Perception of an Alphasyllabary (was: Punctuation)

--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@...> wrote:

> Richard Wordingham wrote:
>
> > This may be a stupid question, but do the inflectional patterns of a
> > language affect the native speaker's ability to see an

alphasyllabary

> > as an abugida? In a Semitic language like Amharic the inflected

forms

> > should reveal the composition of the syllable symbols.

Unfortunately,

> > I know little of Tamil morphology and less of Vai.
>
> What contrast are you trying to make between alphasyllabary and

abugida?

Whether the symbols for open syllables are seen as atomic or as
consonant sign plus vowel/silence sign. Not everyone will have the
same perception.

Richard.