Why did the Phoenician merchants need writing? Which writing system — Egyptian, Babylonian, or Phoenician

1. Why did the Phoenician merchants need writing? 2. Which writing system — Egyptian, Babylonian, or Phoenician — was simpler? 3. What did each sign of the Phoenician letter correspond to? What can you call it? 4. How many letters are there in the Phoenician alphabet? 5. What is the main disadvantage of the Phoenician writing? 6. Who perfected the Phoenician alphabet? 7. What is the origin of the word “alphabet”?

The Phoenician merchants needed writing for writing records and calculations.
The Phoenician writing system was simpler, since in it each sign was a letter and denoted a separate consonant sound, not a word.
Each sign of the Phoenician letter corresponded to a separate consonant sound. Today, such an icon can be called a “letter”.
There are twenty-two letters in the Phoenician alphabet.
The main drawback of Phoenician writing is that only consonants were used to write words, and the meaning of the vowels was left to the understanding of the reader.
Ancient Greeks (they began to designate with icons not only consonants, but also vowels).
The first two letters of the alphabet are α and β. They were pronounced as “alpha” and “beta”, when these names were merged and the word “alphabet” was obtained.