Types of writing system
Writing systems can be divided into two main types: those that represent consonants and vowels
(alphabets), and those which represent syllables (syllabifies), though some do both. There are a
number of subdivisions of each type, and there are different classifications of writing systems in
different sources.
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Abjads / Consonant Alphabets
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Alphabets
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Syllabic Alphabets / Abugidas
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Syllabaries
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Semanto-phonetic writing systems
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Undeciphered writing systems
.
Abjads / Consonant Alphabets
Abjads, or consonant alphabets, have independent letters for consonants and may indicate
vowels using some of the consonant letters and/or with diacritics. In Abjads such as Arabic and
Hebrew full vowel indication (vocalisation) is only used in specific contexts, such as in religious
books and children's books.
The image below shows the word 'language' in Arabic and Hebrew, both without vowel marks
(unvocalised) and with vowel marks (vocalised).
In Semitic languages like these most words have roots made up of three consonants, e.g. k-t-b
(‫ )بتك‬is the root for words related to marking, inscribing or writing in Arabic. Adding vowels and
other consonants to such roots creates different words such as katîb, writer; kutub, books;
kutubî, bookdealer; maktab, school, office; and maktaba, library, literature.
Many of the ancient alphabets used in West Asia and North Africa were abjads, as are
theArabic and Hebrew scripts.
Alphabets
Alphabets, or phonemic alphabets, are sets of letters that represent consonants and vowels. In
some languages, such as Czech, each letter or combination of letters represents one sound,
while in others, such as English, letters might represent a variety of sounds, or the same sounds
can be written in different ways.
Here is an example of how the sh sound [ʃ] is represented in different
languages and alphabets:
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IPA: /ʃ/ (unvoiced post alveolar fricative)
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Afrikaans: sjampoe (shampoo)
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Czech: šplouchat (to splash)
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English: ship, election, machine, mission, pressure, schedule.
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French: chat (cat)
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German: schön (beautiful)
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Irish: mise (me)
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Lingala: cakú / shakú (African grey parrot)
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Welsh: siarad (to speak)
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Russian: кошка (cat)
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Armenian: շաբաթօրյա (Saturday)
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Georgian: ბოდიში (sorry)
The most widely-used alphabets are the Latin or Roman alphabet and the Cyrillic alphabet. They
have been adapted to write hundreds of different languages and are used on every continent.
Syllabic Alphabets / Abugidas
Syllabic alphabets, alphasyllabaries or abugidas are writing systems in which the main element is
the syllable. Syllables are built up of consonants, each of which has an inherent vowel, e.g. ka,
kha, ga, gha. Diacritic symbols are used to change or mute the inherent vowel, and separate
vowel letters may be used when vowels occur at the beginning of a syllable or on their own.
The illustration below shows some of the letters and other symbols used in Devanagari, which is
used to write Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and many other languages. The vowel diacritics are
highlighted in red, and the consonant clusters are used when two or more consonants occur
together without vowels between them.
Most of the writing systems used in South and South East Asia are syllabic alphabets
Syllabaries
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 below 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 to
indicate different vowels, and the small symbol is used to write syllable final
consonants, as in Inuktitut.
Semanto-phonetic writing systems
The symbols used in semanto-phonetic writing systems often represent both sound and
meaning. As a result, such 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.
Semanto-phonetic writing systems may include the following types
of symbol:
Pictograms and logograms
Pictograms or pictographs resemble the things they represent.
Logograms are symbols that represent parts of words or whole
words. The image on the right shows some examples of
pictograms from the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic and Chinese scripts. The Chinese characters
used to look like the things they stand for, but have become increasingly stylized over the years.
Ideograms
Ideograms or ideographs are symbols which graphically represent abstract ideas. The image
below shows a number of ideographic Chinese characters.
Compound characters
The majority of characters in the Chinese script are semanto-phonetic compounds: they include
a semantic element, which represents or hints at their meaning, and a phonetic element, which
shows or hints at their pronunciation. Below are a few such compound characters which all share
a semantic element meaning 'horse'.
Sometimes symbols are used for their phonetic value alone, without regard for their meaning, for
example when transliterating foreign names and loan words.