How did the Phoenician alphabet influence the Greek and Latin alphabets?
The Phoenician alphabet is widely recognized as the foundational ancestor of the Greek alphabet and, by extension, all Western writing systems, including the Latin alphabet.123
The influence occurred through a process of adoption and adaptation. Phoenician traders spread their 22-letter, consonant-only script across the Mediterranean, where it was eventually adopted by the Greeks. The Greeks adapted this system to better suit their language, a development that served as the direct precursor to Western alphabets.1423
The transition to the Latin alphabet was indirect. Rather than deriving directly from Greek, the Latin script evolved through the Etruscan alphabet, which acted as the essential link between the Greek and Latin systems. Evidence of this transmission is found in the names of Latin letters, such as a, be, and ce, which were inherited from the Etruscans, who had themselves adapted them from Greek models. Through these successive adaptations, the Phoenician script provided the structural basis for the development of modern Western literacy.523