Editing Abugida (section)

==Terminology==
As Daniels used the word, an abugida is in contrast with a [[syllabary]], where letters with shared consonant or vowel sounds show no particular resemblance to one another. Furthermore, an abugida is also in contrast with an [[alphabet]] proper, where independent letters are used to denote consonants and vowels. The term ''alphasyllabary'' was suggested for the Indic scripts in 1997 by [[William Bright]], following South Asian linguistic usage, to convey the idea that, "they share features of both alphabet and syllabary."<ref>He describes this term as "formal," i.e., more concerned with the graphic arrangement of symbols, whereas ''abugida'' was "functional," putting the focus on sound–symbol correspondence. However, this is not a distinction made in the literature.</ref><ref name=Bright/>

The formal definitions given by Daniels and Bright for abugida and alphasyllabary differ; some writing systems are abugidas but not alphasyllabaries, and some are alphasyllabaries but not abugidas. An abugida is defined as "a type of writing system whose basic characters denote consonants followed by a particular vowel, and in which diacritics denote other vowels".<ref name=WWS_glossary/> (This 'particular vowel' is referred to as the ''inherent'' or ''implicit'' vowel, as opposed to the ''explicit'' vowels marked by the 'diacritics'.)<ref name=WWS_glossary/>

An alphasyllabary is defined as "a type of writing system in which the 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".<ref name=WWS_glossary/> Bright did not require that an alphabet explicitly represent all vowels.<ref name=Bright/> [[ʼPhags-pa script|ʼPhags-pa]] is an example of an abugida because it has an [[inherent vowel]], but it is not an alphasyllabary because its vowels are written in linear order. Modern [[Lao alphabet|Lao]] is an example of an alphasyllabary that is not an abugida, for there is no inherent vowel and its vowels are always written explicitly and not in accordance to their temporal order in speech, meaning that a vowel can be written before, below or above a consonant letter, while the syllable is still pronounced in the order of a consonant-vowel combination (CV).