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The Paleo-Hebrew script (Hebrew: הכתב העברי הקדום), also Palaeo-Hebrew, Proto-Hebrew or Old Hebrew, is the writing system found in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, including pre-Biblical and Biblical Hebrew, from southern Canaan, also known as the biblical kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah.
Historically, a different abjad script was used to write Hebrew: the original, old Hebrew script, now known as the paleo-Hebrew alphabet, has been largely preserved in a variant form as the Samaritan alphabet, and is still used by the Samaritans.
The Paleo-Hebrew Alphabet also known as Ābarayt (Ābryt), the Proto-Hebrew Alphabet, Old Hebrew Alphabet, or Phoenician Hebrew Alphabet is the original Hebrew used by the Hebrew people and Israelites of the Bible.
The Hebrew alphabet is a script that was derived from the Aramaic alphabet during the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman periods (c. 500 BCE – 50 CE). It replaced the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet which was used in the earliest epigraphic records of the Hebrew language.
The ancient twenty-two Hebrew letters were originally pictures of animals, tools or parts of the body. The objective of this page is to teach the name, sound and meaning of each letter by associating it with common English words and sounds that are related to the original Hebrew.
The first five letters of the Hebrew alphabet are aleph, beyt, gimel, dalet and hey. These same letters, adopted by the Greeks, became the alpha, beta, gamma, delta and E-psilon (meaning "simple E").
The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet was used between about 1,000 BC and 135 AD to write Ancient Hebrew in the Biblical regions of Israel and Judah. It developed from the Proto-Canaanite script, which was used in Canaan (the Levant) during the Late Bronze Age.
