Editing Writing (section)

=== 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, letters would correspond one-to-one with 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. In practice, the degree to which letters correspond with phonemes varies greatly between languages and the [[orthographies]] used when writing them.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

==== Abjads ====
Alphabets that generally only have letters for consonants are called ''[[abjad]]s'' or ''consonantaries''; though optional, abjads may also use diacritical marks to specify which vowels follow each consonant. The earliest alphabets were abjads, influenced by symbols representing specific consonants that originated in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Most abjads are likewise native to the Middle East, reflecting the relatively limited variation of vowels in the [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] of the [[Semitic languages]] spoken in the region.{{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}}