 The "Paleo-Hebrew alphabet" is a regional variant of the Phoenician alphabet; the term "Paleo-Hebrew" was chosen not because of a difference in the actual script but merely because it was deemed inappropriate to use "Phoenician" in reference to texts written in early Hebrew.The Phoenician alphabet was deciphered in 1758 by Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, but its relation to the Phoenicians remained unknown until the 19th century.It was at first believed that the script was a direct variation of Egyptian hieroglyphs, which were deciphered in the early 19th century.