Unicode: Phoenician 𐤈

Phoenician is the oldest alphabet. It began around 1200 BC.

alphabet 𐤀 𐤁 𐤂 𐤃 𐤄 𐤅 𐤆 𐤇 𐤈 𐤉 𐤊 𐤋 𐤌 𐤍 𐤎 𐤏 𐤐 𐤑 𐤒 𐤓 𐤔 𐤕

numbers 𐤖 𐤚 𐤛 𐤗 𐤘 𐤙

punctuation 𐤟

Phoenician was used by the ancient civilization of Phoenicia in modern-day Syria, Lebanon, and northern Israel.

Phoenician is made of 22 letters, consonant only.

The Phoenician alphabet is ultimately derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs.

[see Egyptian Hieroglyph 𓂀]

Phoenician became one of the most widely used writing systems, spread by Phoenician merchants across the Mediterranean world, where it was adopted and modified by many other cultures. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet is a local variant of Phoenician,[7] as is the Aramaic alphabet, the ancestor of the modern Arabic. Modern Hebrew script is a stylistic variant of the Aramaic. The Greek alphabet (with its descendants Latin, Cyrillic, Runic, and Coptic) also derives from the Phoenician.

• Unicode: Arabic ش
• Unicode: Greek Alphabet α β γ
• Unicode: Cyrillic Russian Ж
• Unicode: Rune ᚠ ᚢ ᛋ ᛟ

Phoenician was usually written right to left, though some texts alternate directions.