Writing Systems
Abjads / Consonant Alphabets
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Abjads, or consonant alphabets, represent consonants only, or consonants plus some vowels. Full vowel indication (vocalisation) can be added, usually by means of diacritics, but this is not usualy done. Most of abjads, with the exception of Ugaritic, are written from right to left.
Some examples of abjads that are currently in use include: Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac
Some examples of abjads that are currently in use include: Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac
Alphabets
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Alphabets, or phonemic alphabets, are sets of letters, usually arranged in a fixed order, each of which represents one or more phonemes, both consonants and vowels, in the language they are used to write. In some case combinations of letters are used to represent single phonemes, as in the English sh, ch and th.
The best-known and most widely-used alphabets are the Latin or Roman alphabet and the Cyrillic alphabet, which have been adapted to write numerous languages. Most other alphabets are used for a single language or just a few languages.
The best-known and most widely-used alphabets are the Latin or Roman alphabet and the Cyrillic alphabet, which have been adapted to write numerous languages. Most other alphabets are used for a single language or just a few languages.
Syllabic Alphabets / Abugidas
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Syllabic alphabets, alphasyllabaries or abugidas consist of symbols for consonants and vowels. The consonants each have an inherent vowel which can be changed to another vowel or muted by means of diacritics. Vowels can also be written with separate letters when they occur at the beginning of a word or on their own.
When two or more consonants occur together, special conjunct symbols are often used which add the essential parts of first letter or letters in the sequence to the final letter.
The illustration on the right shows how some of the vowel diacritics (in red) are used in the Devanagari alphabet, and also shows a number of conjunct consonants.
When two or more consonants occur together, special conjunct symbols are often used which add the essential parts of first letter or letters in the sequence to the final letter.
The illustration on the right shows how some of the vowel diacritics (in red) are used in the Devanagari alphabet, and also shows a number of conjunct consonants.
Syllabaries
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A syllabary is a phonetic writing system consisting of symbols representing syllables. A syllable is often made up of a consonant plus a vowel or a single vowel.
The illustration on the right shows a selection of symbols from Japanese Hiragana, and Inuktitut. In Hiragana each syllable is represented by a separate symbol. In Inuktitut the orientation of the symbols is used indicate different vowels, and the small symbol is used to write syllable final consonants, as in Inuktitut.
The illustration on the right shows a selection of symbols from Japanese Hiragana, and Inuktitut. In Hiragana each syllable is represented by a separate symbol. In Inuktitut the orientation of the symbols is used indicate different vowels, and the small symbol is used to write syllable final consonants, as in Inuktitut.
Semanto-Phonetic Writing Systems
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The symbols used in these semanto-phonetic writing systems often represent both sound and meaning. As a result, these scripts generally include a large number of symbols: anything from several hundred to tens of thousands. In fact there is no theoretical upper limit to the number of symbols in some scripts, such as Chinese. These scripts could also be called logophonetic, morphophonemic, logographic or logosyllabic.