Phoenician
The language of Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage — creators of the alphabet that became the ancestor of Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew scripts.
Overview
Phoenician is a Canaanite language closely related to Hebrew, spoken in the coastal city-states of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Beirut (modern Lebanon). The Phoenicians’ greatest legacy is their alphabet — the first widely-adopted consonantal writing system (abjad), which was transmitted to the Greeks (who added vowels), and thence to the Romans, giving us the Latin alphabet used worldwide today. Phoenician colonists carried their language across the Mediterranean; its late form, Punic, was the language of Carthage.[1]
The Phoenician Alphabet
The Phoenician alphabet has 22 consonantal letters, written right to left:[1]
𐤀 𐤁 𐤂 𐤃 𐤄 𐤅 𐤆 𐤇 𐤈 𐤉 𐤊 𐤋 𐤌 𐤍 𐤎 𐤏 𐤐 𐤑 𐤒 𐤓 𐤔 𐤕[1]
ʾ b g d h w z ḥ ṭ y k l m n s ʿ p ṣ q r š t[1]
These letter names (ʾalep, bet, gimel, dalet…) are the direct ancestors of Greek (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) and Latin (A, B, C, D…) letter names.[1]
Sample Text
The Sarcophagus of Ahiram of Byblos (c. 1000 BCE) — one of the earliest known alphabetic inscriptions:
𐤀𐤓𐤍 𐤆 𐤐𐤏𐤋 𐤀𐤈𐤁𐤏𐤋 𐤁𐤍 𐤀𐤇𐤓𐤌 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤂𐤁𐤋 𐤋𐤀𐤇𐤓𐤌 𐤀𐤁𐤄 𐤊𐤔𐤕𐤄 𐤁𐤏𐤋𐤌
ʾrn z pʿl ʾṭbʿl bn ʾḥrm mlk gbl l-ʾḥrm ʾbh k-šth b-ʿlm
“This coffin which Ittobaal, son of Ahiram, king of Byblos, made for Ahiram his father, when he placed him in eternity.”
Key Inscriptions
- Ahiram Sarcophagus (c. 1000 BCE) — Byblos; one of the earliest alphabetic texts
- KAI 26 (Karatepe Bilingual) — Phoenician-Luwian bilingual from SE Turkey (8th century BCE)
- Punic inscriptions from Carthage — Thousands of votive stelae
- Nora Stone — One of the earliest Phoenician inscriptions in the western Mediterranean (Sardinia)
Learning Resources
- Stanislav Segert, A Grammar of Phoenician and Punic — Standard reference grammar
- Charles Krahmalkov, A Phoenician-Punic Grammar — Alternative grammar
- KAI (Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften) — The standard publication of Northwest Semitic inscriptions
- Phoinix Online — UCLA’s digital epigraphy project
- Hesperia — Database of Paleohispanic and Phoenician inscriptions
References
- ↑ *Stanislav Segert, A Grammar of Phoenician and Punic*** — Standard reference grammar
- ↑ *Charles Krahmalkov, A Phoenician-Punic Grammar*** — Alternative grammar
- ↑ KAI (Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften) — The standard publication of Northwest Semitic inscriptions
- ↑ Phoinix Online — UCLA's digital epigraphy project https://inscriptions.etc.ucla.edu/
- ↑ Hesperia — Database of Paleohispanic and Phoenician inscriptions https://hesperia.ucm.es/