Image: Wikimedia Commons

Phoenician

Ancient Semitic language of the Mediterranean

Also known as phn · Phoenician language

Subclass of: Semitic
1
Sources
1.Stated in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
View statement on Wikidata ↗
, Canaanite
Script: Phoenician script
Indigenous to: Near East
, North Africa

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Phoenician is an extinct Canaanite language of the Semitic language family originally spoken by the Phoenicians. Extensive Tyro-Sidonian trade and commercial dominance led to Phoenician becoming a lingua franca of the maritime Mediterranean during the Iron Age. The Phoenician alphabet spread to Greece during this period, where it became the source of all modern European scripts.

Overview

Works in this language

20 linked to Phoenician in Wikidata

All data

50 statements · 28% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Linguistic typology: subject–verb–object
fusional language
Dissolved: 2nd century
Country: Phoenicia
Different from: Punic
Wikimedia language code: phn

On other databases

35 identifiers linking Phoenician across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

28%

externally sourced

Source last edited July 13, 2026. AIDb refreshes this page daily.

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AIDb. (2026). Phoenician (Q36734). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/phoenician-Q36734