syllabary

/'siləbəri/

Thân thiện

A student studies a Japanese syllabary chart on the classroom wall.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • A writing system whose characters represent syllables: A syllabary is a set of written symbols, each of which represents a syllable (a unit of sound consisting of a vowel alone or a vowel with one or more consonants). It is a type of writing system distinct from alphabets (where symbols represent individual sounds) and logographies (where symbols represent words or morphemes).

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The Japanese kana scripts, Hiragana and Katakana, are classic examples of a syllabary.
  • Some ancient writing systems, like Linear B, used a syllabary to record their language.

Advanced Usage

• Comparative linguistics: The term is used to classify and compare different writing systems.
  • Linguists debate whether the Cherokee writing system is a true syllabary or a syllabic alphabet.
• Historical context: Refers to the inventory of syllabic characters used by a particular culture.
  • The decipherment of the Cypriot syllabary was a major breakthrough in understanding ancient scripts.

Variants and Related Words

• Syllabic (adj): Relating to or based on syllables.
  • The language has a simple syllabic structure.
• Syllabogram (n): An individual character in a syllabary.
  • Each syllabogram in the system corresponds to a CV (consonant-vowel) syllable.

Synonyms

• Syllabic script: A writing system based on syllables.
• Syllabography: The use or study of syllabic writing systems.

Related Phrases

(Note: "Syllabary" is a technical noun and does not form standard phrasal verbs or idioms in common usage.)

Học thuật

Noun

1. a writing system whose characters represent syllables

Từ đồng nghĩa

• syllabic script