Abjad
An
abjad is a type of
writing system where there is one symbol per
consonantal phoneme, sometimes also called a
consonantary. Abjads differ from
alphabets in that they lack characters for
vowels. The term takes its name from the first nonsense
word of the mnemonic sequence for the letters of the
Arabic alphabet, the
old order which was used before the letters were rearranged and grouped according to their graphic shapes. The most common sequence parallels the
Hebrew alphabet and goes as follows:
:
- abjad hawwaz HuTTi kalaman sa'faS qarashat thakhadh DaZagh.
Two other sequences go as follows:
:
- abujadin hawazin HuTiya kalman sa'faS qurishat thakhudh DaZugh
:
- abujadin hawazin HuTiya kalman Sa'faD qurisat thakhudh Zaghush
(As used here, the capital letters represent the
gutteral consonants, and the digraphs sh, th, kh, dh and gh represent single letters. The final
in represents tanwīn, a feature of Arabic grammar.) In all versions, the first four letters are the same: Alif, Bā', Jīm, Dāl. Any of these three
alphabetical orders can be used for purposes of numerals or the branch of numerology called
isopsephy.
It has been suggested that the word
Abjad may have earlier roots in Phoenician or
Ugaritic.
"Impure" abjads (such as Arabic) may have characters for some vowels as well, or optional vowel diacritics, or both; however, the term's originator,
Peter T. Daniels, insists that it should be applied only to scripts entirely lacking in vowel indicators, thus excluding
Arabic,
Hebrew, and
Syriac. All known abjads belong to the Semitic family of scripts, and derive from the original Northern Linear Abjad. The reason for this is that
Semitic languages have a
morphemic structure which makes the denotation of vowels redundant or unnecessary in most cases.
Many scripts derived from abjads have been extended with vowel symbols to become full
alphabets. This has mostly happened when the script was adapted to a non-Semitic language, the most famous case being the derivation of the
Greek alphabet from the Phoenician abjad. Other times, the vowel signs come in the form of little points or hooks attached to the consonant letters, producing an
abugida such as the system of writing Amharic.
Surprisingly, many non-Semitic languages such as English can be written without vowels and read with little difficulty. (For example, the previous sentence could be written
Mny nn-Smtc lnggs sch `s `nglsh cn b wrttn wtht vwls `nd rd wth lttl dffclty. and still be fairly legible.)
References
Category:Writing systems
fa:ابجد
fr:abjad
de:Abjad
wa:abdjad