Was the Phoenician writing system a true alphabet? If not, what should it be called instead, and what was the earliest true alphabet?

In other words, what is the oldest confirmed alphabet in the world? Experts told Live Science it was probably the proto-Sinaitic script, which was invented about 4,000 years ago by Canaanite ...

The writing system is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as well as consonants. In Archaic and early Classical ...