Page "Alphabet" Paragraph 9

The Proto-Sinaitic script eventually developed into the Phoenician alphabet, which is conventionally called " Proto-Canaanite " before ca.

1050 BC.

The oldest text in Phoenician script is an inscription on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram.

This script is the parent script of all western alphabets.

By the tenth century two other forms can be distinguished namely Canaanite and Aramaic.

The Aramaic gave rise to Hebrew.

The South Arabian alphabet, a sister script to the Phoenician alphabet, is the script from which the Ge ' ez alphabet ( an abugida ) is descended.

Note that the scripts mentioned above are not considered proper alphabets, as they all lack characters representing vowels.

These vowelless alphabets are called abjads, currently exemplified in scripts including Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac.

The omission of vowels was not a satisfactory solution and some " weak " consonants were used to indicate the vowel quality of a syllable ( matres lectionis ).

These had dual function since they were also used as pure consonants.