In the 

Middle Bronze Age, an apparently "alphabetic" system known as the Proto-Sinaitic script
appeared in Egyptian turquoise mines in the Sinai peninsula dated to circa the 15th century BCE,
apparently left by Canaanite workers. In 1999, John and Deborah Darnell discovered an earlier
version of this first alphabet at Wadi el-Hol. Dating to circa 1800 BCE and showing evidence of
having been adapted from specific forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs that could be dated to circa 2000
BCE, strongly suggesting that the first alphabet had developed about that time. [15] Based on letter
appearances and names, believed to be based on Egyptian hieroglyphs. [5] This script had no
characters representing vowels. Originally, it probably was a syllabary, with symbols that were not
needed being removed. An alphabetic cuneiform script with 30 signs, including three that indicate
the following vowel invented in Ugarit before the 15th century BCE. This script was not used after
the destruction of Ugarit.[16]