Michael Everson wrote:

>
> 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.

The abjad order is ancestral to the Arabic order (which simply puts all
the same-shape letters together in the position of the first one that
turns up) and is still used in the numerical use of the letters.

But there was a different South Semitic order as early as texts are
attested -- it's now turned up at Ugarit in a halhamary.

I don't suggest you say it's the nontraditional order; I simply suggest
you don't say it's the traditional order.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...