The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet (Hebrew: כתב עברי עתיק, "Ktav Ivri Atik") is an abjad offshoot of the ancient Semitic alphabet, identical to the Phoenician alphabet. At the very least it dates to the 10th century BCE. It was used as the main vehicle for writing the Hebrew language by the Israelites, both Jews and Samaritans.
It began to fall out of use by the Jews in the 5th century BCE when they adopted the Aramaic alphabet as their writing system fo...
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The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet (Hebrew: כתב עברי עתיק, "Ktav Ivri Atik") is an abjad offshoot of the ancient Semitic alphabet, identical to the Phoenician alphabet. At the very least it dates to the 10th century BCE. It was used as the main vehicle for writing the Hebrew language by the Israelites, both Jews and Samaritans.
It began to fall out of use by the Jews in the 5th century BCE when they adopted the Aramaic alphabet as their writing system for Hebrew, from whence the present Jewish "square-script" Hebrew alphabet descends. The Samaritans, who now number less than one thousand people, have continued to use the Old Hebrew alphabet until today.
Unlike the current Jewish Hebrew alphabet, the Samaritan Hebrew alphabet descends directly from the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. However, because of the numerical advantage of Jews, it is the Jewish script that is normatively called the "Hebrew alphabet", despite descending from the Aramaic script.
The earliest known inscription in the Paleo-Hebrew...
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