Editing Abugida (section)

== Borderline cases ==

===Vowelled abjads===
Abjads are typically written without indication of many vowels. However, in some contexts like teaching materials or [[scripture]]s, [[Arabic]] and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] are written with full indication of vowels via diacritic marks (''[[harakat]]'', ''[[niqqud]]'') making them effectively alphasyllabaries.

<!-- Not best place to mention Thaana since not an abjad
[[Thaana]] is similar, with all vowels marked with diacritics, and no inherent vowel. However, the absence of a vowel is also marked with a diacritic, as in many Indic abugidas. Thaana developed among a population that was already literate in an Indic abugida.
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The Arabic scripts used for [[Sorani Kurdish|Kurdish]] in Iraq and for [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]] in [[Xinjiang]], China, as well as the Hebrew script of [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]], are fully vowelled, but because the vowels are written with full letters rather than diacritics (with the exception of distinguishing between /a/ and /o/ in the latter) and there are no inherent vowels, these are considered alphabets, not abugidas.

The Arabic script used for [[Azerbaijani Alphabet#Azerbaijani Arabic Alphabet|South Azerbaijani]] generally writes the vowel /æ/ (written as ə in North Azerbaijani) as a diacritic, but writes all other vowels as full letters (similarly to Kurdish and Uyghur). This means that when no vowel diacritics are present (most of the time), it technically has an inherent vowel. However, like the Phagspa and Meroitic scripts whose status as abugidas is controversial (see below), all other vowels are written in-line. Additionally, the practice of explicitly writing all-but-one vowel does not apply to loanwords from Arabic and Persian, so the script does not have an inherent vowel for Arabic and Persian words. The inconsistency of its vowel notation makes it difficult to categorize.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.azeri.org/Azeri/az_arabic/azturk_standard.pdf|website=azeri.org|title=Standard Azeri|access-date=7 May 2023}}</ref>

===Phagspa===
The imperial Mongol script called [['Phags-pa script|Phagspa]] was derived from the Tibetan abugida, but all vowels are written in-line rather than as diacritics. However, it retains the features of having an inherent vowel /a/ and having distinct initial vowel letters.

===Pahawh===
[[Pahawh Hmong]] is a non-segmental script that indicates [[syllable onset]]s and [[syllable rime|rime]]s, such as consonant clusters and vowels with final consonants. Thus it is not segmental and cannot be considered an abugida. However, it superficially resembles an abugida with the roles of consonant and vowel reversed. Most syllables are written with two letters in the order rime–onset (typically vowel-consonant), even though they are pronounced as onset-rime (consonant-vowel), rather like the position of the {{IPA|/i/}} vowel in Devanagari, which is written before the consonant. Pahawh is also unusual in that, while an inherent rime {{IPA|/āu/}} (with mid tone) is unwritten, it also has an inherent onset {{IPA|/k/}}. For the syllable {{IPA|/kau/}}, which requires one or the other of the inherent sounds to be overt, it is {{IPA|/au/}} that is written. Thus it is the rime (vowel) that is basic to the system.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}

===Meroitic===
Drawing a dividing line between abugidas and other [[segment (linguistics)|segmental]] scripts can be difficult. For example, the [[Meroitic script]] of ancient [[Sudan]] did not indicate an inherent ''a'' (one symbol stood for both ''m'' and ''ma,'' for example), and is thus similar to Brahmic family of abugidas. However, the other vowels were indicated with full letters, not diacritics or modification, so the system was essentially an alphabet that did not bother to write the most common vowel.

===Shorthand===
Several systems of [[shorthand]] use diacritics for vowels, but they do not have an inherent vowel, and are thus more similar to [[Thaana]] and [[Kurdish alphabet|Kurdish script]] than to the Brahmic scripts. The [[Gabelsberger shorthand]] system and its derivatives modify the ''following'' consonant to represent vowels. The [[Pollard script]], which was based on shorthand, also uses diacritics for vowels; the placements of the vowel relative to the consonant indicates [[tone (linguistics)|tone]]. [[Pitman shorthand]] uses straight strokes and quarter-circle marks in different orientations as the principal "alphabet" of consonants; vowels are shown as light and heavy dots, dashes and other marks in one of 3 possible positions to indicate the various vowel-sounds. However, to increase writing speed, Pitman has rules for "vowel indication"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pitmanshorthand.homestead.com|title=The Joy of Pitman Shorthand|website=pitmanshorthand.homestead.com}}</ref> using the positioning or choice of consonant signs so that writing vowel-marks can be dispensed with.