Which alphabet, still in use today, comprises 22 letters?

The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters and is read and written from right to left. It is an 'abjad' alphabet, meaning only the consonants are written and readers must supply the vowels. Since that may be difficult for some readers, the vowels can be marked as dots called “nikkud” or “tnuah”.

Hebrew is a Semitic language that was first spoken in Israel. Many Jewish people speak Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) was originally written in Biblical Hebrew. Biblical Hebrew was spoken by the Israelites during the period written about in the Bible (from before 1200 BC). When Babylonia conquered the land (c.587 BC), the Jews were taken captive and forced to speak Aramaic. Hebrew was spoken less in daily life and eventually became a dead (unspoken) language.

Hebrew is the only dead language that has been made into a living language. During the 20th century, many Jews decided to start speaking Hebrew again and it became the official language of Israel in 1948. Modern Hebrew is different from Biblical Hebrew, in that it has simpler grammar and many loanwords from other languages, especially English.

Rather than writing in letters like "ABC", Hebrew is written in symbols. The Latin-style translation of the letters, written as they sound, are as follows: alef, bet, gimel, dalet, he, vav, zayin, chet, tet, yod, kaf, lamed, mem, nun, samekh, ayin, pe, tsadi, qof, resh, shin and tav.