Editing Writing (section)

== Writing systems ==
{{Main|Writing system}}
Writing systems may be broadly classified according to what units of language are generally represented by its symbols:{{sfnp|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=56}}{{sfnp|Rogers|2005|pp=13–15}}
* ''Phonographies'' represent sounds of speech{{snd}}with [[alphabet]]s and [[syllabaries]] using symbols for [[phoneme]]s and [[syllable]]s respectively.
* ''[[Logographies]]'' represent a language's units of meaning ([[word]]s or [[morpheme]]s), though still associated by readers with their given pronunciations in the corresponding spoken language.
=== Logographies ===
[[File:Comparative evolution of Cuneiform, Egyptian and Chinese characters.svg|thumb|Comparative evolution from pictograms to abstract shapes, in Mesopotamian [[cuneiform]]s, [[Egyptian hieroglyph]]s and [[Chinese characters]]]]
A logography is written using [[logogram]]s{{snd}}written characters which represent individual [[word]]s or [[morpheme]]s.{{sfnp|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=56}} For example, in Mayan, the glyph for "fin", pronounced ''ka'', was also used to represent the syllable ''ka'' whenever the pronunciation of a logogram needed to be indicated. Many logograms have an [[ideographic]] component (Chinese "radicals", hieroglyphic "determiners"). In Chinese, about 90% of characters are compounds of a semantic (meaning) element called a ''radical'' with an existing character to indicate the pronunciation, called a ''phonetic''. However, such phonetic elements complement the logographic elements, rather than vice versa.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

The main logographic system in use today is [[Chinese characters]], used with some modification for the various languages or dialects of [[languages of China|China]], [[languages of Japan|Japan]], and sometimes in [[Korean language|Korean]], although in [[South Korea|South]] and [[North Korea]], the phonetic [[hangul]] system is mainly used. Other logographic systems include [[cuneiform]] and [[Maya script|Maya]].{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

=== Syllabaries ===
A [[syllabary]] is a set of written symbols that represent [[syllable]]s,{{sfnp|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=56}} typically a consonant followed by a vowel, or just a vowel alone. In some scripts more complex syllables (e.g. consonant-vowel-consonant, or consonant-consonant-vowel) may have dedicated glyphs. Phonetically similar syllables are not written similarly.{{sfnp|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=56}} For instance, the syllable ''ka'' may look nothing like the syllable ''ki'', nor will syllables with the same vowels be similar.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

Syllabaries are best suited to languages with a relatively simple syllable structure, such as Japanese. Other languages that use syllabic writing include [[Mycenaean Greek]] ([[Linear B]]), [[Cherokee syllabary|Cherokee]],{{sfnp|Cushman|2011|pp=255–281}} the [[Ndyuka language|Ndjuka]] creole language of [[Suriname]], and the [[Vai language]] of [[Liberia]].

=== Alphabets ===
{{See also|History of the alphabet}}
An [[alphabet]] is a set of written symbols that represent [[consonant]]s and [[vowel]]s.{{sfnp|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=56}} In a perfectly [[phonological]] alphabet, the letters would correspond perfectly to the language's [[phoneme]]s. Thus, a writer could predict the spelling of a word given its pronunciation, and a speaker could predict the pronunciation of a word given its spelling. However, as languages often evolve independently of their writing systems, and writing systems have been borrowed for languages they were not designed for, the degree to which letters of an alphabet correspond to phonemes of a language varies greatly from one language to another and even within a single language.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

==== Abjads ====
In most of the alphabets of the Middle East, it is usually only the consonants of a word that are written, although vowels may be indicated by the addition of various diacritical marks. Writing systems based primarily on writing just consonants phonemes date back to the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. Such systems are called ''[[abjad]]s'' or ''consonantaries''.{{sfnp|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=56}}

==== Abugidas ====
In most of the alphabets of India and [[Southeast Asia]], vowels are indicated through diacritics or modification of the shape of the consonant. These are called ''[[abugida]]s''.{{sfnp|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=56}} Some abugidas, such as [[Geʽez script|Geʽez]] and the [[Canadian Aboriginal syllabics]], are learned by children as syllabaries, and so are often called "syllabics". However, unlike true syllabaries, there is not an independent glyph for each syllable.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}