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Yom na’im likilkhom! ‘Anikhi Andy. Wu shelmim ‘attim?
Good day everyone! My name is Andy. How are you?
Let's talk about the Phoenician language.

Phoenician was the language of Phoenicia from around 1200 BC during the late Bronze Age until the 2nd century AD, and it was also spoken in Phoenician colonies, most notably Carthage, where it evolved into Punic. Punic, along with its descendant Neo-Punic, persisted in North Africa until the 7th century AD. As a Canaanite language from the Northwest Semitic branch of Proto-Semitic, Phoenician's closest relative is Biblical Hebrew. The parent Canaanite language was prevalent in the 2nd millennium BC across what is now Israel, Palestine, western Jordan, Lebanon, and northwestern Syria. Proto-Semitic and its derivatives belong to the Afro-Asiatic language family found in the Middle East, North Africa, and Ethiopia.

Phoenician had two primary dialects: the Biblian dialect of Gubal (modern-day Byblos, Lebanon) and the Tyro-Sidonian dialect of southern Lebanon, as well as the later Punic and Neo-Punic dialects. Some Phoenician elements persist in modern Lebanese and North African Arabic dialects, and certain words have been adopted by other languages, including Latin. The Phoenician alphabet, notable for its 22 consonants and absence of vowels, was likely the first widely-used alphabetic script.

Phoenicia was an ancient Semitic maritime civilization based along the coastal strip of the Levant, primarily in what is now Lebanon. Renowned for their trade, seafaring, and navigation skills, the Phoenicians dominated commerce throughout classical antiquity, creating a vast maritime trade network that lasted over a millennium. This network enabled cultural exchanges between major civilizations such as Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. The Phoenicians founded colonies and trading posts across the Mediterranean, with Carthage in northwest Africa becoming a significant civilization by the 7th century BC. Phoenician wealth was largely derived from their prized Tyrian purple fabrics, dyed using a substance from the Murex marine snail, which was once abundant in the eastern Mediterranean but was driven to local extinction due to overexploitation.

References:

1- Les inscriptions Phéniciennes et leur style, Fady Stéphan, publications de l’Université Libanaise, Beyrouth, Liban 1985.
2- A Phoenician-Punic Grammar, Charles R. Krahmalkov, Brill, 2001.
3- Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions, Volume III, Phoenician Inscriptions. J. Gibson. Oxford University Press, 2002.
4- Phoenician-Punic Dictionary, Charles R. Krahhmalkov, Peeters, Orientalia Lovaniensia, Studia Phoenicia XV, Leuven 2000
5-A Comparative Semitic Lexicon of the Phoenician and Punic Languages. Richard S. Tomback. Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation series number 32. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1978 republished 2019.
6-A Grammar of Phoenician and Punic, Stanislav Segert. Verlag C.H. Beck Munchen, 1976.

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