Alphabet

An alphabet is a system of symbols (letters) used to represent the phonemes (sounds) of a language. It is a writing system.

There are three types of alphabets:

  1. Abjads only represent consonant sounds; vowel sounds are not shown.
  2. Abugidas (or alphasyllabaries) have letters to represent consonant sounds; vowel sounds are shown with diacritics (modifiers to the consonant letters).
  3. True alphabets have letters to represent both consonant and vowel sounds.

List of selected alphabets, abjads and abugidas