CLEP Western Civ I

Answer: B - The Phoenician alphabet, which replaced cuneiform as the predominant written language, was the system on which present-day written languages are based. Cuneiform is the earliest known form of written language, originating approximately two centuries before Egyptian hieroglyphics. The development of cuneiform began in the 34th century BCE in Sumer. It was originally a pictographic language, like hieroglyphics, and contained as many as 1000 individual glyphs (though it was eventually pared down to a 400-glyph system). After 35 centuries, cuneiform was replaced by the Phoenician alphabet, which was a simpler system with far fewer glyphs, each of which pertained to a consonant sound in the Phoenician language.