This document discusses different types of writing systems. It begins by dividing writing systems into two main types: alphabets and syllabaries. Alphabets represent consonants and vowels, while syllabaries represent syllables. The document then describes several subcategories of writing systems, including abjads/consonant alphabets, alphabets, syllabic alphabets/abugidas, syllabaries, semanto-phonetic writing systems, undeciphered writing systems, and other communication systems such as codes. Each category is explained with examples to illustrate the characteristics of the writing system.

1. WRITING SKILLSWRITING SKILLS
CED 1224CED 1224
Lecture 1Lecture 1
Murni SalinaMurni Salina
Fac of Education & Social SciencesFac of Education & Social Sciences
UNISEL Bestari JayaUNISEL Bestari Jaya

2. Types of writing system
Writing systems can be divided into two main types:
• alphabets - consonants and vowels,
• syllabaries - syllables
There are a number of subdivisions of each type, and there
are different classifications of writing systems in
different sources.
• Abjads / Consonant Alphabets
• Alphabets
• Syllabic Alphabets / Abugidas
• Syllabaries
• Semanto-phonetic writing systems
• Undeciphered writing systems
• Other writing and communication systems

3. 1. Abjads, or consonant
alphabets
• such as Arabic and Hebrew full vowel indication
(vocalisation) is only used in specific contexts, such as in
religious books and children's books.
• the word 'language' in Arabic and Hebrew, both without
vowel marks (unvocalised) and with vowel marks (vocalised).

4. • In Semitic languages e.g. k-t-b (‫)كتب‬ is the root for words
related to marking, inscribing or writing in Arabic.
• Adding vowels and other consonants to such roots creates
different words such as
– katîb, writer;
– kutub, books;
– kutubî, bookdealer;
– maktab, school, office;
– maktaba, library, literature.
• Many of the ancient alphabets used in West Asia and North
Africa were abjads, as are the Arabic and Hebrew scripts.

5. 2. Alphabets or phonemic
alphabets
are sets of letters that represent consonants and vowels. In English,
letters might represent a variety of sounds, or the same sounds can be
written in different ways.
IPA: / / (unvoiced postalveolar fricative)ʃ
Afrikaans: sjampoe (shampoo)
Czech: šplouchat (to splash)
English: ship, election, machine, mission, pressue, schedule.
French: chat (cat)
German: schön (beautiful)
Irish: mise (me)
Lingala: cakú / shakú (African grey parrot)
Welsh: siarad (to speak)
Russian: кошка (cat)
Armenian: շ (Saturday)աբաթօրյա
Georgian: ბოდიშ (sorry)ი

6. 3. Syllabic alphabets
• alphasyllabaries or abugidas are writing systems in which
the main element is the syllable. Syllables are built up of
consonants, each of which has an inherent vowel, e.g. ka,
kha, ga, gha.
• Diacritic symbols are used to change or mute the inherent
vowel, and separate vowel letters may be used when vowels
occur at the beginning of a syllable or on their own.

7. 4. A syllabary
• phonetic writing
system consisting
of a consonant plus
a vowel or a single
vowel.
• The illustration
below shows a
selection of
symbols from
Japanese Hiragana,
and Inuktitut.

8. 5. Semanto-phonetic writing
systems
• The symbols used in semanto-phonetic
writing systems often represent both
sound and meaning. As a result, such
scripts generally include a large number of
symbols: anything from several hundred to
tens of thousands. In fact there is no
theoretical upper limit to the number of
symbols in some scripts, such as Chinese.
These scripts could also be called
logophonetic, morphophonemic, logographic
or logosyllabic.

9. 5.1 Pictograms and logograms
Pictograms or
pictographs resemble
the things they
represent. Logograms
are symbols that
represent parts of
words or whole words.
The image shows
examples of
pictograms from the
Ancient Egyptian
Hieroglyphic and
Chinese scripts.

10. 5.2 Ideograms
Ideograms or ideographs are symbols
which graphically represent abstract ideas.
The image below shows a number of
ideographic Chinese characters.

11. 5.3 Compound characters
The majority of characters in the Chinese script
are semanto-phonetic compounds: they include a
semantic element, which represents or hints at
their meaning, and a phonetic element, which
shows or hints at their pronunciation. Below are a
few such compound characters which all share a
semantic element meaning 'horse'.

12. Undeciphered writing systems
• The writing systems listed below have yet to be
deciphered or have only been partially deciphered.
Vinča / Old European
• A collection of symbols found on many of the
artefacts dating from between 6,000 to 4,500 BC
excavated from sites in south-east Europe, in
particular from Vinča near Belgrade. There is no
agreement on whether these symbols are a
writing system.
Indus/Harappa script
• A collection of symbols used in the Indus valley of
India between about 3,500 and 2,000 BC. Some
believe that these symbols are non-linguistic,
while others argue that they represent a
Dravidian language.

13. Other writing and
communication systems
• Alternative scripts - alternative scripts
for English and other languages
• Phonetic alphabets - writing systems that
can be used to phonetically indicate the
pronunciation of any language
• Other notation systems - Braille,
Shorthand, etc.
• Language-based communication systems -
Morse Code, Semaphore, etc.
• Magical alphabet - Enochian, Theban, etc.
• Fictional scripts - writing systems used in
books, films and computer games

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Dec 2010Dec 2010