{"title":"Ongunkan Phoenician","description":"\u003cp\u003ePhoenician\/Canaanite \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Phoenician alphabet developed from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, during the 15th century BC. Before then the Phoenicians wrote with a cuneiform script. The earliest known inscriptions in the Phoenician alphabet come from Byblos and date back to 1000 BC.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Phoenician alphabet was perhaps the first alphabetic script to be widely-used - the Phoenicians traded around the Mediterraean and beyond, and set up cities and colonies in parts of southern Europe and North Africa - and the origins of most alphabetic writing systems can be traced back to the Phoenician alphabet, including Greek, Etruscan, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew, as well as the scripts of India and East Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNotable features\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/omniglot.com\/writing\/types.htm\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eType of writing system\u003c\/a\u003e: \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/omniglot.com\/writing\/abjads.htm\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eabjad \/ consonant alphabet\u003c\/a\u003e with no vowel indication\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/omniglot.com\/writing\/direction.htm\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eWriting direction\u003c\/a\u003e: right to left in hortizontal lines. Sometimes boustrophedon.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eScript family: \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/omniglot.com\/writing\/protosinaitc.htm\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eProto-Sinaitic\u003c\/a\u003e, Phoenician\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNumber of letters: 22 - there was considerable variation in their forms in different regions and at different times.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe names of the letters are acrophonic, and their names and shapes can be ultimately traced back to Egyptian Hieroglyphs. For example, the name of the first letter, 'aleph, means ox and developed from a picture of an ox's head. Some of the letter names were changed by the Phoenicians, including gimel, which meant camel in Phoenician, but was originally a picture of a throwing stick (giml).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[],"url":"https:\/\/www.myfonts.com\/collections\/ongunkan-phoenician-font-runic-world-tamgac.oembed","provider":"MyFonts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}