Definitions of writing systems

[Albert Bickford]

It was from the perspective that Kathy notes below, and these definitions, that I was drawing the distinction between an alphabet and a featural script.  If one works with a smaller set of terms and has to choose the best one to apply, the term you end up choosing will of course be different.  If the choice is limited to "alphabet", "logographic", and "syllabary" (like what Adam Frost did in his paper) then clearly "alphabet" is the best way to describe SignWriting.  If your definition of "alphabet" includes the possibility of a featural script being a subtype of alphabet (as apparently is the case for some people), then (assuming that locations and movements are the analogues of consonants and vowels in sign languages) SignWriting fits the definition of a featural alphabet.  And, if you use the lay definition of the term "alphabet", which appears to include many of the different writing systems distinguished by experts (perhaps silently, since most people in Western countries don't even know that such systems are possible), and which depends heavily on the notion that symbols are arranged in a conventional sequence that is used for "alphabetization" (e.g. sequencing of words in a dictionary for ease of lookup), then SignWriting fits that definition of alphabet.  It seems that this last definition is the one that Valerie Sutton and Steve Slevinski are using.

Nothing of what I said earlier is meant in any way to be disparaging of SignWriting or sign languages; I am supportive of both.  It was simply a matter of clarifying the technical terms that are defined by experts such as Daniels and Bright, how they apply in specific situations, and which one best applies to SignWriting.  In and around the terminological confusion, the discussion also brings out the nature of SignWriting as a script, its versatility and usefulness, as well as some of the challanges involved in using it.

Albert
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Kathy H. 
  To: A list for linguists interested in signed languages 
  Sent: September 27, 2007 11:05 AM
  Subject: [SLLING-L] Definitions of writing systems



  Here are some types of writing systems, from Daniels, Peter T. and William Bright.  1996.  The World's Writing Systems.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.



  abjad:  A type of writing system that denotes only consonants

   

  abugida:  A type of writing system whose basic characters denote consonants followed by a particular vowel, and in which diacritics denote the other vowels

   

  alphabet:  A type of writing system that denotes consonants and vowels

   

  alphasyllabary:  A writing system in which vowels are denoted by subsidiary symbols not all of which occur in a linear order (with relation to the consonant symbols) that is congruent with their temporal order in speech

   

  featural script:  A type of writing system whose characters denote phonetic features

   

  logosyllabary:  A type of writing system whose characters denote morphemes, and a subset of whose characters can be used for their phonetic syllabic values without regard to their semantic values

   

   

  Hope this helps.

   

  Kathy



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