 Phoenician alphabet

The Phoenician alphabet is an alphabet (more specifically, an abjad) consisting of 22 consonant letters only, leaving vowel sounds implicit, although certain late varieties use "matres lectionis" for some vowels.The Phoenician alphabet is also called the Early Linear script (in a Semitic context, not connected to Minoan writing systems), because it is an early development of the pictographic Proto- or Old Canaanite script, into a linear, alphabetic script, also marking the transfer from a multi-directional writing system, where a variety of writing directions occurred, to a regulated horizontal, right-to-left script.