# Writing System **A set of symbols and the rules of how they are combined to represent a language.** ![[WritingSystem.svg|400]] *Examples of an alphabetic, syllabaric, and logographic writing system; the colours indicate what each symbol represents in each system, that is, a phoneme, a syllable, and a [[morpheme]]* A **writing system** is a set of symbols and a set of rules dictating how they combine which together represent a language. A single symbol in a writing system is known as a **grapheme** and the set of symbols of a writing system is known as a **script**. Writing systems are primarily categorised by the unit of language that each grapheme represents, either a phoneme, syllable, or a morpheme. ## Terminology A **phoneme** is the smallest possible unit of sound in a language and are further differentiated into *consonants*, phonemes which require at least a partial closure of the vocal tract, and *vowels*, which do not require any vocal tract constriction. A **syllable** is a unit of combined phonemes consisting of a *nucleus*, a vowel, surrounded optionally by *margins*, consonants. Syllables additionally exhibit the properties of stress, tone, and reduplication amongst other things. A **[[morpheme]]** is the smallest unit of a language which has meaning. ## Types ### Alphabet ![[WritingSystemGreekAlphabet.svg|500]] *The Greek alphabet* An **alphabet** is a writing system in which graphemes, in this case known as **letters**, represents or approximately represents a *phoneme*. Examples of alphabets include the English alphabet and the [[Greek alphabet]]. Alphabets may be further categorised into abjads and abugidas and distinguished from them as pure alphabets. #### Abjad ![[WritingSystemPhoenicianAlphabet.svg|400]] *The Phoenician alphabet; note that the writing direction is right-to-left* An **abjad** is an alphabet in which *only consonants* are represented by a letter. A abjad which includes optional diacritics to represent vowels is known as an **impure abjad**. An example of a pure abjad is the Phoenician alphabet, whereas Arabic is an example of an impure abjad. #### Abugida ![[WritingSystemCreeSyllabics.svg|175]] *Cree syllabics* An **abugida** is an alphabet in which combinations of *consonants and vowels* are represented by a letter. Each unique letter represents a consonant and a secondary feature of each letter represents a vowel. A abugida is defined in contrast to a syllabary in which each grapheme represents a syllable, typically a combination of a vowel and an optional onset consonant. An example of abugidas are Canadian Aboriginal syllabics, such as Cree syllabics. ### Syllabary ![[WritingSystemHiragana.svg|500]] *Japanese Hiragana* A **syllabary** is a writing system in which graphemes, in this case known as a **syllabogram**, represents *syllables* or more commonly *morae*. A mora is the smallest possible unit of timing at most as long as a syllable found in languages in which the length of a phoneme meaningfully distinguishes words. An example of a syllabary, more correctly a morae, are the Japanese [[kana]]. ### Logographic system ![[WritingSystemChineseCharacters.svg|550]] *Chinese characters* A **logographic writing system** or **logography** is a writing system in which each grapheme, in this case known as a **logogram**, **logograph**, or **lexigraph**, represents an entire *[[morpheme]]*. In all known logographic writing systems, however, some logograms are also sometimes used as a phonetic component. An example of a logographic writing system are [[Chinese characters]].