Table of the Phoenician Alphabet
Names of Letters, Phonetics, Derivatives and Modern Equivalents

Phoenician

Latin (passed via Etruscans to Roman Alphabet)

 Sign

Names in Phoenician, Arabic & Hebrew

Meaning

Phone

Latin

History

 Aleph

Ox

A
laryngeal
consonent

A

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent alryngeal consonant ('), or glotal stop. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and reversed its form, changed its name to Alpha and made the sign stand for the vowel A.

Beth, Bait 

House

B
consonant

B

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent b consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and inverted/reversed its form, changed its name to Beta and made the sign stand for the consonant B.

 Gimel, Gamel

Camel

G
consonant

C,
G

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent g consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and reversed/curved its form, changed its name to Gamma and made the sign stand for the consonant G.

 Daleth, Dal

Door

D
consonant

D

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent d consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and reversed/curved its form, changed its name to Delta and made the sign stand for the consonant D.

He 

Window

H
consonant

E

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent h consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and reversed its form, changed its name to Epsilon and made the sign stand for the vowel E.

Waw

Hook

W semi-
consonant

F

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent w semi- consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and reversed/altered its form, changed its name to Digamma and made the sign stand for the semi- consonant W.

 Heth, Hait

 Wall

H
laryngeal
consonent

H

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent h laryngeal consonent. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and removed the upper and lower bars, changed its name to Eta and made the sign stand for the consonant H.

Yodh, Yad

Hand

Y semi-
consonant

I,J

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent y semi- consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and removed its bars, changed its name to Iota and made the sign stand for the vowel I.

Kaph

Hand

K
consonant

K

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent k consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and reversed/altered its form, changed its name to Kappa and made the sign stand for the consonant K.

Lamedh, Lam

Goad

L
consonant

L

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent l consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and reversed/altered its form, changed its name to Lamda and made the sign stand for the consonant L.

Mem, Mai

Water

M
consonant

M

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent m consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician andreversed/curved its form, changed its name to M???? and made the sign stand for the consonant M.

Nun

Fish

N
consonant

N

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent n consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and reversed/curved its form, changed its name to Nu and made the sign stand for the consonant N.

Ayin

Eye

3
laryngeal
consonant

O

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent 3 laryngeal consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician but had no use for its sound in Indo-European. They called Omikron and made the sign stand for the vowel short O.

Pe

Mouth

P
consonant

P

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent g consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and reversed/curved its form, changed its name to Pi and made the sign stand for the consonant P.

Qoph

Monkey

Q
voiceless
velar

Q

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent q voiceless velar. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and altered its form, changed its name to qoppa and but had no use for its sound in Indo-European so they used it for the sound K.

Resh, Ras

Head

R
consonant

R

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent r consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and reversed/altered its form, changed its name to Rho and made the sign stand for the consonant R.

Sin

Tooth

Sh
consonant

S

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent sh consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and reversed/curved its form, changed its name to Sigma and made the sign stand for the consonant S.

Taw, Tah

Mark

T
consonant

T

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent t consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and slightly altered its form, changed its name to Tau and made the sign stand for the consonant T.

Waw

Hook

W semi-
consonant

UV W

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent w semi- consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and altered its form, changed its name to Upsilon and made the sign stand for the vowel bare U.

Samekh, Sheen

Fish

S
consonant

X

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent s consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician and altered its form, changed its name to Xi and made the sign stand for the consonant X.

Zayin

Sword

Z
consonant

Z

Around 1700 B.C. this letter was used to represent z consonant. After 900 B.C. the Greeks borrowed the sign from Phoenician as is, changed its name to Zeta and made the sign stand for the consonant Z.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

1.        Faulmann, Carl. 1990 (1880). Das Buch der Schrift. Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn. ISBN 3-8218-1720-8

2.        Fossey, Charles. 1948. Notices sur les caractères étrangers anciens et modernes rédigées par un groupe e savants. Nouvelle édition míse à jour à l’occasion du 21e Congrès des Orientalistes. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale de France.

3.        Garbini, Giovanni. 2001. “The question of the alphabet” in The Phoenicians, ed. Sabatino Moscati. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1-85043-533-2

4.        Healey, John F. 1990. The early alphabet. (Reading the past). London: British Museum. ISBN 0-7141-8073-4

5.        Ifrah, Georges. 1998. The universal history of numbers: from prehistory to the invention of the computer. London: Harvill Press. ISBN 1-86046-324-X

6.        Imprimerie Nationale. 1990. Les caractères de l’Imprimerie Nationale. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale Éditions. ISBN 2-11-081085-8

7.        McCarter, P. Kyle, Jr. 1975. The antiquity of the Greek alphabet and the early Phoenician scripts. Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press. (Harvard Semitic Monographs; 9) ISBN 0-89130-066-X

8.        Nöldeke, Theodor. 1904. Beiträge zur semitischen Sprachwissenschaft. Strasburg.

9.        Powell, Barry B. 1996. Homer and the origin of the Greek alphabet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58907-X .

10.     Robinson, Andrew. 1995. The story of writing. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01665-8

11.     Rumford, James. 2002. There is a monster in the alphabet. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-22140-9

12.     C. A. Briggs, “Critical Theories of the Sacred Scriptures in Relation to their Inspiration,” The Presbyterian Review, II (1881), 573f.

13.     B. Kennicott, Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum, cum variis lectionibus, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1776, 1780).

14.     Robert Dick Wilson, “The Textual Criticism of the Old Testament,” The Princeton Theological Review, XXVII (1929) See pp. 40f.

15.     Frederic Kenyon, Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts, (4th ed. New York, 1940), p. 44.

16.     William Henry Green, General Introduction to the Old Testament The Text (New York, 1899), pp. 153, 165.

17.     “The Old Testament and the Archaeology of Palestine,” in The Old Testament and Modern Study, ed. H. H. Rowley (Oxford, 1951), pp. 24f.

18.     Driver, Godfrey, http://www.bible-researcher.com/

19.     Rölig, Friedrick. Phoenician Forms, 1970.

20.     Powerll, Table of Phoenician and Greek Letterforms, 1996.

21.     Nódeke, Theodore. Reconstruction of Character names.

22.     www.phenoecia.org