At 10:01 -0700 2006-07-23, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

>Trying to carry on a conversation at one-week intervals just doesn't
>work. Seshat?
>
>
>The one I got when I googled "unicode consortium" and glossary.

I assume this is http://www.unicode.org/glossary/ which is the
Unicode 4.0 glossary. Unicode 5.0 glossary contains the following
definitions.

Abjad. A writing system in which only consonants are indicated. The
term "abjad" is derived from the first four letters of the
traditional order of the Arabic script: alef, beh, jeem, dal. (See
Section 6.1, Writing Systems.)

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 term "abugida" is derived from the
first four letters of the letters of the Ethiopic script in the
Semitic order: alf, bet, gaml, dant. (See Section 6.1, Writing
Systems.)

Alphabet. A writing system in which both both consonants and vowels
are indicated. The term "alphabet" is derived from the first two
letters of the Greek script: alpha, beta. (See Section 6.1, Writing
Systems.)
--
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com