Some interesting types of writing system

[rochvelleth]

A syllabary is a script where each sign represents a combination of consonant + vowel, or just vowel (or sometimes vowel + consonant, as in Hittite cuneiform). Examples: Linear A and B, Cypro-Minoan, the Cypriot Syllabary, Hittite cuneiform.

An abjad is a script where each sign represents a consonant, and vowels are not represented. Example:

Comments

[roh_wyn]

So what about languages that have symbols for consonants but use something else (say diacritical marks) to approximate vowel sounds? I'm tempted to say those are syllabary, or maybe a subset thereof?

[rochvelleth]

Like Sanskrit?[1] Yes, I was just wondering whether I knew what term to apply to those. I suppose they are syllabic, in a way, since each consonant has its own sign and is modified by a diacritic for a vowel - so you could construct a syllabic grid for it, but what you'd get is much more regular than your standard syllabary, where you have really separate signs for each combination...

Actually, I'll stop waffling now. I googled it, and Wikipedia tells me the term we're looking for is abugida (or 'alphasyllabary', which sounds horrible). Well there you go! I like learning new things like this :)

[1] I mean, like Devanagari. Actually, come to think of it, the Tengwar too.

[roh_wyn]

Exactly what I was thinking of. I are predictable, lol.

Abugida? Strange term, and not one I've heard before, actually. I suppose that would apply to most Indic languages, since the scripts are quite similar.

And wow, yes, the Tengwar. Excuse me while I run off and fangirl Tolkien's world creation abilities just a bit. ;)

[rochvelleth]

Apparently (says Wikipedia, I take no credit!), 'abugida' is formed in the same way as words like 'alphabet' and 'abecedary', i.e. comes from the names of a sequence of letters, these coming from an Ethiopian script (a, bu, gi, da[1]).

I've only tried reading Vedic Sanskrit, but as far as I know Hindi and Urdu look fairly similar (visually, I mean; linguistically, am I right in thinking that Urdu isn't related?), and that's about as much as I know about Indic languages/scripts. I guess the script used to write Hindi must be directly related to Devanagari (if indeed it isn't just the same??).

Yay for Tolkien and his wonderful imagination! My life wouldn't have been nearly as much fun if he hadn't gone all language and script crazy when creating Middle Earth :)

[1] Hmm, sounds like Greek to me!

[jagnikjen]

I sure wish I had your brain!

[rochvelleth]

*blushes* I'm just a crazy person who likes scripts. In Leicester at the weekend I made friends with someone who works on Mediterranean mythology and she quizzed me about why I was so into writing systems :)

[jagnikjen]

Yes, that's why you have several(?) advanced degrees...because you're a crazy person.

[rochvelleth]

Well, craziness led to two of them (and will have led to the PhD when I'm actually awarded it), but the MA they just give for free :) I don't think I would have lasted if I were at all sane!

[ewx]

Chapter 6 of the Unicode Standard has the same lexical taxonomy with the addition of logosyllabary, each symbol standing for a word or morpheme.

[rochvelleth]

Logosyllabary? Like where each sign stands for a single syllable that also happens to be a word? Or where they have syllables that can also be words? Like Japanese(? or is it Chinese? I get confused)?

Don't they have purely (or partly) logographic and pictographic and ideographic scripts in their taxonomy? Why not?

(You've given me all these questions now!)

[fluffyarmadillo]

Do you speak Rhetorical? ;)

[rochvelleth]

Just learning ;)

[cartesiandaemon]

Yay, posts like this are really good.

[rochvelleth]

I'm glad you like it :) After five years of LJ, I think I've settled down mostly into a pattern of occasional posts like this, TV/film reviews and news, odd posts about me, and some memes. I should probably do more of this kind, though, because it's probably the most fun :)