At 16:44 -0700 2001-10-11, Kenneth Whistler wrote:
> > 1. Hangul is a featural script, which is means a script where
> > the shapes of the basic symbols are organized by phonetic
> > principles.
>
>I disagree with this characterization of a featural system. It isn't
>that the "shapes of the basic symbols are organized by phonetic
>principles", but rather than aspects of some of the shapes of
>the symbols (not necessarily "basic symbols") are *correlated*
>with segmental distinctions made by the language(s) which are
>written with the script.
Shavian, Sweet's phonetic shorthand, and Cirth are featural alphabets.
Tengwar then is a featural abjad (though it can be used
alphabetically just as the Hebrew abjad is used alphabetically to
write Yiddish).
And Canadian Syllabics and Ethiopic are featural syllabaries.
>So the Korean writing system, as Jungshik suggested, is both
>an alphabet (at the lower level) and a featural syllabary (at
>the higher level).
I think rather that it is a featural alphabet (at the lower level)
and a syllabary (at the higher level) Because aspects of the shapes
of the symbols are correlated to segmental distinctions. I don't
think the typographic arrangement of the symbols relates to those
distinctions.
-- Michael Everson *** Everson Typography *** http://www.evertype.com 15 Port Chaeimhghein Íochtarach; Baile Átha Cliath 2; Éire/Ireland Telephone +353 86 807 9169 *** Fax +353 1 478 2597 (by arrangement)
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