Re: abugida vs abjad vs alphabet vs syllabary

Philip Newton scripsit:

> What's the difference between an abjad, an abugida, and a syllabary?
To a first approximation:

A syllabary uses a distinct character for each syllable of the language.

The letters of an abjad represents the consonants of the language.
The vowels may be represented by marks placed over, under, or beside
the preceding consonants, and are most often only used when necessary
(for religious texts, books written for children or foreigners, or in
strategic places to remove ambiguity).  It is common to have a silent
consonant onto which vowel marks can be placed in order to represent
vowels that don't follow any consonant.

The letters of an abugida represent syllables in which a consonant is
followed by a fixed vowel, called the implicit vowel.  Thus if /a/
is the implicit vowel, there will be letters for /ka/, /ta/, /la/,
etc.  Syllables with different vowels are represented by writing the
letter representing the correct consonant in relation with a vowel
sign representing the vowel:  /ki/ will be written with /ka/ and /i/.
The vowel signs may be written before, after, beside, or as an integral
part of the letters, or may be implicit in the orientation of a letter.
There is commonly a method of indicating a stand-alone consonant by
marking the corresponding letter.  Ligatures of consecutive consonants
are common.  Vowels not preceded by a consonant can be written using a
silent letter with the vowel sign, or by a separate set of vowel letters
not related to the vowel signs.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_

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