A Matter of Typology
Alphasyllabaries and Abugidas
The typology of writing systems includes such well known categories as the alphabet (e.g. that of English), the syllabary (e.g. Japanese kana), and the logosyllabary (such as Chinese characters). An additional type, exemplified by writing systems of India and Ethiopia, shows features of both the alphabet and the syllabary; it has sometimes been called an alphasyllabary, sometimes an abugida (borrowing an Ethiopic term). These terms can be distinguished in several Asian writing systems, depending on whether priority is given to the presence of an inherent vowel or to the graphic arrangement of symbols.
Published online: 23 July 1999
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.2.1.03bri
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.2.1.03bri
Cited by
Cited by 9 other publications
Bright, William
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Written Language & Literacy 8:1 ► pp. 72 ff. 
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Gnanadesikan, Amalia E.
2017. Towards a typology of phonemic scripts.
Writing Systems Research 9:1 ► pp. 14 ff.
Hoover, Wesley A. & William E. Tunmer
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In The Cognitive Foundations of Reading and Its Acquisition [Literacy Studies, 20],
► pp. 117 ff.
Lew, Sigrid
2014. A linguistic analysis of the Lao writing system and its suitability for minority language orthographies.
Writing Systems Research 6:1 ► pp. 25 ff.
Tanaka-Ishii, Kumiko & Renu Gupta
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In Text Entry Systems,
► pp. 191 ff.
Usha, Mysore Nanda Kumar, Malavika Anakkathil Anil, Shwetha Prabhu, Jayashree S. Bhat & Somashekara Haralakatta Shivananjappa
2020. Kannada akshara knowledge in primary school children: measurement of accuracy and reaction time using a cross-sectional study design.
F1000Research 9 ► pp. 978 ff.
Widiarti, Anastasia Rita & Reza Pulungan
2020. A method for solving scriptio continua in Javanese manuscript transliteration.
Heliyon 6:4 ► pp. e03827 ff.
Winskel, Heather & Theeraporn Ratitamkul
2020. The Initial Functional Unit When Naming Words and Pseudowords in Thai: Evidence from Masked Priming.
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 49:2 ► pp. 275 ff.
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