Abugida definition

Adapted by Peter T. Daniels from አቡጊዳ (a-bu-gi-da), the name of its own script, based on the Greek alphabet order (Α, Β, Γ, Δ).

A writing system, similar to a syllabary, in which each symbol represents a consonant with a particular vowel. Some languages that use abugidas are Amharic, Hindi, Burmese, Cree and Ojibwe (Canadian Aboriginal syllabics). Abugidas differ from syllabaries (such as the Japanese hiragana) in that the vowel is changed by modifying the base consonant symbol, so that all the forms that represent a given consonant plus each vowel resemble one other.