An alternative hypothesis on the origin of the Greek alphabet

Abstract

Did the Greeks learn the alphabet directly from the Phoenicians or did they learn it from non-Semitic intermediaries? Were these intermediaries the Phrygians or did the Phrygians learn it from the Greeks or some other people? Discussing the form taken by certain Phoenician letters in the Greek and Phrygian alphabets, this article raises the hypothesis that the current forms of these two alphabets emerged for the first time in Cilicia Pedias towards the end of the 9^th century BC at the chancery of the Achaean kingdom that had settled there. They were the first “Westerners” to master the Phoenician alphabet. From there, the alphabet, which by then had become consonantal and vocalic, would have spread to Phrygia through Cappadocia, and then to the peoples of the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia through Cilicia Trachea.