Comparison of Ancient Greek and Phoenician alphabets
As we know, many of the Greek alphabet’s letters originate or are inspired from the Phoenician one. According to Herodotus:
Οἱ δὲ Φοίνικες […] πολλὰ οἰκήσαντες ταύτην τὴν χώρην ἐσήγαγον διδασκάλια ἐς τοὺς Ἕλληνας καὶ δὴ καὶ γράμματα, οὐκ ἐόντα πρὶν Ἕλλησι ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκέειν, πρῶτα μὲν τοῖσι καὶ ἅπαντες χρέωνται Φοίνικες· μετὰ δὲ χρόνου προβαίνοντος ἅμα τῇ φωνῇ μετέβαλλον καὶ τὸν ῥυθμὸν τῶν γραμμάτων. Περιοίκεον δὲ σφέας τὰ πολλὰ τῶν χώρων τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον Ἑλλήνων Ἴωνες, οἳ παραλαβόντες διδαχῇ παρὰ τῶν Φοινίκων τὰ γράμματα, μεταῤῥυθμίσαντες σφέων ὀλίγα ἐχρέωντο, χρεώμενοι δὲ ἐφάτισαν, ὥσπερ καὶ τὸ δίκαιον ἔφερε, ἐσαγαγόντων Φοινίκων ἐς τὴν Ἑλλάδα, Φοινικήια κεκλῆσθαι.
Ηροδότου Ιστορίαι, Τερψιχόρη 58.1-2
In English:
The Phoenicians […] settled in many places in this country (Boeotia), they introduced their teaching to the Greeks, and even their letters, which were not known to them before, I think, since it is said that the Phoenicians are those who discovered the letters and the Greeks, with time, once their language had changed, modified the arrangement of the letters. The Ionians, living together with the Gephyreans at the time, received their letters from them, and some of them they modified, and for this reason, justifiably, they named the modified letters as “Ionian”, since they were their own invention, and those of Phoenician origin “Phoenician”.
As a sidenote, there is an ambiguity in Herodotus’ story, because he says “I think” (“ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκέειν”), when it comes to the Greeks not having letters. Greeks did have writing for centuries already, Linear A and later B, but they were syllabic systems. My opinion is that Herodotus knows that there were syllabic writing systems in the past, and is most likely referring to the fact that Greeks did not have letters that express phonemes, like those of the Phoenician and the now-Greek alphabet.
That being said, what many don’t know is that, the names of Phoenician origin letters in the Greek alphabet also come from their Phoenician counterparts. Those names in Phoenician are regular words, whereas in Greek we see them as just letter names without a particular meaning.
| Letter and IPA Pronunciation (P) | Letter and IPA Pronunciation (AG) | Audio Sample | Name (P) | Name (AG) | IPA Name Pronunucation (AG) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 𐤀 [ʔ] | Α [a] | ʾālep (ox) | ἄλφα | [álpʰa] | |
| 𐤁 [b] | Β [b] | bēt (house) | βῆτα | [bɛ̂ːta] | |
| 𐤂 [g] | Γ [g] | gīml (camel) | γάμμα | [gámma] | |
| 𐤃 [d] | Δ [d] | dālet (door) | δέλτα | [délta] | |
| 𐤄 [h] | Ε [e] | he (window) | ἓ ψιλόν | [è psilón] | |
| 𐤅 [w] | Ϝ [w] | wāw (hook) | δίγαμμα | [dígamma] | |
| 𐤆 [z] | Ζ [zd] | zayin (weapon) | ζῆτα | [zdɛ̂ːta] | |
| 𐤇 [ħ] | Η [ɛː] | ḥēt (wall) | ἦτα | [ɛ̂ːta] | |
| 𐤈 [tˤ] | Θ [tʰ] | ṭēt (wheel) | θῆτα | [tʰɛ̂ːta] | |
| 𐤉 [j] | Ι [i] | yod (arm) | ἰῶτα | [iɔ̂ːta] | |
| 𐤊 [k] | Κ [k] | kāp (palm of a hand) | κάππα | [káppa] | |
| 𐤋 [l] | Λ [l] | lāmed (goad) | λάβδα | [lábda] | |
| 𐤌 [m] | Μ [m] | mēm (water) | μῦ | [mŷː] | |
| 𐤍 [n] | Ν [n] | nūn (serpent) | νῦ | [nŷː] | |
| 𐤎 [s] | Ξ [ks] | śāmek (fish) | ξεῖ | [ksêː] | |
| 𐤏 [ʕ] | Ο [o] | ʿayin (eye) | ὂ μικρόν | [ò mikrón] | |
| 𐤐 [p] | Π [p] | pē (mouth) | πεῖ | [pêː] | |
| 𐤑 [sˤ] | Ϻ [s] | ṣādē (papyrus plant) | σάν | [sán] | |
| 𐤒 [q] | Ϙ [k] | qōp (needle eye) | κόππα | [kóppa] | |
| 𐤓 [r] | Ρ [r] | reš (head) | ῥῶ | [r̥ɔ̂ː] | |
| 𐤔 [ʃ] | Σ [s] | šīn (tooth) | σῖγμα | [sîːŋma] | |
| 𐤕 [t] | Τ [t] | tāw (mark) | ταῦ | [tâu̯] | |
| Υ [y] ή [u] | ὖ ψιλόν | [ŷː psilón] | |||
| Φ [pʰ] | φεῖ | [pʰêː] | |||
| Χ [kʰ] | χεῖ | [kʰêː] | |||
| Ψ [ps] | ψεῖ | [psêː] | |||
| Ω [ɔː] | ὦ μέγα | [ɔ̂ː méga] |
Notes
A few main differences between the Ancient Greek and Phoenician alphabets are the following:
- The letters Υ, Φ, Χ, Ψ, Ω are additions to the Greek alphabet and do not have Phoenician equivalents.
- The Phoenicians did not write vowels*, so the letters that correspond to
sounds not present in Ancient Greek, the Greeks converted to represent
vowels. In particular:
- 𐤀 (/ʔ/) → Α (/a/)
- 𐤄 (/h/) → Ε (/e/). A similar sound to /h/, however, did exist in Ancient Greek and is represented with the rough breathing symbol (e.g., ἁ → /ha/).
- 𐤇 (/ħ/) → Η (/ε:/)
- 𐤉 (/j/) → Ι (/i/)
- 𐤏 (/ʕ/) → Ο (/o/)
* So, technically, Phoenician script is not an alphabet, but an abjad, but we call it an alphabet for the sake of understanding.
Sources
- Χριστίδης, Αναστάσιος-Φοίβος — Ιστορία της αρχαίας ελληνικής γλώσσας
- Waal, Willemijn — On The “Phoenician Letters”
- Phoenician Encyclopedia — Table of Phoenician Alphabet
- Wiktionary — Greek Letter Names