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Article published In:
On the Systematic Nature of Writing Systems
Edited by David F. Mora-Marín and Lynne Cahill
[Written Language & Literacy 26:1] 2023
► pp. 30–56

More matters of typology

Alphasyllabaries, abugidas and related vowelled segmentaries

| University of New England

Since their coinage a quarter-century ago, the terms abugida and alphasyllabary (Bright 1999; Daniels & Bright 1996) have revolutionised our conceptualisation of writing systems. Together with alphabet, these terms have proven invaluable in classifying subtypes of segmentaries–writing systems whose grain size is the phonological segment (Gnanadesikan 2017). Nevertheless, there remain areas of ambiguity. Segmentaries that are either abugidas or alphasyllabaries–but not both–may be classified under various labels, and inconsistently so. Moreover, certain minoritised writing systems such as those based on Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics or Braille are only rarely covered in typological studies, despite the potential insights they offer.

In this paper, I use Bright’s (1999) and Gnanadesikan’s (2017) typology of vowelled segmentaries as the point of departure to propose an augmented classification based on specific graphematic criteria. Aside from illustrating the proposed typology by applying it to various writing systems, I also identify avenues for further refinement.

Keywords: typology, alphasyllabary, abugida, alphabet, plenary, akshara
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction and terminology
    • 1.1Background and overview
    • 1.2Terminology
  • 2.Vowelled segmentaries: From Bright (1999) to Gnanadesikan (2017)
  • 3.An augmented paradigm
  • 4.Implementation and open questions
    • 4.1Aksharic systems
    • 4.2Sorani Kurdish–Arabic, Uyghur–Arabic, and Yiddish–Hebrew
    • 4.3Korean–Hangeul
    • 4.4Canadian Syllabics
  • 5.Conclusion and future directions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 April 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.00072.iye
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