Peter T. Daniels
Encyclopedia
Peter T. Daniels is a scholar of writing system
s, specializing in typology. He was co-editor (with William Bright
) of the book The World's Writing Systems
(1996), and he introduced the terms abjad
(an "alphabet" with no vowel letters) and abugida
(a system partly alphabet
ic, partly syllabic
) as modern linguistic terms for categories of scripts. (These terms had been used previously in a more restricted sense by specialists in the fields of the Arabic alphabet
and Ge'ez script, from which languages they were borrowed respectively.)
Writing system
A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...
s, specializing in typology. He was co-editor (with William Bright
William Bright
William Bright was an American linguist who specialized in Native American and South Asian languages and descriptive linguistics....
) of the book The World's Writing Systems
The World's Writing Systems
The World's Writing Systems is a reference book about the world's writing systems. The book is edited by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright and was first published by Oxford University Press in 1996....
(1996), and he introduced the terms abjad
Abjad
An abjad is a type of writing system in which each symbol always or usually stands for a consonant; the reader must supply the appropriate vowel....
(an "alphabet" with no vowel letters) and abugida
Abugida
An abugida , also called an alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is obligatory but secondary...
(a system partly alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
ic, partly syllabic
Syllabary
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. In a syllabary, there is no systematic similarity between the symbols which represent syllables with the same consonant or vowel...
) as modern linguistic terms for categories of scripts. (These terms had been used previously in a more restricted sense by specialists in the fields of the Arabic alphabet
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
and Ge'ez script, from which languages they were borrowed respectively.)