The most genial invention of Phoenicians is the alphabet (1500 - 1000 b.C.), that is a phonetic writing reduced to a succession of 22 letters, corresponding to the consonantic soundsof their language.
Vowels were added after by Greeks, who began writing from the left tothe right side and not on the contrary like Phoenicians, Egyptians Jews and Sumerians.
Alpha and Beta, the first two letters of the Greek writing system, gave the name to the modern alphabet.