Defective script
Encyclopedia
A defective alphabet is an alphabet
that does not represent all the phonemic
distinctions of a language. It is different from an irregular script, such as the English alphabet
, which can distinguish all the phonemes of the language even if in practice it does not always do so.
For example, Italian
has seven vowel
s, but the Italian alphabet
has only five vowel letter
s to represent them; in general, the differences between /e, ɛ/ and /o, ɔ/ are simply ignored. Among the consonant
s, both /s/ and /z/ are written, though not many words are distinguished by the latter. Stress
is not reliably distinguished.
Such imperfections are nothing new. The Greek alphabet
has been defective for its entire history. Classical Greek had distinctive vowel length: five short vowels, /i e a o u/, and seven long vowels, /iː eː ɛː aː ɔː oː uː/. When the Phoenician alphabet
was adapted to Greek, the names of five letters were pronounced with initial vowels by the Greeks and used acrophonically to represent vowels. These were alpha
, e (later called e psilon), iota, o (later called o micron, and u (later called u psilon): five letters for twelve vowel sounds. Later the [h] dropped from the Eastern Greek dialects, and the letter heta (now pronounced eta
) became available; it was used for /ɛː/. About the same time the Greeks created an additional letter, omega, probably by writing omicron with an underline, that was used for /ɔː/. Digraph
s ei and ou were devised for /eː/ and /oː/. Thus Greek entered its classical era with seven letters and two digraphs for twelve vowel sounds. Long /iː aː uː/ were never distinguished from short /i a u/, even though the distinction was meaningful. Although the Greek alphabet was a good match to the consonants of the language, it was defective when it came to the vowels.
A famously defective alphabet is the Arabic
one. The modern script does not normally write short vowels, but for the first few centuries of the Islam
ic era, many consonant letters were ambiguous as well. The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic, and not only did the Aramaic language
have fewer phoneme
s than Arabic, but several originally distinct Aramaic letters had conflated (become indistinguishable in shape), so that in the early Arabic writings 18 letters had to do duty for 28 consonant phonemes — and in the middle of words, only 15 were distinct. For example, medial <ﯩ> represented /b, t, θ, n, j/, and <ﺡ> represented /g, ħ, x/. A system of diacritic
marks, or pointing, was later developed to resolve the ambiguities, and over the centuries became nearly universal. However, even today unpointed texts of a style called mašq are found, where these consonants are not distinguished.
Without short vowels or geminate
consonants being written, modern Arabic نظر could represent /naðˤara/ 'he saw', /naðˤːara/ 'he compared', /nuðˤira/ 'he was seen', /nuðˤːira/ 'he was compared', /naðˤar/ 'a glance', or /niðˤr/ 'similar'. However, in practice there is little ambiguity, as the vowels are more easily predictable in Arabic than they are in a language like English. Moreover, the defective nature of the script has its benefits: the stable shape of the root words, despite grammatical inflection
, results in quicker word recognition and therefore faster reading speeds; and the lack of short vowels, the sounds which vary the most between Arabic dialects
, makes texts more widely accessible to a diverse audience.
However, in mašq and those styles of kufic
writing which lack consonant pointing, the ambiguities are more serious, for here different roots are written the same. ﯨطر could represent the root 'see' as above, but also 'protect', 'pride', 'clitoris' or 'with flint', as well as several inflections and derivations of each of these root words.
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...
that does not represent all the phonemic
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
distinctions of a language. It is different from an irregular script, such as the English alphabet
English alphabet
The modern English alphabet is a Latin alphabet consisting of 26 letters and 2 ligatures – the same letters that are found in the Basic modern Latin alphabet:...
, which can distinguish all the phonemes of the language even if in practice it does not always do so.
For example, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
has seven vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s, but the Italian alphabet
Italian alphabet
The Italian alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet used by the Italian language.-Vowels:The Italian alphabet has five vowel letters, ⟨a e i o u⟩. Of those, only ⟨a⟩ represents one sound value while each of the others has two...
has only five vowel letter
Letter (alphabet)
A letter is a grapheme in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Letters compose phonemes and each phoneme represents a phone in the spoken form of the language....
s to represent them; in general, the differences between /e, ɛ/ and /o, ɔ/ are simply ignored. Among the consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
s, both /s/ and /z/ are written
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
is not reliably distinguished.
Such imperfections are nothing new. The Greek alphabet
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
has been defective for its entire history. Classical Greek had distinctive vowel length: five short vowels, /i e a o u/, and seven long vowels, /iː eː ɛː aː ɔː oː uː/. When the Phoenician alphabet
Phoenician alphabet
The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, was a non-pictographic consonantal alphabet, or abjad. It was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia...
was adapted to Greek, the names of five letters were pronounced with initial vowels by the Greeks and used acrophonically to represent vowels. These were alpha
Alpha (letter)
Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 1. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Aleph...
, e (later called e psilon), iota, o (later called o micron, and u (later called u psilon): five letters for twelve vowel sounds. Later the [h] dropped from the Eastern Greek dialects, and the letter heta (now pronounced eta
Eta (letter)
Eta ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet. Originally denoting a consonant /h/, its sound value in the classical Attic dialect of Ancient Greek was a long vowel , raised to in medieval Greek, a process known as itacism.In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 8...
) became available; it was used for /ɛː/. About the same time the Greeks created an additional letter, omega, probably by writing omicron with an underline, that was used for /ɔː/. Digraph
Digraph (orthography)
A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
s ei and ou were devised for /eː/ and /oː/. Thus Greek entered its classical era with seven letters and two digraphs for twelve vowel sounds. Long /iː aː uː/ were never distinguished from short /i a u/, even though the distinction was meaningful. Although the Greek alphabet was a good match to the consonants of the language, it was defective when it came to the vowels.
A famously defective alphabet is the Arabic
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...
one. The modern script does not normally write short vowels, but for the first few centuries of the Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic era, many consonant letters were ambiguous as well. The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic, and not only did the Aramaic language
Aramaic language
Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
have fewer phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s than Arabic, but several originally distinct Aramaic letters had conflated (become indistinguishable in shape), so that in the early Arabic writings 18 letters had to do duty for 28 consonant phonemes — and in the middle of words, only 15 were distinct. For example, medial <ﯩ> represented /b, t, θ, n, j/, and <ﺡ> represented /g, ħ, x/. A system of diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
marks, or pointing, was later developed to resolve the ambiguities, and over the centuries became nearly universal. However, even today unpointed texts of a style called mašq are found, where these consonants are not distinguished.
Without short vowels or geminate
Gemination
In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is distinct from stress and may appear independently of it....
consonants being written, modern Arabic نظر could represent /naðˤara/ 'he saw', /naðˤːara/ 'he compared', /nuðˤira/ 'he was seen', /nuðˤːira/ 'he was compared', /naðˤar/ 'a glance', or /niðˤr/ 'similar'. However, in practice there is little ambiguity, as the vowels are more easily predictable in Arabic than they are in a language like English. Moreover, the defective nature of the script has its benefits: the stable shape of the root words, despite grammatical inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
, results in quicker word recognition and therefore faster reading speeds; and the lack of short vowels, the sounds which vary the most between Arabic dialects
Varieties of Arabic
The Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
, makes texts more widely accessible to a diverse audience.
However, in mašq and those styles of kufic
Kufic
Kufic is the oldest calligraphic form of the various Arabic scripts and consists of a modified form of the old Nabataean script. Its name is derived from the city of Kufa, Iraq, although it was known in Mesopotamia at least 100 years before the foundation of Kufa. At the time of the emergence of...
writing which lack consonant pointing, the ambiguities are more serious, for here different roots are written the same. ﯨطر could represent the root 'see' as above, but also 'protect', 'pride', 'clitoris' or 'with flint', as well as several inflections and derivations of each of these root words.