
The Phoenician Alphabet and its modern descendants
The Phoenician Alphabet gave rise to a host of scripts. It descended from Egyptian hieroglyphics, and gave rise to the Greek (whence Latin came from), as well as Semitic scripts like Hebrew and Arabic. Furthermore, the evolution of scripts is distinct from the evolution of languages. For example, even though English uses the Latin script, (and has many borrowings, such as from French which is a Romance language), it is a Germanic language.
The following table is taken from Wikipedia. Just being able to read the scripts of other languages can be a stepping stone in achieving mastering in those languages because at least now they have some unit of meaning, even if it is phonetics.
Some of these scripts are abjads, and most were unicameral in ancient types, whilst others are read from right-to-left. Note that the Phoenician alphabet, no longer used, is not displayed below, though the Egyptian root, which is a pictogram for the meaning of the world, is displayed.
Egyptian | Name | Meaning | Phoneme | Trans- literation | Hebrew | Arabic | Greek | Latin | Cyrillic | Brahmi |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
𓃾 | ʾālep | ox, head of cattle | ʾ [ʔ] | ʾ | א | ﺍ , ء | Αα | Aa | Аа | 𑀅 /a/ |
𓉐 | bēt | house | b [b] | b | ב | ﺏ | Ββ | Bb | Бб, Вв | 𑀩 /b/ |
𓌙 | gīml | throwing stick / camel | g [ɡ] | g | ג | ﺝ | Γγ | Cc, Gg | Гг, Ґґ | 𑀕 /g/ |
𓉿 | dālet | door / fish | d [d] | d | ד | د , ذ | Δδ | Dd | Дд | 𑀥 /dʰ/ |
𓀠? | he | window / jubilation | h [h] | h | ה | ه | Εε | Ee | Ее, Ёё, Єє, Ээ | 𑀳 /ɦ/ |
𓏲 | wāw | hook | w [w] | w | ו | ﻭ | (Ϝϝ), Υυ | Ff, Uu, Vv, Ww, Yy | Ѕѕ, Ѵѵ, Уу, Ўў | 𑀯 /v/ |
𓏭 | zayin | weapon / manacle | z [z] | z | ז | ﺯ | Ζζ | Zz | Зз | 𑀚 /ɟ/ |
𓉗 / 𓈈 | ḥēt | courtyard / wall | ḥ [ħ] | ḥ | ח | ح , خ | Ηη | Hh | Ии, Йй | 𑀖 /gʰ/ |
𓄤? | ṭēt | wheel | ṭ [tˤ] | ṭ | ט | ط , ظ | Θθ | Ѳѳ | 𑀣 /tʰ/ | |
𓂝 | yod | arm, hand | y [j] | j | י | ي | Ιι | Ii, Jj | Іі, Її, Јј | 𑀬 /j/ |
𓂧 | kāp | palm of a hand | k [k] | k | כך | ﻙ | Κκ | Kk | Кк | 𑀓 /k/ |
𓌅 | lāmed | goad | l [l] | l | ל | ﻝ | Λλ | Ll | Лл | 𑀮 /l/ |
𓈖 | mēm | water | m [m] | m | מם | ﻡ | Μμ | Mm | Мм | 𑀫 /m/ |
𓆓 | nūn | serpent / fish | n [n] | n | נן | ﻥ | Νν | Nn | Нн | 𑀦 /n/ |
𓊽 | śāmek | fish | ś [s] | s | ס | س | Ξξ | Ѯѯ | 𑀱 /ʂ/ | |
𓁹 | ʿayin | eye | ʿ [ʕ] | ʿ | ע | ع , غ | Οο, Ωω | Oo | Оо, Ѡѡ | 𑀏 /e/ |
𓂋 | pē | mouth / corner | p [p] | p | פף | ف | Ππ | Pp | Пп | 𑀧 /p/ |
𓇑 | ṣādē | papyrus / fish hook | ṣ [sˤ] | ṣ | צץ | ص , ض | (Ϻϻ) | 𑀘 /c/ | ||
𓃻 | qōp | needle eye | q [q] | q | ק | ﻕ | (Ϙϙ), Φφ | Ҁҁ, Фф | 𑀔 /kʰ/ | |
𓁶 | rēs, reš | head | r [r] | r | ר | ﺭ | Ρρ | Rr | Рр | 𑀭 /r/ |
𓌓 | šīn | tooth / sun | š [ʃ] | š | ש | ش | Σσς | Ss | Сс, Шш, Щщ | 𑀰 /ɕ/ |
𓏴 | tāw | mark | t [t] | t | ת | ت , ث | Ττ | Tt | Тт | 𑀢 /t/ |