a connection between the words phone and Phoenician

OK, sure. I still think it unlikely that the words are related in Greek. If the root of Phoenician is Greek, you'd have to explain the variation in οι (oi) and ω (ō). If it is a Semitic loanword, is Latin Pūnus 'Punic; Phoenician' borrowed from Phoenician directly? (I assume so, since Latin also has the more learned loan from Greek Phoenices 'Phoenician'. (I was unaware of the PIE *gwhen- 'strike' posited etymology. I suppose from Greek πονος (phonos) 'murder', along the lines of 'murderous' as an ethnonym, but then you have to explain how it got into Latin and Greek: from PIE? Their own name for their country Phoenicia was knʕn with unknown vocalization (though it's Kinaḫḫu in Akkadian (and in Hurrian) and kĕnaʕan in Hebrew). Some connect that stem with purple or lowland. (There is also the intriguing coincidence of N-K and K-N in Phoenician and Canaan with the /p/ or /ph/ as some kind of prefix.)


Ceci n'est pas un seing.