Season 2 · Episode 1970
How 3,300-Year-Old Sailors Built the Alphabet
The letters on your screen trace back to an ancient maritime empire. Discover how Phoenician traders engineered the first alphabet.
My Weird Prompts · Daniel Rosehill
April 4, 202622m 1s
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Show Notes
Before the Greeks and Romans, there was a group of sailors who revolutionized how we record information. This episode explores the Phoenicians, a maritime empire whose need for fast, portable record-keeping led to the creation of the first phonetic alphabet. We trace how this "lite" system of 22 consonants became the shared linguistic and scriptural foundation for their Canaanite neighbors, the ancient Israelites. From the cedar trade to the construction of the First Temple, discover how trade, linguistics, and a shared dialect created the blueprint for modern literacy.