abugida

Meaning

Noun

• 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.
• A kind of syllabary (syllabic alphabet) in which a symbol or glyph representing a syllable contains parts representing a vowel and a consonant, typically such that symbols for different syllables are generated by adding, altering or removing the vowel portion, often by applying a diacritic to a stable consonant symbol.

Related

Similar words

• alphasyllabary

Broader meaning words

• signary

Origin

• Coined 1990 by Peter T. Daniels by adapting Ge'ez አቡጊዳ ("Ge'ez script") (based on the Hebrew alphabet order: א, ב, ג, ד and traditional vowel order - see 1997 quotation below).