Topic summary
Semitic alphabet
Extracted from the Wikipedia article History of the alphabet.
Semitic alphabets
The Proto-Sinaitic script was invented by a community of laborers in the Sinai Peninsula in the 2nd millennium BC, and was used to write their native languages. It has not been fully deciphered. The oldest examples are found as graffiti in the Wadi el-Hol and date to c. 1850 BC. The letters denoted consonant sounds only: since meaning in semitic words is mainly expressed by their consonants, letters for vowels were unnecessary. The table below shows hypothesized prototypes of the Phoenician alphabet in Egyptian hieroglyphs, though several possibilities have been proposed.