Editing Phoenician alphabet (section)

=== 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-->