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Limits RegistryProto-Sinaitic script, found inscribed at turquoise mining sites in the Sinai Peninsula and dated to roughly 1900–1700 BCE, is generally regarded by linguists as the earliest known alphabetic writing system — an adaptation of Egyptian hieroglyphic signs to represent Semitic consonant sounds, and the ancestor of the later Phoenician alphabet from which most modern alphabets descend.
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Proto-Sinaitic script, found inscribed at turquoise mining sites in the Sinai Peninsula and dated to roughly 1900–1700 BCE, is generally regarded by linguists as the earliest known alphabetic writing system — an adaptation of Egyptian hieroglyphic signs to represent Semitic consonant sounds, and the ancestor of the later Phoenician alphabet from which most modern alphabets descend.
The approximate date of the earliest known alphabetic writing system, in which symbols represent individual consonant or vowel sounds rather than whole words or syllables — distinct from earlier logographic systems such as cuneiform.
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Permanent ID limitsregistry.com/limits/LR-EARLIEST-KNOWN-ALPHABETIC-SCRIPT
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Limits Registry. LR-EARLIEST-KNOWN-ALPHABETIC-SCRIPT. Earliest known alphabetic writing system. 2026.