Marco Cimarosti wrote:

>
> machhezan wrote:
> > Marco Cimarosti scripsit:
> > > > I am seeking for an example of an abjad which uses vowel
> > > > diacritics (optionally, of course) but does *not* use matres
> > > > lectionis.
> >
> > The Berber scripts?
>
> Do they use vowel marks? I though they were only consonantic.
>
> What do the vowel marks look like? Do you have any reference?
>
> > John Cowan wrote:
> > > Well, Tengwar had mandatory vowel points from the beginning, and
> > > later was used in a fully alphabetic way, but never went through a
> > > _mater lectionis_ stage, FWIW. The vowel point for /a/ is
> > > sometimes omitted, but it would be a stretch to call it an abugida.
> >
> > Inherent vowel and virama, what else makes an abugida?
>
> I thought that the main feature of an abugida was having mandatory vowel
> marks, possibly graphically merged with the bearing consonant letter.

The main feature of an abugida is having an inherent vowel, which is
changed by adding marks.

> As for the inherent vowel, couldn't it be considered as a "zero" vowel
> grapheme?

Please define "grapheme" in a coherent, script-independent way!

> Virama is certainly not a defining feature, IMHO, as even the Ethiopic
> script (after which the term "abugida" was coined) has no virama (although
> you don't match the "schwa" vowel series with a virama).

Eh?
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...