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Re: Abugidas (was: Chinese writing systems)

From:bnathyuw <bnathyuw@...>
Date:Wednesday, November 6, 2002, 12:29
 --- John Cowan <jcowan@...> wrote: >
Andreas Johansson scripsit:
> > > Would you please enlighten me on the term > "alphasyllabary"? Does it mean a > > mixture of alphabetic and syllabic writing, or > what? > > It's not a very perspicuous term, particularly > because it blurs the > fundamental difference between *abugidas* and > *abjads*. We are concerned > with the former here. > > In an abugida, the basic written forms are > consonants. When the consonant > appears in its basic form, it is understood to be > followed by a vowel, > called the *inherent vowel*. Exactly which vowel > this is depends on the > language, though it is often "short a". To indicate > the use of a > different vowel, a "vowel sign" is placed above, > below, before, or after > the consonant (sometimes in multiple parts in > different places), which > overrides the inherent vowel. A mark called a > virama is used when there is no > vowel at all. The Ethiopic script, uniquely, writes > its vowel marks > attached to the consonant. >
not quite uniquely . . . brahmi also attaches, but the attachments have become separate vowel signs by the time its daughter scripts emerge
> Vowels not preceded by a consonant are expressed by > independent vowel > letters. Sometimes these are derived from a "null > consonant" with a > vowel sign, but often by unique letterforms. > > One or more vowel-less consonants followed by an > ordinary consonant > are often written either as a ligature, or with the > vowel-less consonants > in a reduced ("half") form with no virama mark. > Uniquely in Tibetan script, > they are stacked below the main consonant, often > many letters deep. > > Abugidas include the Ethiopic script on the one > hand, and the many > Indic and Indic-derived scripts (Myanmar, Thai, Lao, > various Philippine > scripts, various Indonesian scripts) on the other. > All of them > except the extinct Kharosthi script are written > left-to-right. > > Because of the loss of consonant distinctions in > Thai/Lao and their > replacement by tones, these scripts divide their > tones into tone groups; > the particular consonant used encodes not only the > (phonological) > consonant, but also the tone group. A tone mark > then selects the specific > tone within the group. >
by way of a me too, bac uses an abugida. the only thing is, it's an abugida that looks worryingly like an alphabet, and indeed has slowly developed alphabetic characteristics . . . when written in isolation a consonant has an inherent |a| /a/. any other vowel can be added after the consonant if a consonant is not followed by a vowel then a) it can attach to the following consonant ( which again comes after it ) b) it can have a small stroke written onto it like a virama the small stroke mentioned in b) has developed into an 'end of word' mark, and is used even after vowels vowels at the beginning of a word take a small 'empty' consonant. however, in common handwriting the only vowel that does this is |a| as all the others have distinctive enough shapes on their own there is also a sign used to introduce vowel diacritics, which are written after the vowel. this sign has become incorporated into the diacritic signs and is now inseperable because all letters are written in sequence, the only trait that reveals the originally abugidic character of the scrip is that |a| is marked by the absence of any other vowel, the fact that in print all vowels and in handwriting |a| at the beginning of a word are introduced by an 'empty consonant', and the fact that vowels never join a following consonant, giving a quasi-syllabation ( which doesn't correspond to the true syllabation of the words ) . . . if this all sounds absurdly complicated, it isn't in practice . . . trust me ! bn ===== bnathyuw | landan | arR stamp the sunshine out | angelfish your tears came like anaesthesia | phèdre __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com