Christians believe that they are the descendants of Phoenicians hence, they do not consider themselves as Arabs. On the other hand, Muslims do not consider themselves as Phoenicians due to the fact that they have an Arabic background. However, based on their dialects, it seems that the Lebanese Muslims are more of Phoenicians than Christians. This can be attributed to the fact that Phoenicians inhabited the cities where most Lebanese lived and still live. Very little is known about this Canaanite language. What is known about the language is largely based on the El-Amarna letters, which were written by Canaanite kings. These letters were addressed to Pharaohs Amenhopis III and Akhenaton. Phoenician was heavily influenced by Egypt, which had controlled Phoenicia over a long period of time.
Phoenician is a Northern Semitic language that was spoken in ancient times in what is now Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt Palestine. Phoenician then spread to other countries that were colonized by the Phoenicians. This included the Northern parts of Africa, which are the present day Algeria and Morocco. It was also spoken in Sicily, Malta, Sardinia, Corsica and in the southern parts of Spain. Punic, which is a variant of Phoenician was spoken in Carthage, which is present day Tunisia. Phoenician was used by North African peasants until the 6th century. The Phoenician language is closely related to the Hebrew language, then the Moabite language, Arabic and Aramaic.
Phoenician is written using the tifinagh script, which was used by the Tuaregs in the southern Sahara. The Phoenician alphabet has 22 letters and there are no vowel sounds. This makes it hard to decipher the Phoenician symbols. The names of the letters are similar to those used in the Hebrew alphabet. Cuneiform symbols were used to write this language before 1,000 B.C. The first written evidence of the Phoenician language was based on Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Phoenician writing system is quite adaptable to other languages. The Arameans adopted the Phoenician writing system in the 9th Century. This Aramean alphabet evolved into Arabic. The Greeks also adopted the Phoenician alphabet and modified it by adding some vowel sounds to come up with the Greek alphabet. The Latin alphabet was derived from the Greek alphabet.
