The Greek alphabet was not created by the Greeks

The Greek language, alphabet and culture were the basis for the peoples of an entire era of the ancient world. However, the Greeks borrowed the alphabet itself from the Phoenicians, and they, in turn, started from Egyptian hieroglyphs. 

Scientists still cannot come to complete agreement on how the Phoenician letter appeared. The connection with Egypt is clearly visible: the Semitic peoples of the Middle East maintained strong ties with their southern neighbor. 

It is assumed that the Phoenicians based their alphabet on individual words and corresponding Egyptian hieroglyphs, one for each Phoenician word. The first letter of the Phoenician word gave the name to the hieroglyph and the letter itself. So, the letter A is “alpha”, or “bull” in Phoenician, and the shape of the letter is taken from the hieroglyph. B is “bet,” or “house,” and D is “dalet,” or “door.” The Phoenicians only wrote from right to left.

The Phoenicians lived primarily on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and traveled and founded colonies throughout the Mediterranean, including in modern-day Cyprus, Greece, Tunisia, and even Spain. And this is how the writing of this people spread. 

The Phoenician alphabet became the ancestor of Greek, and then Latin, and influenced Hebrew and Arabic. Look how the Phoenician letters looked like the Greek ones. And even the letter names used to this day in Greek are not Greek. 

In turn, the Cyrillic alphabet was based on the Greek alphabet. Thus, the writing of the Slavic peoples has a connection with ancient Egypt and its seafaring neighbors, the Phoenicians. 

Phoenician letter and its name, Greek letter and its name:

And a table with the meaning of the word, Phoenician, Hebrew, Greek and Latin alphabet.

Sources – Encyclopedia Britannica, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Research Gate, Wikipedia

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