Proto-Canaanite alphabet

History of the alphabet

Proto-Canaanite is the name given to:

  1. The Proto-Sinaitic script when found in Canaan, dating to about the 17th century BC and later.
  2. A hypothetical ancestor of the Phoenician script before some cut-off date, typically 1050 BC, with an undefined affinity to Proto-Sinaitic. No extant "Phoenician" inscription is older than 1000 BC. The Phoenician, Hebrew, and other Canaanite dialects were largely indistinguishable before that time.

About 20–25 Proto-Canaanite inscriptions are known.

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