The advantage of the Phoenician system of writing over the Chinese, Sumerian, and Egyptian was that it
(a) used fewer sounds (b) used fewer pictures (c) used fewer symbols (d) none of the above
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To determine the advantage of the Phoenician system of writing over the Chinese, Sumerian, and Egyptian systems, we can analyze the characteristics of each system.
(a) The Phoenician system of writing did not necessarily use fewer sounds compared to the other systems. It was an alphabetic script that consisted of a small number of phonetic symbols representing consonants. However, the Phoenician system did not include vowel sounds, which could be considered using fewer sounds than systems that incorporated vowels. Therefore, option (a) is not the correct answer.
(b) The Chinese, Sumerian, and Egyptian writing systems utilized pictographic or logographic characters, which represented words, ideas, or concepts using pictures or symbols. On the other hand, the Phoenician system of writing was based on an alphabet, where each symbol represented a single sound. By using fewer pictures to represent words, the Phoenician writing system could be considered more efficient. Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.
(c) Option (c) states that the Phoenician system used fewer symbols. While it is correct that the Phoenician alphabet had fewer symbols compared to the complex logographic systems of Chinese, Sumerian, and Egyptian, this option is similar to option (b), and both cannot be the correct answer.
(d) "None of the above" is not the correct answer, as option (b) is the correct response.
In conclusion, the advantage of the Phoenician system of writing over the Chinese, Sumerian, and Egyptian systems was that it used fewer pictures, as it was based on an alphabet rather than logographic characters.