Editing Syllabary (section)

==Languages using syllabaries==
[[Image:Katakana origin new.svg|thumb|Syllabaries often begin as simplified logograms, as shown here with the Japanese [[katakana]] writing system. To the left is the modern letter, with its original [[Chinese characters|Chinese character]] form on the right.]]
[[File:Cherokee stop sign.png|thumb|right|150px|[[Multilingualism|Multilingual]] stop sign employing the [[Latin alphabet]] and the [[Cherokee syllabary]] in [[Tahlequah, Oklahoma]]]]
Languages that use syllabic writing include [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Cherokee language|Cherokee]], [[Vai language|Vai]], the [[Yi people#Language|Yi languages]] of eastern Asia, the English-based [[creole language]] [[Ndyuka language|Ndyuka]], [[Xiangnan Tuhua]], and the ancient language [[Mycenaean Greek]] ([[Linear B]]). The [[Minoan civilization|Cretan]] [[Linear A]] and its derivative [[Cypro-Minoan]] are also believed by some to be syllabic scripts, although as they remain undecoded, this has not been confirmed.
 
[[Chinese characters]], the [[cuneiform script]] used for [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]], [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] and other languages, and the former [[Maya script]] are largely syllabic in nature, although based on [[logogram]]s. They are therefore sometimes referred to as ''logosyllabic''.

The contemporary Japanese language uses two syllabaries together called [[kana]] (in addition to the non-syllabic systems [[kanji]] and [[romaji]]), namely [[hiragana]] and [[katakana]], which were developed around 700. Because Japanese uses mainly CV (consonant + vowel) syllables, a syllabary is well suited to write the language. As in many syllabaries, vowel sequences and final consonants are written with separate glyphs, so that both ''atta'' and ''kaita'' are written with three kana: あった (''a-t-ta'') and かいた (''ka-i-ta''). It is therefore more correctly called a ''[[mora (linguistics)|moraic]]'' writing system, with syllables consisting of two moras corresponding to two kana symbols.

Languages that use syllabaries today tend to have simple [[phonotactics]], with a predominance of monomoraic (CV) syllables. For example, the modern [[Yi script]] is used to write languages that have no diphthongs or syllable codas; unusually among syllabaries, there is a separate glyph for every consonant-vowel-tone combination (CVT) in the language (apart from one tone which is indicated with a diacritic).

Few syllabaries have glyphs for syllables that are not monomoraic, and those that once did have simplified over time to eliminate that complexity. 
For example, the Vai syllabary originally had separate glyphs for syllables ending in a coda ''(doŋ),'' a long vowel ''(soo),'' or a diphthong ''(bai),'' though not enough glyphs to distinguish all CV combinations (some distinctions were ignored). The modern script has been expanded to cover all moras, but at the same time reduced to exclude all other syllables. Bimoraic syllables are now written with two letters, as in Japanese: diphthongs are written with the help of V or ''h''V glyphs, and the nasal codas will be written with the glyph for ''ŋ'', which can form a syllable of its own in Vai.

In [[Linear B]], which was used to transcribe [[Mycenaean Greek]], a language with complex syllables, complex consonant onsets were either written with two glyphs or simplified to one, while codas were generally ignored, e.g., ''ko-no-so'' for {{lang|grc|Κνωσός}} ''[[Knossos|Knōsos]]'', ''pe-ma'' for {{lang|grc|σπέρμα}} ''sperma.''

The Cherokee syllabary generally uses dummy vowels for coda consonants, but also has a segmental grapheme for /s/, which can be used both as a coda and in an initial /sC/ consonant cluster.