When did the Phoenicians invent letters?

I hope you are satisfied with the answer.

Legend has it that they invented the earliest alphabet in the world.

According to legend, there was a Phoenician carpenter named Cadmus, whose cleverness is well known. Once, he was working in someone else's house and needed a tool, but he forgot to bring it. He picked up a piece of wood, scratched something on it with a knife, and then let a slave give it to his wife at home. Cadmus's wife looked at the sawdust and handed the slave a tool without saying anything. The slave was shocked and thought that the master was using a mysterious way to express what he needed through the symbols on the wood chips. It is said that Cadmus carved on the wood chips the alphabet that first appeared in Phoenicia. Many people knew about it and asked Cadmus for advice. Cadmus taught others the alphabet he invented. So the Phoenician letters gradually spread.

In fact, the Phoenician alphabet is not accidental, but the result of practical needs. Phoenicians were busy with business and navigation, and things like bookkeeping and signing "documents" could not be ignored. But the hieroglyphs and cuneiform characters that were popular at that time were undoubtedly too time-consuming. How can the Phoenicians who regard time as money stand it? In desperation, I had to give up the beauty of the old characters, borrow some pictures of Egyptian hieroglyphs, simplify some cuneiform characters of Babylonian characters, and reassemble some pictures of the old characters. In this way, drawing lessons from predecessors' achievements and giving full play to one's intelligence, I finally invented the simple 22 letters.

Modern archaeologists have found thousands of clay tablets written with cuneiform symbols in the ancient city of Ugarit. Scholars also found a "literacy reader" here, which is considered to be the first alphabetically arranged reader in the world. Later, the letters composed of 22 consonants commonly used by Phoenicians evolved from this. This kind of letter really saves time and effort, but it can't replace Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform. Explain that many improvement measures were put forward at that time, but in Egypt and Babylon, writing was a very solemn thing, almost sacred, and as a result, improvement was wasted as blasphemy. There is no way to verify the truth of this statement, but in the Mediterranean region where there are no words, the Phoenician alphabet has achieved great success. Subsequently, the ancient Greeks created the Greek alphabet on the basis of the Phoenician alphabet. On the basis of the Greek alphabet, the Latin alphabet of the Latin people in Rome and its surrounding areas was formed. At present, almost all the pinyin letters in European countries have evolved from Greek letters and Latin letters. Therefore, it can be said that the Phoenician alphabet is the ancestor of letters in European countries.

Today, people have found the origin of today's European national letters from the Phoenicians. Here is an example.

A is at the top of the alphabet for a reason. In ancient Phoenicia, the letter A was called aleph, which means cow. At that time, A was written as V, which looked like the horn of a cow. There is an oblique cross in the middle. Cattle were the source of food and clothing for Phoenicians, and a herd of cattle meant a lot of wealth to them. The Greeks turned it upside down and became what it is now.

In Phoenician, B is called Beth, which means tent or house. When the Phoenicians wrote the letter B, it looked like the original two-bedroom apartment. One for men and one for women. Because the second important condition for survival is housing. So b came in second.

D, called deleth in Phoenician, was absorbed from Egyptian hieroglyphics. Egyptian hieroglyph d, which means door, looks like a door, too.

The third letter "C" stands for camel, which is called "Gimel" like the head and neck of a camel. Because camel is an important travel tool for Phoenicians, the Greeks called this symbol "gamma" in turn, and the Romans used it for reference and gave it a beautiful curve, so it was called "C".

G is considered a camel, with its bent head and neck.

Phoenician l is called lamed, which means "whip" A whip is essential to drive a camel.

Phoenicians are good at sailing, and the letter m is called mem, which means waves on the sea and water.

Sadly, however, the Phoenicians regarded the big cupboard full of property as the glory and highest ideal of the country, never attached importance to books and knowledge, never encouraged art and science, and did not know how to use their money wisely and reasonably. So she died. After all, no country can build well only by relying on material industry.

Phoenician civilization has been buried underground for 3000 years, and it is difficult to distinguish right from wrong, but its civilization light shines on brave and practical people, enough to break the shackles and go forward bravely! At the same time, it also warns future generations: don't repeat the same mistakes.

Keep asking: when was he formed?

Supplementary answer:

Phoenician civilization has been buried underground for 3000 years, and it is difficult to distinguish right from wrong, but its civilization light shines on brave and practical people, enough to break the shackles and go forward bravely! At the same time, it also warns future generations: don't repeat the same mistakes.

This shows that it should be 3000 years ago!

I hope you are satisfied with the answer!