Wordcraft Community Home Page
ABJAD and ABUGIDA

This topic can be found at:
https://wordcraft.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/332607094/m/1350091556

September 28, 2012, 07:13
Geoff
ABJAD and ABUGIDA
In Kalleh's "What a gaffe" thread, Goofy mentions the Hebrew abjad. I'd like to understand the difference between abjad and abugida. Is it just a difference between Semitic and non-Semitic languages?


It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
September 28, 2012, 13:04
goofy
As I understand it, an abugida is a system where letters represent consonants, and vowels are indicated by diacritics. This includes Brahmi scripts like Tibetan, Devanagari, Thai, etc, and also Ge'ez (Amharic). An abjad is a system where letters represent consonants and vowels are not written - for instance Phoenician. Arabic and Hebrew are not full abjads because some vowels are written.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: goofy,
September 28, 2012, 17:11
Geoff
Would that mean that the vowel sounds of abjad are less predictable?


It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
September 28, 2012, 17:45
goofy
Since many of the vowels aren't written, it's difficult to know how to pronounce the word if you're not familiar with the language. Of course you could say that about any language and any writing system to some extent.
January 21, 2017, 18:40
goofy
quote:
Originally posted by Geoff:
Would that mean that the vowel sounds of abjad are less predictable?


Geoff, if you mean that the vowel sounds are variable - that is, they can change and the word has the same meaing - then no.
January 25, 2017, 19:48
Kalleh
Here is a site depicting the difference. Very interesting.