[Home]History of Abjad

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Revision 13 . . December 12, 2001 3:08 am by WOL [fixing my own typos, and feeling guilty about accented characters, do not know how to fix these, sorry]
Revision 12 . . (edit) December 12, 2001 2:23 am by WOL [fixed bahai link]
Revision 11 . . December 12, 2001 2:21 am by WOL [etymology, Baha'i, numerology]
Revision 10 . . (edit) November 15, 2001 12:58 am by MichaelTinkler [emphasis]
  

Difference (from prior major revision) (author diff)

Changed: 1c1
An abjad is a type of script where there is one symbol per character (as in an alphabet). The term takes its name from the old order of the Arabic alphabet Alif, Bá, Jim, Dál, though the word may have earlier roots in Phoenician or Ugaritic?. Abjads differ from alphabets in that they only have characters for consonantal sounds. Some abjads (like the Arabic abjad) have characters for some vowels as well, but only use them in special contexts. 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 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.
An abjad is a type of script where there is one symbol per character (as in an alphabet). The term takes its name from the old order of the Arabic alphabet's consonants Alif, Bá, Jim, Dál, though the word may have earlier roots in Phoenician or Ugaritic?. Abjads differ from alphabets in that they only have characters for consonantal sounds. Some abjads (like the Arabic abjad) have characters for some vowels as well, but only use them in special contexts. 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 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.

Changed: 3c3
See also Baha'i, where abjad is a numerological system]].
See also Baha'i, where abjad is a numerological system]]

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