Proto-Canaanite alphabet

Proto-Canaanite is the name given to

(a) the Proto-Sinaitic script when found in Canaan.^[1]

(b) a hypothetical ancestor of the Phoenician script before some cut-off date, typically 1050 BCE, with an undefined affinity to Proto-Sinaitic.^[2] No extant ″Phoenician″ inscription is older than 1000 BCE.^[3] The Phoenician, Hebrew, and other Canaanite dialects were largely indistinguishable before that time.^[4]

In the case of (b), this hypothetical ″Proto-Phoenician″ is generally assumed to have been pictographic, but no such script is attested, and illustrations of it are modern inventions.^[5]

References

^ Woodard, Roger (2008), The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia.
^ Coulmas, Florian (1996). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-21481-X.
^ Hoffman, Joel M. (2004). In the beginning : a short history of the Hebrew language. New York, NY [u.a.]: New York Univ. Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-8147-3654-8. Retrieved 23 May 2017. By 1000 B.C.E., however, we see Phoenician writings [..]
^ Naveh, Joseph (1987), "Proto-Canaanite, Archaic Greek, and the Script of the Aramaic Text on the Tell Fakhariyah Statue", in Miller; et al. (eds.), Ancient Israelite Religion.
^ Goldwasser, Orly (Mar–Apr 2010). "How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs". Biblical Archaeology Review. 36 (2).

External links

[1] Woodard, Roger (2008), The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia.

[2] Coulmas, Florian (1996). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-21481-X.

[JMH2004-23-3] Hoffman, Joel M. (2004). In the beginning : a short history of the Hebrew language. New York, NY [u.a.]: New York Univ. Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-8147-3654-8. Retrieved 23 May 2017. By 1000 B.C.E., however, we see Phoenician writings [..]

[4] Naveh, Joseph (1987), "Proto-Canaanite, Archaic Greek, and the Script of the Aramaic Text on the Tell Fakhariyah Statue", in Miller; et al. (eds.), Ancient Israelite Religion.

[5] Goldwasser, Orly (Mar–Apr 2010). "How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs". Biblical Archaeology Review. 36 (2).

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