Neo-Punic alphabet

The Neo-Punic alphabet is a later form of the Phoenician alphabet, which originated in the 11th century BCE. The Phoenician alphabet spread throughout the Mediterranean via traders and is considered the ancestor of the Greek alphabet and subsequently all Western alphabets.

The Neo-Punic script, along with the Punic script, evolved from Phoenician colonial scripts used in Carthage. While Punic was a monumental script, Neo-Punic was a cursive form. These scripts represented consonants only and were written from right to left. The Phoenician language itself, closely related to Hebrew, was spoken in coastal Levant and Phoenician colonies. Its writing system, the Phoenician alphabet, profoundly influenced the development of writing systems globally. The later stage of the Phoenician language spoken in Carthage was known as Punic, which continued to be used in North Africa until the 6th century CE.1234