The Phoenician Alphabet

Stuff You Missed in History Class

• Episode: The Phoenician Alphabet
• Website: Stuff You Missed in History Class
• Feed URL: http://www.howstuffworks.com/podcasts/stuff-you-missed-in-history-class.rss
• Duration: 00:25:50
• Published: 2013-06-03 20:34

The Phoenicians were great ship-builders, sailors and textile experts. But they're most known for developing the alphabet that many modern alphabets are descended from. What drove a merchant culture to switch from cuneiform to a new writing system?