[Mesorah] Hoshanot: Samech vs Sin

[Akiva Miller]

RSM wrote a lot of fascinating stuff, of which I'll quote just a small
piece:

<<<  In standard Hebrew and Aramaic, B and C (the ones written by sin and
samekh) became identical. In Arabic, the ones written by A and C became
identical. In Phoenician and Northern Hebrew, the ones written by A and B
became identical.
Hebrewuses an alphabet developed in the north and Phoenicia, so we have the
same letter for two different sounds, distinguished by the Massoretes by
dots. And Biblical Hebrew uses the old spelling, even though it does not
show the pronunciation.  >>>

Can you give approximate dates for these developments? Words like
"Phoenicia" make it sound like very long ago, while the piyyutum we've
mentioned seem to be relatively recent. How long did these changes remain
in flux? It is difficult for me to imagine that the author of Kel Adon felt
it natural to alphabetize "smeichin" between nun and ayin.

(I know that I'm asking you to dumb down decades of study, and I apologize
for that, but what can I do? Torah hee, ul'lamda ani tzarich.)
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