Editing Phoenician alphabet (section)

== History ==
[[File:Phoenician alphabet.svg|thumb|The Phoenician alphabet similar to that used on the [[Mesha Stele]]]]

=== Origin ===
{{further|Proto-Sinaitic script|Proto-Canaanite script}}
[[File:Barthélémy Médailles phéniciennes.jpg|thumb|Study of Phoenician medals, by [[Jean-Jacques Barthélemy]]]]
[[File:Oldest Hebrew Inscription X BC.jpg|thumb|Photograph of section of the [[Zayit Stone]], 10th century&nbsp;BC: (right-to-left) the letters waw, he, het, zayin, tet (𐤅𐤄𐤇𐤆𐤈)]]
The earliest known proto-alphabetic inscriptions are the [[Proto-Sinaitic script]] sporadically attested in the [[Sinai Peninsula]] and in [[Canaan]] in the late [[Middle Bronze Age|Middle]] and [[Late Bronze Age]]. The script was not widely used until the rise of [[Syro-Hittite states]] in the 13th and 12th centuries&nbsp;BC.

The Phoenician alphabet is a direct continuation of the "Proto-Canaanite" script of the [[Bronze Age collapse]] period. The inscriptions found on the [[Phoenician arrowheads]] at [[al-Khader]] near [[Bethlehem]] and dated {{circa|1100&nbsp;BC}} offered the [[epigraphist]]s the "missing link" between the two.<ref name="Cross1980">{{Cite journal |last=Cross |first=Frank Moore |year=1980 |title=Newly Found Inscriptions in Old Canaanite and Early Phoenician Scripts |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |publisher=University of Chicago Press on behalf of The American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=238 |issue=238 (Spring, 1980) |pages=1–20 |doi=10.2307/1356511 |jstor=1356511 |s2cid=222445150}}</ref><ref name="Cross1991">{{Cite book |last=Cross |first=Frank Moore |title=The Origins of Writing |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-803-29167-6 |editor-last=Senner |editor-first=Wayne M. |series=Bison |page=81 |chapter=The Invention and Development of the Alphabet |access-date=30 June 2020 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kc4xAlunCSEC&pg=PA81}}</ref> The [[Ahiram sarcophagus|Ahiram epitaph]], whose dating is controversial, engraved on the sarcophagus of king [[Ahiram]] in Byblos, Lebanon, one of five known [[Byblian royal inscriptions]], shows essentially the fully developed Phoenician script,<ref>Coulmas (1989) p. 141.</ref>{{dubious|Not accessible online. Might cover first sentence as well, "The Phoenician alphabet is a direct continuation...".|date=June 2020}} although the name "Phoenician" is by convention given to inscriptions beginning in the mid-11th century&nbsp;BC.<ref>Markoe (2000) p. 111</ref>

=== Spread and adaptations ===
{{further|History of the alphabet}}
Beginning in the 9th century&nbsp;BC, adaptations of the Phoenician alphabet thrived, including [[Greek alphabet|Greek]], [[Old Italic alphabets|Old Italic]] and [[alphabets of Asia Minor|Anatolian]] scripts. <!--and the [[Paleohispanic scripts]]{{cn}}--> The alphabet's attractive innovation was its phonetic nature, in which [[Phonetic script|one sound was represented by one symbol]], which meant only a few dozen symbols to learn. The other scripts of the time, [[cuneiform]] and [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]], employed many complex [[Character (symbol)|characters]] and required long professional training to achieve proficiency;<ref>Hock and Joseph (1996) p. 85.</ref> which had restricted literacy to a small elite.

Another reason for its success was the maritime trading culture of Phoenician merchants, which spread the alphabet into parts of North Africa and Southern Europe.<ref>Daniels (1996) p. 94-95.</ref> Phoenician inscriptions have been found in archaeological sites at a number of former Phoenician cities and colonies around the Mediterranean, such as [[Byblos]] (in present-day [[Lebanon]]) and [[Carthage]] in North Africa. Later finds indicate earlier use in Egypt.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Discovery of Egyptian Inscriptions Indicates an Earlier Date for Origin of the Alphabet |url=https://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/111499sci-alphabet-origin.html |access-date=20 April 2017}}</ref>

The alphabet had long-term effects on the social structures of the civilizations that came in contact with it. Its simplicity not only allowed its easy adaptation to multiple languages, but it also allowed the common people to learn how to write. This upset the long-standing status of literacy as an exclusive achievement of royal and religious elites, [[scribe]]s who used their monopoly on information to control the common population.<ref>Fischer (2003) p. 68-69.</ref> The appearance of Phoenician disintegrated many of these class divisions, although many Middle Eastern kingdoms, such as [[Assyria]], [[Babylonia]] and [[Adiabene]], would continue to use [[cuneiform]] for legal and liturgical matters well into the Common Era.

According to [[Herodotus]],<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D5%3Achapter%3D58%3Asection%3D1 Book V, 58].</ref> the Phoenician prince [[Cadmus]] was accredited with the introduction of the Phoenician alphabet—{{tlit|grc|phoinikeia grammata}} 'Phoenician letters'—to the Greeks, who adapted it to form their [[History of the Greek alphabet|Greek alphabet]]. Herodotus claims that the Greeks did not know of the Phoenician alphabet before Cadmus. He estimates that Cadmus lived 1600 years before his time, while the historical adoption of the alphabet by the Greeks was barely 350 years before Herodotus.<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126:book=2:chapter=145&highlight=cadmus Book II, 145]</ref>

The Phoenician alphabet was known to the [[Chazal|Jewish sages]] of the [[Second Temple Judaism|Second Temple era]], who called it the "Old Hebrew" ([[Paleo-Hebrew]]) script.<ref>''The [[Mishnah]]'', ed. [[Herbert Danby]], [[Oxford University Press]]: Oxford 1933, p. 784, s.v. ''[[Yadayim]]'' 4:5–6, [https://archive.org/details/DanbyMishnah/page/n813/mode/1up note 6]) ({{ISBN|0-19-815402-X}}); [[Babylonian Talmud]] ''[[Zevahim]]'' 62a; ''[[Sanhedrin (tractate)|Sanhedrin]]'' 22a</ref>
{{clarify|date=November 2019}}<!--cite what they actually called it, and when -- clearly "Old Hebrew" is a translation-->

===Notable inscriptions===
{{main|Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions}}
[[File:Barthélémy Alphabet phénicien.jpg|thumb|Phoenician alphabet, deciphered by [[Jean-Jacques Barthélemy]] in 1758. No.1 is from the [[Cippi of Melqart]], No.2 is from the coins, and No. 3 is from the [[Pococke Kition inscriptions]].]]
The conventional date of 1050&nbsp;BC for the emergence of the Phoenician script was chosen because there is a gap in the epigraphic record; there are not actually any Phoenician inscriptions securely dated to the 11th century.<ref name="JMH2004-23">{{Cite book |last=Hoffman |first=Joel M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pj0TCgAAQBAJ&q=In+the+beginning+:+a+short+history+of+the+Hebrew+language&pg=PA167 |title=In the beginning: a short history of the Hebrew language |publisher=New York University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-814-73654-8 |location=New York |pages=23 |quote=By 1000 B.C.E., however, we see Phoenician writings [..] |access-date=23 May 2017}}</ref> The oldest inscriptions are dated to the 10th century.
* KAI 1: [[Ahiram sarcophagus]], [[Byblos]], {{circa|1000&nbsp;BC}}.
* KAI 14: [[Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II]], 5th century&nbsp;BC
* KAI 15–16: [[Bodashtart inscriptions]], 4th century&nbsp;BC
* KAI 24: [[Kilamuwa Stela]], 9th century&nbsp;BC
* KAI 46: [[Nora Stone]], {{circa|800&nbsp;BC}}
* KAI 47: [[Cippi of Melqart]] inscription, 2nd century&nbsp;BC
* KAI 26: [[Karatepe bilingual]], 8th century&nbsp;BC
* KAI 277: [[Pyrgi Tablets]], Phoenician-Etruscan bilingual, {{circa|500&nbsp;BC}}
* [[Çineköy inscription]], Phoenician-Luwian bilingual, 8th century&nbsp;BC

===Modern rediscovery===
The Phoenician alphabet was deciphered in 1758 by [[Jean-Jacques Barthélemy]], but its relation to the Phoenicians remained unknown until the 19th century. It was at first believed that the script was a direct variation of [[Egyptian hieroglyph]]s,<ref>Jensen (1969), p. 256.</ref> which were [[Egyptian hieroglyphs#Decipherment|deciphered by Champollion]] in the early 19th century.

However, scholars could not find any link between the two writing systems, nor to [[hieratic]] or cuneiform. The theories of independent creation ranged from the idea of a single individual conceiving it, to the [[Hyksos]] people forming it from corrupt Egyptian.<ref>Jensen (1969), pp. 256–258.</ref> {{clarify|date=November 2019}}<!--then cite WHEN it was identified as Phoenician and by whom--> It was eventually discovered{{clarify|date=November 2019}} that the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet was inspired by the model of hieroglyphs.