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 Ж, Russian Alphabet
• Unicode: Rune ᚠ

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