abugida

Definition

A kind of syllabary (syllabic alphabet) in which a symbol or glyph representing a syllable contains parts representing a vowel and a consonant, such that symbols for syllables not including the default vowel are generated by adding a common notation to indicate the vowel that it does include.

Etymology

From Ge'ez አቡጊዳ (ʾäbugida). First use appears c. 1961. See cite below.

Example Sentences

• "Words are entered under the Abugida system."
• "1997 [Routledge], Peter T. Daniels, 2: Scripts of Semitic Languages, Robert Hetzron (editor), The Semitic Languages, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2005, Transferred to Digital Printing, unnumbered page, An abugida is a script that uses characters for CV syllables wherein the several characters for some consonant plus the language's array of vowels are modifications of the character for that consonant followed by the unmarked vowel (phonemically /a/)."
• "In an abugida, each consonant carries an inherent vowel, usually /a/."

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