At 17:45 -0400 2004-08-05, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

> > Abugida. A writing system in which consonants are indicated by the
>> base letters which have an inherent vowel, and in which other vowels
>> are indicated by additional distinguishing marks of some kind
>> modifying the base letter. The Ethiopic script is an abugida, as are
>> the many scripts of South and Southeast Asia that are historically
>> derived from the ancient Brahmi script. The term "abugida" is derived
>> from the first four letters of the traditional order of the Ethiopic
>> script (ALF, BET, GAML, DANT).
>
>It's the _non_-traditional order (trad. is h l h. m), viz. the
>liturgical order known from Ps 119. The order of vowels is the
>traditional order of the vowels in the first four columns of the chart.

"Of the Semitic order"? Saying "of the
non-traditional order" seems awkward. I guess the
vowels are ä u i a, but the end of your second
sentence here could be appended to the
defninition.
--
Michael Everson * * Everson Typography * * http://www.evertype.com