The Phoenician alphabet is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention taken to originate around 1050 BC. It was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia. The Phoenician alphabet has been classified as an abjad because it records only consonant sounds (with the addition of matres lectionis). However, the Greek alphabet, a descendant of Phoenician, modified the script to represent vowel phonemes as well. The distinction made between "abjad" alphabets and later alphabets like Greek that incorporate vowels more systematically, however, tends to confuse alphabets with "transcription systems," and there is no reason to relegate the Phoenician alphabet to second class status as an "incomplete alphabet" (see the critique by F. Coulmas, Writing Systems University Press, 2004, page 113).

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