Cuneiform

Definition

by Joshua J. Mark
published on 15 March 2018

Listen to this article, narrated by Nitin Sil

Cuneiform is a system of writing first developed by the

ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia c. 3500-3000 BCE. It is considered the most
significant among the many cultural contributions of the Sumerians and the greatest
among those of the Sumerian city of Uruk which advanced the writing of cuneiform c.
3200 BCE.

The name comes from the Latin word cuneus for 'wedge' owing to the wedge-shaped
style of writing. In cuneiform, a carefully cut writing implement known as a stylus is
pressed into soft clay to produce wedge-like impressions that represent word-signs
(pictographs) and, later, phonograms or `word-concepts' (closer to a modern-day
understanding of a `word'). All of the great Mesopotamian civilizations used cuneiform
until it was abandoned in favour of the alphabetic script at some point after 100 BCE,
including:

 Sumerians
 Akkadians
 Babylonians
 Elamites
 Hatti
  Hittites
 Assyrians
 Hurrians

When the ancient cuneiform tablets of Mesopotamia were discovered and deciphered in
the late 19th century CE, they would literally transform human understanding of
history. Prior to their discovery, the Bible was considered the oldest and most
authoritative book in the world. The brilliant scholar and translator George Smith (1840-
1876 CE) changed the understanding of history with his translation of The Epic
of Gilgamesh in 1872 CE. This translation allowed other cuneiform tablets to be
interpreted which overturned the traditional understanding of the biblical version of
history and made room for scholarly, objective explorations of history to move
forward.

Cuneiform
Writing

EARLY CUNEIFORM
The earliest cuneiform tablets, known as proto-cuneiform, were pictorial, as the subjects
they addressed were more concrete and visible (a king, a battle, a flood) but developed
in complexity as the subject matter became more intangible (the will of the gods, the
quest for immortality). By 3000 BCE the representations were more simplified and the
strokes of the stylus conveyed word-concepts (honour) rather than word-signs (an
honourable man). The written language was further refined through the rebus which
isolated the phonetic value of a certain sign so as to express grammatical relationships
and syntax to determine meaning. In clarifying this, the scholar Ira Spar writes:

This new way of interpreting signs is called the rebus principle. Only a few examples of
its use exist in the earliest stages of cuneiform from between 3200 and 3000 B.C. The
consistent use of this type of phonetic writing only becomes apparent after 2600 B.C. It
constitutes the beginning of a true writing system characterized by a complex
combination of word-signs and phonograms—signs for vowels and syllables—that
allowed the scribe to express ideas. By the middle of the Third Millennium B.C.,
cuneiform primarily written on clay tablets was used for a vast array of economic,
religious, political, literary, and scholarly documents. (1)

THE GREAT LITERARY WORKS OF

MESOPOTAMIA SUCH AS THE FAMOUS EPIC OF
GILGAMESH WERE ALL WRITTEN IN
CUNEIFORM.

DEVELOPMENT OF CUNEIFORM
One no longer had to struggle with the meaning of a pictograph; one now read a word-
concept which more clearly conveyed the meaning of the writer. The number of
characters used in writing was also reduced from over 1,000 to 600 in order to simplify
and clarify the written word. The best example of this is given by the
historian Paul Kriwaczek who notes that, in the time of proto-cuneiform:

All that had been devised thus far was a technique for noting down things, items and
objects, not a writing system. A record of `Two Sheep Temple God Inanna’ tells us
nothing about whether the sheep are being delivered to, or received from, the temple,
whether they are carcasses, beasts on the hoof, or anything else about them. (63)
Cuneiform developed to the point where it could be made clear, to use Kriwaczek's
example, whether the sheep were coming or going to the temple, for what purpose, and
whether they were living or dead. By the time of the priestess-poet Enheduanna (2285-
2250 BCE), who wrote her famous hymns to Inanna in the Sumerian city of Ur,
cuneiform was sophisticated enough to convey emotional states such as love and
adoration, betrayal and fear, longing and hope, as well as the precise reasons behind the
writer experiencing such states.

Inscribed Stand
Head

CUNEIFORM LITERATURE
The great literary works of Mesopotamia such as the Atrahasis, The Descent of Inanna, The
Myth of Etana, The Enuma Elish and the famous Epic of Gilgamesh were all written in
cuneiform and were completely unknown until the mid 19th century CE, when men
like George Smith and Henry Rawlinson (1810-1895 CE) deciphered the language and
translated it into English.

Rawlinson's translations of Mesopotamian texts were first presented to the Royal

Asiatic Society of London in 1837 CE and again in 1839 CE. In 1846 CE he worked with
the archaeologist Austin Henry Layard in his excavation of Nineveh and was
responsible for the earliest translations from the library of Ashurbanipal discovered at
that site. George Smith was responsible for deciphering The Epic of Gilgamesh and in
1872 CE, famously, the Mesopotamian version of the Flood Story, which until then was
thought to be original to the biblical Book of Genesis.

MANY BIBLICAL TEXTS WERE THOUGHT TO BE

ORIGINAL WORKS UNTIL CUNEIFORM WAS
DECIPHERED.
Many biblical texts were thought to be original until cuneiform was deciphered. The
Fall of Man and the Great Flood were understood as literal events in human history
dictated by God to the author (or authors) of Genesis but were now recognized as
Mesopotamian myths which Hebrew scribes had embellished on in The Myth of
Etana and the Atrahasis. The biblical story of the Garden of Eden could now be
understood as a myth derived from The Enuma Elish and other Mesopotamian works.
The Book of Job, far from being an actual historical account of an individual's unjust
suffering, could now be recognized as a literary piece belonging to a Mesopotamian
tradition following the discovery of the earlier Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi text which relates a
similar story.

The concept of a dying and reviving god who goes down into the underworld and then
returns, presented as a novel concept in the gospels of the New Testament, was now
understood as an ancient paradigm first expressed in Mesopotamian literature in the
poem The Descent of Inanna. The very model of many of the narratives of the Bible,
including the gospels, could now be read in light of the discovery of Mesopotamian
Naru Literaturewhich took a figure from history and embellished upon his
achievements in order to relay an important moral and cultural message.
 Flood Tablet of
the Epic of Gilgamesh

Prior to this time, as noted, the Bible was considered the oldest book in the world, the
Song of Solomon was thought to be the oldest love poem; but all of that changed with
the discovery and decipherment of cuneiform. The oldest love poem in the world is
now recognized as The Love Song of Shu-Sin dated to 2000 BCE, long before The Song of
Solomon was written. These advances in understanding were all made by the 19th
century CE archaeologists and scholars sent to Mesopotamia to substantiate biblical
stories through physical evidence.

Along with other Assyriologists (among them, T. G. Pinches and Edwin Norris),
Rawlinson spearheaded the development of Mesopotamian language studies, and
his Cuneiform Inscriptions of Ancient Babylon and Assyria, along with his other works,
became the standard reference on the subject following their publication in the 1860's
CE and remain respected scholarly works into the modern day.
 George Smith, regarded as an intellect of the first rank, died on a field expedition to
Nineveh in 1876 CE at the age of 36. Smith, a self-taught translator of cuneiform, made
his first contributions to deciphering the ancient writing in his early twenties, and
his death at such a young age has long been regarded a significant loss to the
advancement in translations of cuneiform in the 19th century CE.

The literature of Mesopotamia informed all the written works which came after.
Mesopotamian motifs can be detected in the works of Egyptian, Greek,
and Roman works and still resonate in the present day through the biblical narratives
which they inform. When George Smith deciphered cuneiform he dramatically changed
the way human beings would understand their history.

The accepted version of the creation of the world, original sin, and many of the other
precepts by which people had been living their lives were all challenged by the
revelation of Mesopotamian - largely Sumerian - literature. Since the discovery and
decipherment of cuneiform, the history of civilization has never been the same.

Cuneiform: 6 things you (probably)

didn’t know about the world’s oldest
writing system
Cuneiform is an ancient writing system that was first used in around 3400 BC.
Distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, cuneiform script is
the oldest form of writing in the world, first appearing even earlier than
Egyptian hieroglyphics. Here are six facts about the script that originated in
ancient Mesopotamia…





September 24, 2018 at 11:30 am
Curators of the world’s largest collection of cuneiform tablets –
housed at the British Museum – revealed in a 2015 book why the
writing system is as relevant today as ever. Here, Irving Finkel and
Jonathan Taylor share six lesser-known facts about the history of
the ancient script…

1
Cuneiform is not a language
The cuneiform writing system is also not an alphabet, and it doesn’t have
letters. Instead it used between 600 and 1,000 characters to write words (or
parts of them) or syllables (or parts of them).

The two main languages written in Cuneiform are Sumerian and Akkadian
(from ancient Iraq), although more than a dozen others are recorded. This
means we could use it equally well today to spell Chinese, Hungarian or
English.

Read more:
 From the ‘green-eyed monster’ to ‘a stiff upper lip’: the evolution of the
English language
 A murder of crows: 10 collective nouns you didn’t realise originate from the
Middle Ages

2
Cuneiform was first used in around 3400 BC
The first stage used elementary pictures that were soon also used to record
sounds. Cuneiform probably preceded Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, because
we know of early Mesopotamian experiments and ‘dead-ends’ as the
established script developed – including the beginning of signs and numbers –
whereas the hieroglyphic system seems to have been born more or less
perfectly formed and ready to go. Almost certainly Egyptian writing evolved
from cuneiform – it can’t have been an on-the-spot invention.
Amazingly, cuneiform continued to be used until the first century AD,
meaning that the distance in time that separates us from the latest surviving
cuneiform tablet is only just over half of that which separates that tablet from
the first cuneiform.

c2044 BC, Sumeria, Ancient Iraq: Ur III clay administrative tablet, impressed
with the scribes seal, which depicts a goddess leading a worshipper and the
text Ur Gigir, scribe, son of Barran. The main text on the reverse (pictured)
lists ploughmen employed by the state with the quantities of land assigned to
them as wages. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty
Images)
3
All you needed to write cuneiform was a reed and some clay
Both of which were freely available in the rivers alongside the Mesopotamian
cities where cuneiform was used (now Iraq and eastern Syria). The word
cuneiform comes from Latin ‘cuneus’, meaning ‘wedge’, and simply means
‘wedge shaped’. It refers to the shape made each time a scribe pressed his
stylus (made from a specially cut reed) into the clay.
 Most tablets would fit comfortably in the palm of a hand – like mobile phones
today – and were used for only a short time: maybe a few hours or days at
school, or a few years for a letter, loan or account. Many of the tablets have
survived purely by accident.

4
Cuneiform looks somewhat impossible…
Those who read cuneiform for a living – and there are a few – like to think of it
as the world’s most difficult writing (or the most inconvenient). However, if
you have six years to spare and work round the clock (not pausing for meals)
it’s a doddle to master! All you have to do is learn the extinct languages
recorded by the tablets, then thousands of signs – many of which have more
than one meaning or sound.

Read more:

 The making of the King James Bible (subscription)

 Q&A: When did Italian replace Latin as the language of Italy?
 5
… but children master it surprisingly quickly
Children who visit the British Museum seem to take to cuneiform with a kind
of overlooked homing instinct, and they often consider clay homework in
spikey wedges much more exciting than exercises in biro on paper.

In fact, many of the surviving tablets in the museum collection belonged to

schoolchildren, and show the spelling and handwriting exercises that they
completed: they repeated the same characters, then words, then proverbs,
over and over again until they could move on to difficult literature.

Read more:

 Battleground of empires: Cairo in 5 cultures (subscription)

 Guidebook to the Ancient Egyptian afterlife (subscription)

6
Cuneiform is as relevant today as ever
Ancient writings offer proof that our ‘modern’ ideas and problems have been
experienced by human beings for thousands of years – this is always an
astounding realisation. Through cuneiform we hear the voices not just of kings
and their scribes, but children, bankers, merchants, priests and healers –
women as well as men.
It is utterly fascinating to read other people’s letters, especially when they are
4,000 years old and written in such elegant and delicate script.
QI: some quite interesting facts about cuneiform
A quietly intriguing column from the brains behind QI, the BBC quiz show.
This week: QI has a cuneiform fetish

Easter parade: the islanders raised heads and wrote rongorongo Photo: Robert Harding Picture
Library/Alamy

By Molly Oldfield and John Mitchinson

10:09AM GMT 12 Mar 2014

Writing is the geometry of the soul.- Plato

Cuneiform
The world’s oldest writing – older than any alphabet – is cuneiform, first used by
the Sumerians who lived in and around what is now Iraq more than 5,000 years ago.

–– ADVERTISEMENT ––
 The word means “wedge-shaped” from the Latin cuneus, “wedge”. The Sumerians – and several
other ancient “Near Eastern” peoples, including the Hittites of Anatolia and the Urartians of Armenia
– wrote by flattening a piece of clay in one hand, and marking it with a sharpened, wedge-shaped
reed in the other.
The most important tablets were baked in the oven, lesser ones left to dry in the sun, after which
they became impervious to the elements. Thanks to this durability, we have recovered vast libraries
from the Iraqi desert: as many as two million tablets at the last count, of which only 100,000 have
been translated. As a result, we know far more about the lives of the people who wrote in cuneiform
than we do about those of out own medieval ancestors.
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Hieroglyphics
Pregnancy-testing figures in several Egyptian hieroglyphic texts. The Brugsch Papyrus of around
1,350BC offers this test: “A watermelon pounded is mixed with the milk of a woman who has borne a
son, and is given to the patient to drink: if she vomits, she is pregnant; if she has only flatulence, she
will never bear again.” The Berlin Papyrus, written around 1,300BC is slightly more promising:
“Wheat and spelt: let the woman water them daily with her urine like dates… If they both grow, she
will bear: if the wheat grows, it will be a boy; if the spelt grows, it will be a girl. If neither grows, she
will not bear.” Archaeologists tested this in 1963 and although the gender-testing didn’t work, using
urine to germinate wheat and spelt proved a 70 per cent accurate predictor of pregnancy.
Runes
In February, a runic code called jötunvillur was finally decrypted. Dating from the 12th century, it
seems to have been used to encrypt the Viking equivalent of text messages. One piece of bone says
“Kiss me” on it, others say “Interpret these runes”, and on one from Orkney, someone has written:
“These runes were carved by the most rune-literate man west of the sea.” The Vikings and medieval
Norse peoples carved runic codes on to sticks of wood and stones and they are so widespread over
Scandinavia and Great Britain, it’s now thought that people learned to write in code at the same time
as they learned how to read runes.
Linear
There are lots of languages that are yet to be deciphered. A British archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans,
discovered a new language in 1893 when he purchased some ancient stones with mysterious
inscriptions on them at a flea market in Athens. When excavating at Knossos on the island of Crete,
he recognised one of the symbols from these stones and studied the engraved tablets being dug up.
He discovered two different systems, which he called Linear A and Linear B. The latter turned out to
be an early form of Greek and was deciphered in the early Fifties. Linear A remains a mystery.
Rongorongo
When Christian missionaries got to Easter Island (Rapanui) in the 1860s, they found wooden
tablets carved with symbols. These appeared to be examples of a written language: the only one
produced in Polynesia. It was called rongorongo which meant “to chant out” and featured glyphs
representing humans, animals, fish and geometric shapes like crosses and chevrons.
Some scholars aren’t convinced it’s “writing” and think it may be more of a mnemonic device to
record genealogy and information about navigation and agriculture. The main problem is that at the
time it was discovered almost none of the Rapanui islanders could read or interpret the glyphs. The
language, if that’s what it was, had been the preserve of the ruling caste, most of whom had already
being killed or captured by Chilean pirates; the inscribed tablets were being used as firewood or
fishing reels.
Hapax
A hapax legomenon (from the Greek) is something said just once in the entire corpus of a given
language, or a given text, or the work of a given author. Lots of hieroglyphs are currently averred to
be hapax legomena. This may be because we haven’t discovered enough text to find more uses, or
because they’re unique words. They pose a particular challenge in translation, because by definition
they have only one context. The Old English word slæpwerigne, which occurs once in the Exeter
Book, might mean “weary with sleep” or “weary for sleep”. We’ll probably never know for sure.

COMMUNICATIONS AND WRITING:

How did they record their stories and history?
The Ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphic symbols to record their stories and
history, but also used hieroglyphs as writing, to record everyday things.There
are over 700 hieroglyphs, which are pictures of an object which stand for a
word, an idea or a sound. It was a very elaborate form of picture writing and it
is thought that the scribes deliberately made it complicated so that not too
many people would learn it, and the scribes would maintain their important
positions in their society. Scribes were near the top of Egyptian society and
good ones could do very well. One even became a King - his name was
Horemheb.
The word hieroglyph means “sacred words” in Greek, and this type of script
was used for 4000 years. It could be written from left to right, right to left, or
top to bottom. Only people called “scribes” were trained to write. For everyday
work, they used more of a joined up form of writing similar to
handwriting. This form of writing was able to be written more quickly - aways
from right to left, and was called hieratic.
The Ancient Egyptians also drew pictures to tell stories about their history,
their Gods, the animals and birds, the fish in the Nile River, their ceremonies
and rituals. Sometimes the pictures where just used to decorate pillars and
doorways of buildings, or walls of pyramids. Hieroglyphs were written on
papyrus, carved into stone in the tombs and the temple walls, and used to
decorate everyday objects. They were also used on state monuments and
religious papyri.

What tools and media were used in their writing?

The tools and media that the Ancient Egyptians used in their writing included:

 Paper: the paper was made from Papyrus. Papyrus was made from the
triangular-stemmed papyrus reed about 4 metres tall which grew widely along the
banks of the Nile River and had tall shallow stems. To make the paper, the rind
from the stems had to be peeled away to get to the soft pith inside. This was cut
up into strips and using a mallet, it was pounded into flat sheets and joined into
rolls. Papyrus paper was used in Egypt for over 3000 years.
 Paint or ink was made from pigment powder from plants mixed with a liquid.
 The Egyptians used a pot to grinding pigment.
 In ancient Egypt brushes and pens were made of reed.
  They used brush holders (for reed brushes) and palettes for mixing inks.
 Writing cases - a scribes pen-case contained reed pens and an inkwell. Scribes
carried a grinder for crushing the pigments first. Often the scribe’s name and the
name of his employer or the pharaoh would be carved into the case.
 Leather bags were used for holding coloured inks - made from grinding brightly
coloured minerals mixed with water and gum. Charcoal or soot was used to
make the colour black or from red ochre, or blue or green minerals.
 Scribes burnishers were used for smoothing down the surface of the freshly
made papyrus.

Who was able to read and write?

Not everyone learned to read and write. The only group of people allowed to have this
knowledge were “scribes”. It is thought that only about four out of 1,000 Egyptians
could read or write.
Scribes were usually men, and to become a scribe, you had to had to learn how to read
and write hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts. Usually it was the children of scribes that
became scribes.
From the age of nine, the students had to study for about four or five years to get
through scribe school. They were taught writing, mathematics and astronomy.They
learnt to read and write by copying and chanting wisdom texts which gave advice on
morals and behaviour.
These schools cannot have been pleasant places to be, as the children were regularly
beaten.School exercises were often written on broken pieces of stone or pottery that
had been thrown away.These pieces are known as ostraka. Young scribes would copy
exercises out onto ostrakon and then have them corrected by the teacher. Many
examples of corrected exercises have been discovered in Egypt. Training to become a
scribe was hard work because of the number of symbols they had to learn.
Scribes traditionally sat cross-legged with their writing materials on their laps.
The hieroglyph for a scribe is made up of a water pot, a brush holder and a palette with
cakes of ink.
The Egyptian word for scribe or official wash sesh.
What were some of the functions and purposes of their writing?
Scribes were professional writers who would copy out official records and documents.
letters, poems and stories.
Scribes were employed to keep records of everything produced. They recorded the
state’s share of taxes, ordered supplies for the temples and ordered supplies for the
Egyptian army.
Scribes also worked out amounts of food needed to feed the workers. Everything was
recorded carefully.
If someone needed to write a letter, they could pay a scribe to write it for them. Many
scribes worked in the government, copying out accounts, taxes, orders and laws. They
were like civil servants.
Some women who were doctors learnt to be scribes so that they could read medical
texts.
Draughtsman were scribes who specialised in draughtsmanship for royal monuments.
Scribes were often important powerful people in ancient Egypt, and many statues of
them have survived.
The reason we know so much about ancient Egyptians is because of the written
language they left behind. Inscriptions providing detailed information about their lives
can be found on everything from obelisks to tombs.

Comparison between ancient Egyptian communications and writing and our

modern day communications:
It is easy to see how our modern day communications and the way we record things is
vastly different to the ancient egyptians in almost every way. The Egyptians were
however very advanced for such an ancient civilisation though, and their almost
obsessive recording of everything that happened around them on a daily basis by the
scribes, is the only reason we know so much about their civilisation today. Since the
Egyptian times, we have developed more advanced writing and art materials, books, a
written language for recording music (sheet music), computers and now of course the
internet. Communications technology is the area that has changed more than anything
else in the last 20 years. We have even developed a written sign language for blind
people. We have an alphabet and numbers rather than hieroglyphs, and every child has
the opportunity to learn to read and write. We can make phone calls to any country in
the world, we can send faxes, we can skype, sent e mails and text messages. We can
communicate with groups of people from all around the world through social media and
get almost instant access to news from anywhere around the world. We also have the
ability to communicate through music and to record the music itself onto records,
cassettes, CD’s and now also our own personal electronic devices.

Writing

The ancient Egyptians believed that it was important to record and

communicate information about religion and government. Thus, they
invented written scripts that could be used to record this information.

The most famous of all ancient Egyptian scripts is hieroglyphic. However,

throughout three thousand years of ancient Egyptian civilisation, at least
three other scripts were used for different purposes. Using these
scripts, scribes were able to preserve the beliefs, history and ideas of
ancient Egypt in temple and tomb walls and on papyrus scrolls.

How did the Ancient Egyptians communicate with

each other?
Mainly, Ancient Egyptians communicated through writing; hieroglyphics and heratic. Since most people
couldn’t learn the 2 languages; after all, hieroglyphs did have over 700 characters, so select people,
called scribes, were taught the languages of Ancient Egypt to write them down for other people. People
would write down things like the month’s harvest, or what was made during the week. People also
communicated through plays and the theater, expressing their feelings and thoughts to the viewers, by
acting out their thoughts. In these play’s, only men would be actors in the play’s, because women didn’t
have that many rights. People would also, naturally, talk to each other to find out the day’s events and
what was happening. They would also talk to communicate with their gods to pray and thank them, and
ask for help with problems in their daily lives. The Ancient Egyptians would also communicate through
drawings, pictures, and snapshots of their lives, and the important thing’s going on. They also drew to
express their prophecies and their predictions for the outcome of the world. Another way the Ancient
Egyptians could communicate is through their art. They would show pictures on their vases about the
gods and demi-gods (the gods children) doing heroic deeds to save the world. To communicate their
rank, people wore more expensive clothes, and their houses were bigger and fully furnished with ornately
carved furniture and impressive works of art. Women also wore gold and lapis lazuli jewelry.
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 COMMUNICATION AND WRITING
In the Ancient times they didn't have fancy, multicoloured paper like we do and they didn't have the
electronics we have now, they didn't have the knowledge and equipment to have what we have now.

A Story from Ancient Egypt A picture of an Ancient Egyptian writing

How did they record their stories? What tools and media were used in their writing?
If Ancient Egyptians wanted to record a story the
average person couldn't, if they weren't a Scribe. Ancient Egypt didn't have all the knowledge and
Ancient Egyptians recorded their stories by getting a understanding of the world, so they didn't have the
Scribe to carve the story into stonewall or write it tools and experience we have now. In Ancient times in
down onto papyrus paper with a reed pen. The Scribes Egypt the Egyptians used papyrus paper made from
recorded their stories in hieroglyphics and the Scribes papyrus plants. The papyrus plant had a big impact on
were the only people who could read and write so Ancient Egyptians as it had many uses that were
people would get one of the Scribes and ask them to needed for the Egyptians. The papyrus plants grows
write a story and they would write in hieroglyphics on along the bank of the Nile river which would of been
rock walls with a stone or a reed pen on papyrus handy as the Ancient Egyptians usually based their
paper. Hieroglyphs was invented more than 7,500 villages next to or closed to the Nile because the Nile
years ago and was very unique to the Ancient gave them a lot of uses and made their lives a lot
Egyptian's as they were the only Ancient Civilisation easier. Making papyrus paper was a long process but
that used them. that’s the only way they knew. Ancient Egyptians also
used walls and rocks to carve stories and signs into
it. Ancient Egyptian used reed pens, sticks, paint and
rocks to write with. The scribes wrote Ancient Egypt
Literature, which is stories, poems, historical and
Hieroglyphics on a rock wall biographical texts and scientific treatises:
mathematical and medical texts. They wrote about
their religion, recorder their medical knowledge, what
they learn, how they learnt it. The scribes were very
important to the Ancient Egyptians as they were they
source of reading and writing resources.

Hieroglyphics from Ancient Egypt Two Ancient Egyptians writing

What were some of the functions and purposes of Who was able to read and write?
their writing?
Ancient Egyptians weren't cavemen they had quite a bit of Not everyone was able to learn the knowledge of reading
knowledge. When they found out factual information they and writing in Ancient Egypt. Only one group had the
would get Scribes to write it down. If the Ancient Egyptian comprehensions of reading and writing and they were called
Doctors or nurses found out important information like a scribes. The scribes were people in Ancient Egypt generally
cure to a sickness or infection or allergic reaction that would men who were taught to read and write. To get into the
be very useful with another patient that may get those very "Scribes" groups was hard work and not everyone could
same symptoms and illnesses then it would be written down learn it as it was very rare to get into scribes after 4-5 years
 and used to treat the needs of that illness. If the Ancient of reading and writing school, if they wanted to learn how to
Egyptians found out new things about how they got things read and write they had to go to a school were you learnt
for food, medicine, appearance anything that would be how to read and write complicated hieroglyphics and
useful in other situation, they would get the Scribes to write hieratic scripts and learnt to read and write signs. Scribes
it for them. By writing these things down on papyrus paper group was the only collection of people that could read and
would make it much easier as they would know how to treat write, so they were the ones that could write the scripts and
a person again, they would know where to find an important read the scripts.
plant with many uses and by writing it down means that
people will find it easier to live their life's in Ancient Egypt.

Letters-Hierogliphics Hieroglyphics for Gods

What value did their culture place on their written What links were there between their written
communication? communication and their religion? The Hieroglyphics
Not a lot of their culture was based on written have many links to their religion. A large quantity of
communication, as not many Ancient Egyptians could their Hieroglyphs were based on their gods. They also
read and write. The only people that could read and had Hieroglyphic signs for all of their gods.
write were Scribes. And you can only become a Scribe
if you went through school and got accepted.
Occasionally, Priests became Scribes so that they could
record Gods.

Every child learns the alphabet, but how much do any of us know about the history of it? In this lesson,
we'll talk about one of the first major alphabets in Western history, and see how it impacted the ancient
world.

The Phoenician Alphabet

As children, one of the first things we learn is the alphabet. This is an important thing to learn, since
our entire written language is based around the combinations of letters in the alphabet. Every letter
represents a sound in the spoken language, which lets us create words through combinations of
sounds. This system is much more efficient than a written language in which each symbol
represents an entire word, so it's pretty cool. But where did it come from? The alphabet, as we know
it, developed over thousands of years, but originated from the written language known
as Phoenician. The Phoenician alphabet was one of the first widely used alphabets in the world.
Maybe our children should be singing catchy mnemonic tunes about this alphabet as well.

Origins
To understand the Phoenician alphabet, we first need to understand the Phoenician people. For that,
we have to travel back to roughly 1500 BCE on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea around present
day Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. This territory was known to the Egyptians as Put, to the people of
the eastern Mediterranean as Canaan, and to the ancient Greeks as Phoenicia. The Phoenicians
lived in trade-based city-states along the eastern Mediterranean, but also had colonies across the
North African coast and some in Southern Europe.

On this map of ancient powers, the Phoenician colonies are in red

The Phoenician people spoke the Phoenician language, which was a member of the Northern
Semitic group of languages, a common ancestor of many languages spoken in the Middle East to
this day. The Mediterranean world around this time was an interesting place. It was here that the
world's first cities appeared, here that agriculture was first perfected, and here that people first
learned to turn their spoken language into a written language. That first written language (developed
around 3500 BCE) was called cuneiform, and it was based on the language of the Mesopotamians.
Cuneiform, like many other early written languages, used symbolic characters to represent the
sounds of entire syllables.
Over time, people tweaked this system to make it more efficient. They realized that they could
drastically reduce the number of characters in the alphabet if they used symbols to represent
individual sounds rather than entire syllables. That system, in which characters represent individual
sounds, is how we formally define an alphabet. The Proto-Canaanite alphabet was one of the first
major attempts to do this, but the Phoenicians took this one step further. They standardized an
alphabet of major sounds and developed one of the most efficient and easy-to-use written languages
in the world at that time. In fact, while cuneiform contained nearly 1,000 characters, the written
Phoenician language contained only 22.
 Phoenician alphabet

Structure
The Phoenician language is based around an alphabet of 22 letters, each one representing a sound
in the Phoenician language. However, not all of the sounds in the language are actually represented.
Phoenician is a consonantal alphabet, which means that it only has letters to represent the
consonants. There are no vowels in the Phoenician written language. Readers would simply imply
the presence of the vowel sounds based on their knowledge of the written and spoken language.
Written Phoenician is composed of these consonantal letters, written from right to left across clay
tablets or pieces of early parchment.

Written Phoenician

Significance
The oldest piece of Phoenician writing that we've discovered was from the Phoenician city of Byblos
(today in Lebanon) dating to the 11th century BCE. From there, however, Phoenician began to
appear in more and more cities around the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians were a maritime people,
who built up a society of traders who shipped products to and from the various cities along the
Mediterranean coast. As they built up their trade networks, they established colonies across
Northern Africa and the Middle East, and even some in Southern Europe.
Phoenician alphabet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Phoenician alphabet

Type Abjad

Languages Phoenician, Punic

Time period c. 1200–150 BC[1]

Parent systems Egyptian hieroglyphs [2]

 Proto-Sinaitic

 Phoenician alphabet
 Child systems Paleo-Hebrew alphabet

Aramaic alphabet

Greek alphabet

Libyco-Berber

Paleohispanic scripts

Sister systems South Arabian alphabet

Direction Right-to-left

ISO 15924 Phnx, 115

Unicode alias Phoenician

Unicode range U+10900–U+1091F

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols.Without

proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or
other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory
guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

This article contains special characters.Without

proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or
other symbols.

History of the alphabet[show]

 v
 t
 e

The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions
older than around 1050 BC, is the oldest verified alphabet. It is an alphabet of abjad[3] type,
consisting of 22 consonant letters only, leaving vowel sounds implicit, although certain late varieties
use matres lectionis for some vowels. It was used to write Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language,
used by the ancient civilization of Phoenicia in modern-day Syria, Lebanon, and northern Israel.[4]
The Phoenician alphabet is derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs.[5] It 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,[6] as is the Aramaic alphabet, the ancestor of the modern Arabic. Modern Hebrew script
is a stylistic variant of Aramaic. The Greek alphabet (with its descendants Latin, Cyrillic, Runic,
and Coptic) also derives from Phoenician.
As the letters were originally incised with a stylus, they are mostly angular and straight, although
cursive versions steadily gained popularity, culminating in the Neo-Punic alphabet of Roman-
era North Africa.
Phoenician was usually written right to left, though some texts alternate directions (boustrophedon).
 Contents

 1History
o 1.1Origin
o 1.2Spread of the alphabet and its social effects
o 1.3Modern rediscovery
 2Development
 3Letter names
 4Numerals
 5Unicode
o 5.1Block
o 5.2History
 6Derived alphabets
o 6.1Middle Eastern descendants
o 6.2Derived European scripts
o 6.3Brahmic scripts
 7Surviving examples
 8See also
 9References
o 9.1Sources
 10External links

History[edit]
Further information: Abjad
Origin[edit]
Further information: Proto-Sinaitic script and Proto-Canaanite script
The earliest known alphabetic (or "proto-alphabetic") inscriptions are the so-called Proto-Sinaitic (or
Proto-Canaanite) script sporadically attested in the Sinai and in Canaan in the late Middle and Late
Bronze Age. The script was not widely used until the rise of new Semitic kingdoms in the 13th and
12th centuries BC.
The Phoenician alphabet is a direct continuation of the "Proto-Canaanite" script of the Bronze Age
collapse period. The so-called Ahiram epitaph, from about 1200 BC, engraved on the sarcophagus
of king Ahiram in Byblos, Lebanon, one of five known Byblian royal inscriptions, shows essentially
the fully developed Phoenician script,[7] although the name "Phoenician" is by convention given to
inscriptions beginning in the mid 11th century BC.[8]
Spread of the alphabet and its social effects[edit]
Further information: History of the alphabet
Beginning in the 9th century BC, adaptations of the Phoenician alphabet thrived,
including Greek, Old Italic, Anatolian, and the Paleohispanic scripts. The alphabet's attractive
innovation was its phonetic nature, in which 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 characters and required long professional training to achieve
proficiency.[9]
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.[10] 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.[11]
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, scribes who used their monopoly on information to control
the common population.[12] 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.
Modern rediscovery[edit]
The Phoenician alphabet was first uncovered in the 17th century, but up to the 19th century its origin
was unknown. It was at first believed that the script was a direct variation of Egyptian
hieroglyphs,[13] which had been spectacularly deciphered shortly before. 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.[14] It was eventually discovered that the proto-Sinaitic alphabet was
inspired by the model of hieroglyphs.

Development[edit]
The Phoenician letter forms shown here are idealized: actual Phoenician writing was cruder and less
uniform, with significant variations by era and region.
When alphabetic writing began in Greece, the letter forms were similar but not identical to
Phoenician, and vowels were added to the consonant-only Phoenician letters. There were also
distinct variants of the writing system in different parts of Greece, primarily in how those Phoenician
characters that did not have an exact match to Greek sounds were used. The Ionic variant evolved
into the standard Greek alphabet, and the Cumae variant into the Latin alphabet, which accounts for
many of the differences between the two. Occasionally, Phoenician used a short stroke or dot
symbol as a word separator.[15]
The chart shows the graphical evolution of Phoenician letter forms into other alphabets.
The sound values also changed significantly, both at the initial creation of new alphabets and from
gradual pronunciation changes which did not immediately lead to spelling changes.

Le
tte Corresponding letter in
r
N M P
a O
e h
m r M S E E A O G S O I S
a o G A M J
e i A a o t g n l e l l T n B B r
n n H S A e r o a
I [ g r l u h G y a d r a d i d e u i K
T i e e y r o m n T v
m
1 i a e t i r p t I m L v T b i n r L h L
e 6 n m b r a r e g h a
a n m d h o e t o t a at i u e c g m a m a
x ] g e r i b g n o a n
g a i A p e i l a n in c r t D a e n e o
t e a i i i li i e
e i v r i k a i l i C k a e l s k r
w c c a a a s
c a a a n a i c y i n v i e a
n n n e
n b n C n c R r c a n
T i G o L u il n S
 h a e p y n li a i
a n ' t d e c g n
a e i i s a h
n z c a r a
a n i l
e
s
e

𓃾
,
𓃾
,
𓃾 𓃾 ꦨ
ʾ ʾ ა , , ,
ā / Ա 𓃾 𓃾 ආ
o Α Ⲁ A А ⴀ ཨ , , 𓃾 , អ อ 𓃾ꦄ
𐤀l x [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫ﺍ 𓃾 א‬ ‫ 𓃾 𓃾 އ‬α ⲁ 𓃾 𓃾ᚨ a а /
/ 𓃾
e ʔ ա 𓃾𓃾𓃾 ඇ
p ] Ⴀ , , ,
𓃾𓃾𓃾 ඈ
,
𓃾
,
𓃾

h b Б ბ
b o б / Բ བ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 බ ប ꦧ
Β Ⲃ B
𐤀ē u [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫ 𓃾 𓃾 ބ ﺏ 𓃾 ב‬β ⲃ 𓃾 𓃾 ᛒ b , , , , , , บ 𓃾,
, ⴁ / 𓃾
t s b В / բ མ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 භផ ꦨ
e ] в Ⴁ

t
h
r
o
w
i
n g Г გ
g ᚷ C
g ‫ޖ‬ г / Գ ค
ī Γ Ⲅ , c, ⴂ / 𓃾 ག 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ග គ , 𓃾ꦒ
𐤀m s [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫ ﺝ 𓃾 ג‬, 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ,
γ ⲅ G
t ɡ ‫ޗ‬ Ґ / գ ฅ
l
i ] ᛃ g ґ Ⴂ
c
k
/
c
a
m
 e
l

d d დ
d ‫د‬
ā ‫ޑ‬ / Դ
o , Δ Ⲇ D Д ⴃ ད 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ධ ឌ ฎ 𓃾ꦣ
𐤀l [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫𓃾 ד‬ , 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾ᛞ / 𓃾 -
o δ ⲇ d д /
‫ޛ ذ‬
e d դ
r
t ] Ⴃ
Ե
/
Е ե
w е ე ,
h
i , /
Է ꦌ
h n Ε Ⲉ E Є ⴄ
𐤀ē d [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫𓃾 𓃾 ހ ه 𓃾 ה‬ 𓃾 𓃾ᛖ / - - - 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 එ ហห 𓃾,
ε ⲉ e є /
h է ꦍ
o ,
] Ⴄ ,
w Э
э Ը
/
ը
Ff
,
(
U
Ѵ
( u,
ѵ ვ
w Ϝ 𓃾
h ),
w ‫ވ‬ ϝ , 𓃾 V / Վ
o Ⲩ ཝ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ව វ ว 𓃾ꦮ
𐤀ā o [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫ו‬ 𓃾 ‫ ﻭ‬, 𓃾 𓃾 ), 𓃾 , ᚹ v, ⴅ / -
ⲩ У
w w ‫ޥ‬ , 𓃾 / վ
k у
] Υ 𓃾 Y Ⴅ
,
υ y,
Ў
ў
W
w
w ზ ཇ
z z
e
a ‫ޒ‬ / Զ , 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ජ ช ꦗ
a Ζ Ⲍ Z З
𐤀y [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫ז‬ 𓃾 ‫ ﺯ‬, 𓃾 𓃾 - 𓃾ᛉ ⴆ / 𓃾 ཛ , , , , ជ , 𓃾,
p ζ ⲍ z з
i z ‫ޜ‬
/ զ , 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ඣ ซ ꦙ
o ཛྷ
n ] Ⴆ
n
w
a
l Ի
l ი
ḥ И /
, 𓃾 ‫ح‬ 𓃾 𓃾
ḥ ‫ޙ‬ ᚺ и / ի
c o , , , Η Ⲏ H ⴈ གྷ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ඝ ឃ ฆ - ꦓ
𐤀ē o [
r
𓃾 ‫𓃾 ח‬ ,
η ⲏ
- 𓃾/
h
, , -
t
u
ħ
𓃾 ‫𓃾 𓃾 ޚ خ‬ ᚻ Й / Խ
] й Ⴈ /
r
t խ
y
a
 r
d
ṭ თ
w 𓃾
‫ط‬ ( /
ṭ h ‫ޘ‬ Թ ,
[ , Θ Ⲑ Ѳ ⴇ ཐ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ඣដ ฏ - ꦛ
𐤀ē e t 𓃾 𓃾 ‫𓃾 ט‬ , 𓃾 𓃾 - 𓃾ᚦ - / 𓃾 -
θ ⲑ ѳ /
‫ދ ظ‬
t e թ ,
ˤ )
l Ⴇ 𓃾
]
Іі
y
h ,
y Յ 𓃾
a Ⲓ Ii, Її ཡ 𓃾 𓃾 , ය យย 𓃾ꦪ
𐤀ō n [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫י‬ 𓃾 ‫ 𓃾 𓃾 ޔ ي‬Ιι 𓃾 ᛁ 𓃾 ჲ / 𓃾
ⲓ Jj ,
d j յ 𓃾
d Ј
]
ј
p
a
l
m
( k კ
k o / Կ
‫כ‬ Κ Ⲕ K К ⴉ ཀ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 කក ก 𓃾ꦏ
𐤀ā f [ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ‫𓃾 𓃾 ކ ﻙ‬ 𓃾 𓃾ᚲ / 𓃾
‫ך‬ κ ⲕ k к /
p a k կ
h ] Ⴉ
a
n
d
)

l l ლ
g
ā ‫ލ‬ / Լ 𓃾
o Λ Ⲗ Л ⴊ ལ 𓃾 𓃾 , ළ លล 𓃾ꦭ
𐤀m [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫ ﻝ 𓃾 ל‬, 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾ᛚ Ll / 𓃾
a λ ⲗ л /
e l ‫ޅ‬ լ 𓃾
d
d ] Ⴊ

w m მ
m a / Մ
‫מ‬ Μ Ⲙ M М ⴋ མ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ම ម ม 𓃾ꦩ
𐤀ē t [ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ‫𓃾 𓃾 މ ﻡ‬ 𓃾 𓃾ᛗ / 𓃾
‫ם‬ μ ⲙ m м /
m e m մ
r ] Ⴋ
𓃾
s 𓃾 𓃾 , ඞ ꦔ
e n ნ ང , , 𓃾 , ង ง 𓃾 ,
n r ‫ނ‬ / Ն , 𓃾 𓃾 , ඤ, , , ꦚ
‫נ‬ Ν Ⲛ N Н ⴌ
𐤀ū p [ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ‫ ﻥ‬, 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾ᚾ / 𓃾 ཉ , , 𓃾 , ញ ณ𓃾 ,
‫ן‬ ν ⲛ n н /
n e n ‫ޏ‬ ն , 𓃾 𓃾 , ණ, , , ꦟ
ན , 𓃾
n ] Ⴌ , , ណน 𓃾 ,
t 𓃾 𓃾 , න ꦤ
𓃾
 f
i (
s s s Ξ Ⲝ Ѯ ს
𓃾
ā h ξ ⲝ 𓃾ᛊ ѯ / Ս 𓃾 𓃾 សส 𓃾ꦯ
, X ས , , 𓃾 ස , , , ,
𐤀m , [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫ס‬ —— 𓃾 𓃾 , , - , , ), ⴑ / 𓃾 -
x
e d s
𓃾
Χ Ⲭ 𓃾ᛋ / ս 𓃾 𓃾 ឞ ษ 𓃾ꦰ
k j ] χ ⲭ Х Ⴑ
e х
d

ʿ ʿ Ο Ⲟ ო
‫ع‬ ꦎ
a e ‫ޢ‬ ο ⲟ / Օ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾
, O О ⴍ ,
y y [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫ע‬ 𓃾 , 𓃾 𓃾 , , 𓃾 𓃾ᛟ / 𓃾 - , , , ඔ អុ - -
𐤀 o о / ꦎ
i e ʕ Ω Ⲱ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾
‫ޣ غ‬ օ ꦴ
n ] ω ⲱ Ⴍ

m p პ
o ‫ފ‬ 𓃾 / Պ པ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ප ព 𓃾ꦥ
p ‫פ‬ Π Ⲡ P П ⴎ
𐤀ē u [ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ‫ ف‬, 𓃾 , - 𓃾ᛈ / 𓃾 - , , , , , , ป , ,
‫ף‬ π ⲡ p п /
t p ‫ޕ‬ 𓃾 պ ཕ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ඵ ភ 𓃾ꦦ
h ] Ⴎ
?
(
Ц
p ཅ
ṣ ц ც
a 𓃾 ,
ṣ ‫ص‬ ( ,
p ‫ޞ‬ , / Ց ཆ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ච ច จ ꦕ
ā [ ‫צ‬ , Ϻ Ч ⴚ / -
𐤀d y 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 , 𓃾 𓃾 - —𓃾—- , , , , , , , 𓃾,
s ‫ץ‬ ϻ ч / ց ཙ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ඡ ឆ ฉ ꦖ
‫ޟض‬
r ,
ē ˤ ) ,
u 𓃾 Ⴚ ,
] Џ ཚ
s
џ
?
)
Ք
( /
n
Ϙ Ϥ ք
e
ϙ ϥ ქ ,
e q 𓃾
), , ( /
q d ‫ޤ‬ , Փ ข
Ⲫ Q Ҁ ⴕ ཁ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 ඛ ខ , 𓃾ꦑ
𐤀ō l [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫ ﻕ 𓃾 ק‬, 𓃾 𓃾 Φ ⲫ - 𓃾-
q ҁ /
/ 𓃾 -
p e q ‫ގ‬ φ ,
,
) փ ฃ
e ] 𓃾 Ⴕ ,
, Ⲯ
y
Ψ ⲯ Ֆ
e /
ψ
ֆ

r რ
h / Ր
r
e Ρ Ⲣ R Р
𐤀ē a [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫𓃾 𓃾 ރ ﺭ 𓃾 ר‬
ρ ⲣ
𓃾 𓃾ᚱ
r р
ⴐ / 𓃾 ར 𓃾 𓃾 - ර រ ร 𓃾ꦫ
š r / ր
d
] Ⴐ
 Ⲋ С
ⲋ с შ
t š
‫ش‬ , , /
š o ‫ޝ‬ Σ ᛊ Շ
, Ⲥ Ш ⴘ
𐤀 ī o [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫ש‬ 𓃾 , 𓃾 𓃾 σ
ⲥ
𓃾 𓃾 / Ss
ш /
/ 𓃾 ཤ 𓃾 𓃾 - - ឝศ - ꦯ
n t ʃ
‫ސ س‬
ς
, ᛋ , շ
h ] Ⴘ
Ϣ Щ
ϣ щ
t Ⲋ
m ‫ت‬ ტ Տ
t ‫ތ‬ ⲋ ต
a , Τ Т / / 𓃾 ཏ 𓃾 𓃾 𓃾 තត , 𓃾ꦠ
𐤀ā r [ 𓃾 𓃾 ‫𓃾 ת‬ , 𓃾 𓃾 , 𓃾 𓃾 ᛏ Tt
τ т ⴒ
Ⲧ ด
‫ޘ ث‬
w t տ
k /
] ⲧ

Alveolar
Labial Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
Plain Emphatic

Nasal m n

Voiceless p t tˤ k q ʔ

Stop
Voiced b d ɡ

Voiceless s sˤ ʃ ħ h
Fricative
Voiced z ʕ

Trill r

Approximant l j w

Letter names[edit]
Phoenician used a system of acrophony to name letters: a word was chosen with each initial
consonant sound, and became the name of the letter for that sound. These names were not
arbitrary: each Phoenician letter was based on an Egyptian hieroglyph representing an Egyptian
word; this word was translated into Phoenician (or a closely related Semitic language), then the
initial sound of the translated word became the letter's Phoenician value.[17] For example, the second
letter of the Phoenician alphabet was based on the Egyptian hieroglyph for "house" (a sketch of a
house); the Semitic word for "house" was bet; hence the Phoenician letter was called bet and had
the sound value b.
According to a 1904 theory by Theodor Nöldeke, some of the letter names were changed in
Phoenician from the Proto-Canaanite script.[dubious – discuss] This includes:

 gaml "throwing stick" to gimel "camel"

 digg "fish" to dalet "door"
 hll "jubilation" to he "window"
 ziqq "manacle" to zayin "weapon"
 naḥš "snake" to nun "fish"
 piʾt "corner" to pe "mouth"
 šimš "sun" to šin "tooth"
Yigael Yadin (1963) went to great lengths to prove that there was actual battle equipment similar to
some of the original letter forms.[18]

Numerals[edit]
The Phoenician numeral system consisted of separate symbols for 1, 10, 20, and 100. The sign for 1
was a simple vertical stroke (𐤀). Other numbers up to 9 were formed by adding the appropriate
number of such strokes, arranged in groups of three. The symbol for 10 was a horizontal line or tack
(𐤀). The sign for 20 (𐤀) could come in different glyph variants, one of them being a combination of
two 10-tacks, approximately Z-shaped. Larger multiples of ten were formed by grouping the
appropriate number of 20s and 10s. There existed several glyph variants for 100 (𐤀). The 100
symbol could be multiplied by a preceding numeral, e.g. the combination of "4" and "100" yielded
400.[19] The system did not contain a numeral zero.[20]

Unicode[edit]

Phoenician

Range U+10900..U+1091F

(32 code points)

Plane SMP

Scripts Phoenician

Assigned 29 code points

Unused 3 reserved code points

Unicode version history

 5.0 27 (+27)

5.2 29 (+2)

Note: [21][22]

The Phoenician alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in July 2006 with the release of
version 5.0. An alternative proposal to handle it as a font variation of Hebrew was turned down.
(See PDF summary.)
The Unicode block for Phoenician is U+10900–U+1091F. It is intended for the representation of text
in Palaeo-Hebrew, Archaic Phoenician, Phoenician, Early Aramaic, Late Phoenician cursive,
Phoenician papyri, Siloam Hebrew, Hebrew seals, Ammonite, Moabite, and Punic.
The letters are encoded U+10900 𐤀 aleph through to U+10915 𐤀 taw, U+10916 𐤀, U+10917 𐤀,
U+10918 𐤀 and U+10919 𐤀 encode the numerals 1, 10, 20 and 100 respectively and U+1091F 𐤀 is
the word separator.
Block[edit]

Phoenician[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+1090x 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀

U+1091x 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀 𐤀
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 12.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points
History[edit]
The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific
characters in the Phoenician block:
 Final code
Version Count L2 ID WG2 ID Document
points[a]

Everson, Michael (1997-05-

N1579 27), Proposal for encoding the
Phoenician script

Umamaheswaran, V. S. (1997-10-24),
"8.24.1", Unconfirmed Meeting
L2/97-
N1603 Minutes, WG 2 Meeting # 33,
288
Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 20 June - 4
July 1997

Everson, Michael (1998-11-23), Revised

L2/99-
N1932 proposal for encoding the Phoenician
013
script in the UCS

Röllig, W. (1999-07-23), Comments on

L2/99- N2097, N2025-
proposals for the Universal Multiple-
224 2
Octed Coded Character Set
U+10900..10919,
5.0 27
1091F
Response to comments on the question
N2133 of encoding Old Semitic scripts in the
UCS (N2097), 1999-10-04

Kass, James; Anderson, Deborah W.;

Snyder, Dean; Lehmann, Reinhard G.;
Cowie, Paul James; Kirk,
L2/04-
Peter; Cowan, John; Khalaf, S. George;
149
Richmond, Bob (2004-05-
25), Miscellaneous Input on Phoenician
Encoding Proposal

Everson, Michael (2004-05-29), Final

L2/04-
N2746R2 proposal for encoding the Phoenician
141R2
script in the UCS

L2/04- Anderson, Deborah (2004-05-

177 31), Expert Feedback on Phoenician
L2/04- Anderson, Deborah (2004-06-
N2772
178 04), Additional Support for Phoenician

Keown, Elaine (2004-06-

L2/04- 04), REBUTTAL to “Final proposal for
181 encoding the Phoenician script in the
UCS”

Everson, Michael (2004-06-

L2/04-
N2787 06), Additional examples of the
190
Phoenician script in use

L2/04- McGowan, Rick (2004-06-

187 07), Phoenician Recommendation

Kirk, Peter (2004-06-07), Response to

L2/04- the revised "Final proposal for
N2793
206 encoding the Phoenician script" (L2/04-
141R2)

L2/04- Rosenne, Jony (2004-06-07), Responses

213 to Several Hebrew Related Items

Keown, Elaine (2004-06-07), Proposal

L2/04-
to add Archaic Mediterranean Script
217R
block to ISO 10646

Durusau, Patrick (2004-06-

L2/04-
07), Statement of the Society of Biblical
226
Literature on WG2 N2746R2

Snyder, Dean (2004-06-08), Response

L2/04-
N2792 to the Proposal to Encode Phoenician in
218
Unicode

L2/05- Anderson, Deborah (2005-01-

N2909
009 19), Letters in support of Phoenician
 Everson, Michael (2007-07-
L2/07-
5.2 U+1091A..1091B 2 N3284 25), Proposal to add two numbers for
206
the Phoenician script

1. ^ Proposed code points and characters names may differ from final code points and names

Derived alphabets[edit]
Each letter of Phoenician gave way to a new form in its daughter scripts. Left to right: Latin, Greek, Phoenician,
Hebrew, Arabic

Middle Eastern descendants[edit]

See also: Languages currently written with the Arabic alphabet
The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, used to write early Hebrew, was a regional offshoot of Phoenician; it is
nearly identical to the Phoenician (in many early writings they are impossible to distinguish).[citation
needed]
The Samaritan alphabet is a direct descendant of the Paleo-Hebrew. The current Hebrew
alphabet is a stylized form of the Aramaic alphabet, itself a descendant of the Phoenician script.
The Aramaic alphabet, used to write Aramaic, is another descendant of Phoenician. Aramaic, being
the lingua franca of the Middle East, was widely adopted. It later split off (due to political divisions)
into a number of related alphabets, including Hebrew, Syriac, and Nabataean, the latter of which, in
its cursive form, became an ancestor of the Arabic alphabet currently used in Arabic-speaking
countries from North Africa through the Levant to Iraq and the Persian Gulf region, as well as in Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries.
The Sogdian alphabet, a descendant of Phoenician via Syriac, is an ancestor of the Old Uyghur,
which in turn is an ancestor of the Mongolian and Manchu alphabets, the former of which is still in
use and the latter of which survives as the Xibe script.
The Arabic script is a descendant of Phoenician via Aramaic.
The Coptic alphabet, still used in Egypt for writing the Christian liturgical language Coptic
(descended from Ancient Egyptian), is mostly based on the Greek alphabet, but with a few additional
letters for sounds not in Greek at the time. Those additional letters are based on Demotic script.
Derived European scripts[edit]
According to Herodotus,[24] the Phoenician prince Cadmus was accredited with the introduction of the
Phoenician alphabet—phoinikeia grammata, "Phoenician letters"—to the Greeks, who adapted it to
form their Greek alphabet, which was later introduced to the rest of Europe. Herodotus estimates
that Cadmus lived sixteen hundred years before his time, or around 2000 BC, and claims that the
Greeks did not know of the Phoenician alphabet before Cadmus.[25]
Modern historians agree that Greek alphabet is derived from the Phoenician.[26] With a
different phonology, the Greeks adapted the Phoenician script to represent their own sounds,
including the vowels absent in Phoenician. It was possibly more important in Greek to write out
vowel sounds: Phoenician being a Semitic language, words were based on consonantal rootsthat
permitted extensive removal of vowels without loss of meaning, a feature absent in the Indo-
European Greek. (However, Akkadian cuneiform, which wrote a related Semitic language, did
indicate vowels, which suggests the Phoenicians simply accepted the model of the Egyptians, who
never wrote vowels.) In any case, the Greeks repurposed the Phoenician letters of consonant
sounds not present in Greek; each such letter had its name shorn of its leading consonant, and the
letter took the value of the now-leading vowel. For example, ʾāleph, which designated a glottal
stop in Phoenician, was repurposed to represent the vowel /a/; he became /e/, ḥet became /eː/ (a
long vowel), ʿayin became /o/ (because the pharyngeality altered the following vowel), while the two
semi-consonants wau and yod became the corresponding high vowels, /u/ and /i/. (Some dialects of
Greek, which did possess /h/ and /w/, continued to use the Phoenician letters for those consonants
as well.)
Cyrillic script was derived from the Greek alphabet. Some Cyrillic letters (generally for sounds not in
Mediaeval Greek) are based on Glagolitic forms, which in turn were influenced by the Hebrew or
even Coptic alphabets.[citation needed]
The Latin alphabet was derived from Old Italic (originally a form of the Greek alphabet), used
for Etruscan and other languages. The origin of the Runic alphabet is disputed: the main theories are
that it evolved either from the Latin alphabet itself, some early Old Italic alphabet via the Alpine
scripts, or the Greek alphabet. Despite this debate, the Runic alphabet is clearly derived from one or
more scripts that ultimately trace their roots back to the Phoenician alphabet.[26][27]
Brahmic scripts[edit]
See also: Aramaic hypothesis
Many Western scholars believe that the Brahmi script of India and the subsequent Indic
alphabets are also derived from the Aramaic script, which would make Phoenician the ancestor of
virtually every alphabetic writing system in use today.[28]
However, due to an indigenous-origin hypothesis of Brahmic scripts, no definitive scholarly
consensus exists.

From Cuneiform to Text Messaging

Rick Kern and Niek Veldhuis
September 2009

Figure 1: A Babylonian tablet inscribed

with the directions forbrewing beer
(c. 3100 BCE)

Is there a difference between the digital emoticons of a text message today and the ancient
pictographic script of 3,200 BCE? What can the study of “visible language” (i.e., writing and signing,
as well as notated forms of music and dance) tell us about construing and sharing meanings, and,
ultimately, of understanding ourselves in relation to the world?

Since the origins of writing, many uses of language and other forms of symbolic expression have
developed that allow communication among people who are not co-present in time or space.
Concrete visible texts make it possible to review, to analyze, to revise, and to recontextualize
language use. This has led some scholars, such as Walter Ong, to argue that writing and literacy
have begotten nothing less than a transformation of human consciousness. However, we take issue
with the notion of a “great divide” between so-called “oral” and “literate” societies. In the case of
cuneiform text—and instant messaging and Web 2.0 applications today— trying to look at language
use in terms of oral/literate dichotomies only obscures our understanding. Cultures of orality and
literacy are so intertwined that we have to consider them together rather than separately.
Other scholars (e.g., Ignace Gelb) have construed a linear, evolutionary history of writing that moves
from pictographic, to logographic, to syllabographic, finally coming to its own in the alphabet.
Although such a scheme is attractive at first sight, its flaws become apparent when one realizes that
mixed syllabographic/ logographic systems are still with us (in China, for instance) and that,
arguably, text messaging and other newer forms of communication have re-introduced aspects of
logographic and syllabographic writing.

It seems better, therefore, to abandon all-too-general teleological and deterministic theories and to
understand writing as a fundamentally historical phenomenon, bound by the technology of its
medium on the one hand and by social context on the other hand.

Cuneiform writing, the first writing system to be developed, was simple from a technological point of
view. All one needed was some refined clay of the right consistency and a reed pen. Clay and reeds
were both abundantly available in the southern area of what is now Iraq. The longevity of cuneiform,
which was used for more than three millennia (from about 3,200 BCE to 100 AD), may in part be
ascribed to its unassuming medium and its low costs. The other side of the coin is that clay is bulky
and heavy and may be inscribed only for a certain period of time. Once the clay has dried out it
becomes difficult to add more text—in practice a clay tablet cannot contain more than what one can
write in a single day. Cuneiform was used primarily for administrative purposes, but the idea of a
ledger, where one adds new items every day, was simply not within the realm of the possible.
Instead, daily transactions were written on small tablets that were collected in a tablet basket. At the
end of the accounting period the entire basket was summarized on a beautifully written multi-column
tablet, which incorporated the information of each daily tablet and provided the totals at the end.

Email is the opposite of cuneiform in many respects. It is not bulky, and has no weight, but it requires
a very complex technological infrastructure to work. Like clay tablets, however, it does not work well
with a text that grows over time. The same is true for texting—but that hasn’t prevented Japanese
authors from composing entire novels on their cell phones. The point is that technological restrictions
are usually not decisive if there is a societal need or impetus strong enough to make people find a
way around them.
Writing in its various forms is a social activity that is bound by social norms and follows strict
conventions. The importance of conventions is hard to overestimate. Spelling, layout, headings,
indexes and captions are all bound to conventions that facilitate understanding. Grammatical norms
from written texts are very different from those in oral communication. Because every form of writing
(and its technological means of production) has limitations, people develop conventions and specific
writing styles to cope with those limitations. Developments in email and texting have made us aware
that such conventions may develop differently; not only from one medium to another but also from
one purpose and context to another within the same medium.

Historically, the relation between written and spoken language is a complex one. Writing was not
invented to reproduce spoken messages. The earliest written texts represent transactions rather
than sentences. A beer account, for instance, lists the amounts of raw materials (primarily grains)
delivered, the amount of beer expected and the name of the person responsible (Figure 1). The
layout of the clay tablet in different columns (and with totals on the back) represents the syntax of
the transaction. We assume that the words for beer and grain were those in use at the time in
whatever language these ancient people spoke, but the words do not add up to a grammatically
sound sentence. The structure of the earliest writing system may be compared to a modern software
package that uses words from the colloquial language (in menus or field names) but does not mirror
in any way the common use of such words in proper sentences.

Figure 2: Baude Cordier’s rondeau

“Belle, Bonne, Sage”

Early writing developed as a response to a rapid increase in the complexity of society and as a
means to control goods and information. The incapability of early writing to capture full sentences
was not a flaw in the system, but rather a result of the societal need that brought writing into
existence in the first place. Over the centuries the cuneiform writing system developed in ways that
did make it possible to represent full grammatical sentences in various ancient languages. By the
beginning of the second millennium BCE cuneiform writing was used for a wide variety of purposes,
from poetry to personal letters and from administrative notes to medical handbooks. The basic
technology of clay and reed had not changed, but an entire infrastructure of schools and school texts
had been set up to educate new generations of scribes and to respond to the renewed demand for
writing. More recent developments in writing suggest that the development of new conventions may
be first driven by the peculiarities of the medium (such as the keys of a cell phone or the number of
characters the screen can display) but are then solidified by the social cohesion and identity that
they provide in the form of a shared code. We see this in the case of spelling: in the early days of
printing, letters were added or subtracted as needed in order to maintain an even line length. Many
of these “modified” spellings then became codified through dictionaries. In the early days of email,
when only ASCII characters could be used, people whose languages did not use the Latin alphabet
wrote email in “romanized” script. However, even after Unicode became well established, allowing
people to write in their native script, many chose to continue to write in romanized form, which had
become natural and customary for email. In music, the notational techniques explained in Philippe
de Vitry’s treatise Ars nova (c. 1322), which included the use of color, made it possible to notate
things people had never thought about notating before; this gave rise to melodies of unprecedented
complexity (ars subtilior). A famous example is the heart shaped manuscript by Baude Cordier
(Figure 2), which uses the notation to iconic effect.

Visible language is therefore about cultural practices that arise from the interaction of social
environment and technical affordances of media. While technologies of writing, from cuneiform clay
tablets to electronic media, are fundamentally different, the underlying human processes of adapting
forms and functions to various technologies of writing and to the social needs of the time are
nevertheless similar. The juxtaposition of different media from different periods in the history of
writing brings new insights to light, both in terms of the technical aspects and the social practices
associated with writing.

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