Phoenician Alphabet Print Watercolour Paper

The Phoenician language (𐤔𐤐𐤕𐤟𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍) was spoken in the ancient civilization of Phoenicia during the first millenium of the current era. It was one of the first known languages, and was the first language to have a fixed writing direction: written from right to left, rather than multi-directional. It developed from the Proto-Sinaitic script, which in turn developed from Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Phoenician alphabet is an abjad: a writing system in which only consonants are represented by letter signs. It was deciphered in 1758 by Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, but its relationship to the Phoenician people was not known until the nineteenth century.