Semi-syllabary
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A semi-syllabary is a kind of writing system that partly behaved as an alphabet, and partly as a syllabary.
Most writing systems can be broadly divided into three categories: logographic, in which each character represents a morpheme as in Chinese, syllabic, in which each character represents a syllable as in Japanese hiragana, and alphabetic, in which each character represents a phoneme. Alphabets are in turn classified according to how they indicate vowels. Full alphabets: if they indicate vowels as equal to consonants, as in Greek. Abugidas: If they indicate vowels as modifications of consonants, as in Hindi. Abjads: If they not indicate vowels at all, as in Arabic. However, all three main categories (logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic) may be found in any given writing system in varying proportions, often making it difficult to categorise a system uniquely. The term complex system is sometimes used to describe those where the admixture makes classification problematic.
The term semi-syllabary has been traditionally applied to abugidas, as in this writing systems each basic character represents a consonant accompanied by an inherent vowel and other vowels are indicated by modification of the consonant sign, either by means of diacritics or through a change in the form of the consonant.
But there are also a family of scripts developed in the Iberian Peninsula at least from the 5th century BCE — possibly from the 7th century: The Paleohispanic semi-syllabaries. Some researchers conclude that their origin lies solely with the Phoenician alphabet, while others believe the Greek alphabet also had a role. Paleohispanic semi-syllabaries are typologically unusual because in them the syllabic and the alphabetic components are equilibrated: They behaved as a syllabary for the stop consonants and as an alphabet for the rest of consonants and vowels. In the syllabic portions of the scripts, each stop-consonant sign stood for a different combination of consonant and vowel, so that the written form of ga displayed no resemblance to ge. In addition, the southern original format did not distinguish voicing in these stops, so that ga stood for both /ga/ and /ka/, but one variant of the northeastern Iberian script, the older one according the archaeological contexts, distinguished voicing in the stop consonants by adding a stroke to the glyphs for the alveolar (/d/~/t/) and velar (/g/~/k/) syllables. The Tartessian or Southwestern script had a special behaviour, although the letter used to write a stop consonant was determined by the following vowel, the following vowel was also written. Some scholars treat Tartessian as a redundant semi-syllabary, others treat it as a redundant alphabet.
- Tartessian or Southwestern script — Tartessian or Southwestern language
- Southeastern Iberian script — Iberian language
- Northeastern Iberian script — Iberian language
- Celtiberian script — Celtiberian language
[edit] Further reading
- Correa, José Antonio (2005): «Del alfabeto fenicio al semisilabario paleohispánico», Palaeohispanica 5, pp.137-154.
- Ferrer i Jané, Joan (2005): «Novetats sobre el sistema dual de diferenciació gràfica de les oclusives sordes i sonores», Palaeohispanica 5, pp. 957-982.
- Rodríguez Ramos, Jesús (2000): «La lectura de las inscripciones sudlusitano-tartesias», Faventia 22/1, pp. 21-48.
