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