Scripts: Terminology
Some of these words may have other meanings; The meanings listed below are the ones relevant to writing
Alphabet: A set of characters that correspond to the individual sounds of a language and represent both vowels and consonants. The characters are arranged in order. The word comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta.
Character: A letter or a symbol of a writing system.
Consonantal alphabet: An alphabet whose characters represent consonants only (no vowels).
Cuneiform: A writing system using wedge-shaped strokes on soft clay tables (such as the one used by the Sumerians, Akkadians, and other ancient peoples).
Diacritic: A mark added or attached to a character to distinguish it from an identical character representing a different sound (e.g., the tilde over an "n" in Spanish, ñ, indicating a nasal sound, as opposed to the non-nasal "n").
Grapheme: A character, a symbol of a writing system.
Hieroglyphics: Picture-symbols representing a sound, a syllable, a word, or an abstract concept. E.g., the owl hieroglyph in the Egyptian system represents the sound "m" but also prepositions like in, by, with, from, and of.
Logographic writing: A system of writing in which every symbol (logogram) represents a word or a concept.
Orthography: A writing system used for a language.
Pictographic writing: A writing system in which every symbol (pictogram) represents an object and is an image of that same object (e.g., the picture of a horse representing the word for "horse").
Script: The set of characters used in a writing system and the way they are employed.
Symbol: Character, a distinct element of a writing system.
Syllabic writing system, Syllabary: A writing system in which each symbol represents a syllable.
Writing: A visual system representing a language through characters such as letters or symbols.
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