..... http://victorian.fortunecity.com/vangogh/555/Spell/writing-sys1.htm

www.phonicia.com		 An alphabet is one of several types of writing systems.  Phonographic systems include syllabaries which can be simpler to learn than alphabets.

This page is a work in progress.  At the present time it consists of bits and pieces of other pages and explanations from the saundspel egroup.

Alphabets &
Writing Systems CourseMatl's
... Instruction . . . 

Semi-Alphabets

> Please, what differentiates "semi-alphabets ... Indic-style" (with which I
> have no experience) from syllabic or other systems?  --Kate Gladstone

David Kelley Responds

Pure alphabets line consonant and vowel letters up on a given line of text, giving consonant and vowel signs pretty much equal space and prominence.  Semi-alphabets, as in Devanagari, the script in which Hindi appears (and countless other such scripts in the area I described before), gives preferential treatment to consonants.  By this I mean that many consonant signs are lined up on a line of text, and then vowel
"appendages" are added to those signs to denote the various vowels.  An unappended consonant sign has an intrinsic vowel value (usually "a").  To repress this intrinsic vowel value, a special sign is appended with makes the whole sign strictly consonantal.  Of course, for words beginning with vowel sounds, there is a complete set of different vowel signs, on a par with the consonant signs.  In the Tibetan semi-alphabet,
it is interesting to note that unlike the Devanagari script, there is only ONE independent vowel sign, and to that sign the SAME appended vowel marks may be added as are added to the consonant signs.  A very economical system, indeed.

The two Japanese syllabaries (i.e. Hiragana and Katakana), composed of 47+ signs, are actually derived from an ancient kind of Indian semi-alphabet ordering.  The signs themselves are abbreviated Chinese characters (logographs), but the order, in any Japanese dictionary, is right out of India.  The Indians attached an intrinsic value of "a" to all their consonant signs, as mentioned above, and ordered those signs in that basic form.  But in any such ordering, the vowel signs (used at the beginnings of words, primarily) came first, and so in typical (and traditional) Indian order, the 51 vowel and consonant signs would be arranged as follows:

(1-10)   A, A:, I, I:, U, U:, E, AI, O, AU
(11-16) AM., AH., R., R.:, L., L.:
(17-21)  KA, KHA, GA, GHA, NGA
(22-26)  CYA, CYHA, JYA, JYHA, NYA
(27-31)  T.A, T.HA, D.A, D.HA, N.A (all retroflexed)
(32-36)  TA, THA, DA, DHA, NA
(37-41)  PA, PHA, BA, BHA, MA
(42-45)  YA, RA, LA, VA
(46-49)  SHA, S.A, SA, HA
(50-51)  LLAM., KS.A

Of course, any of the consonant signs could be appended with various
vowel "tabs", making for many more possible sounds.  The above listing
is just the very basic dictionary order.  At any rate, the Japanese
liked the idea of a table of 50 Sounds (called GO-JYU-ON in Japanese)
and proceeded to borrow the basic system.  Problem was that Japanese has
far fewer sounds than Sanskrit (or practically any other language), so
something had to give.  The Japanese solution can be seen in the
following typical Japanese ordering:

(1-5)      A, I, U, E, O
(6-10)    KA, KI, KU, KE, KO
(11-15)  TSA, SI, TSU, SE, TSO (later > to SA, SHI, SU, SE, SO)
(16-20)  TA, TI, TU, TE, TO (later > to TA, CHI, TSU, TE, TO)
(21-25)  NA, NI, NU, NE, NO
(26-30)  PA, PI, PU, PE, PO (later > to HA, HI, HU, HE, HO)
(31-35)  MA, MI, MU, ME, MO
(36-38)  YA, YU, YO 
(39-43)  RA, RI, RU, RE, RO
(44-47)  WA, WI, WE, WO (later > to WA, YI, YE, WO,
              and then WA, I, U, (W)O

So the Japanese (47-sign) syllabary order, though modified considerably
to account for the paucity of sounds in Japanese, is nevertheless a
pretty accurate reflection of an Indian (51-sign) semi-alphabetic
model. 


More on Writing Syllabaries and Writing Systems
link to Valerie Yule's Writing System page 1 or 10
http://victorian.fortunecity.com/vangogh/555/Spell/writing-sys-vy.htm
English syllabary

Greenland Inukititut Syllabary

Like Mayan, Inuktitut has some sounds not available in European-based languages. Pronunciation of vowels in Inuktitut is very similar to Mayan: "A" sounds like the a in father, "I" sounds like the ee in see, and "U" sounds like the oo in moon. 

How does it work? Let's try the old write-my-name method. Because we have consonants as well as syllables, "Nancy" broken down is approximately "NA + N +SI". Looking at the chart below, we can write it out as . You might notice that all the consonants are represented as the syllables that end in A, only smaller. Two vowels in a together are also pronounced in a Mayan manner - both are spoken. If this involves the same vowel twice, a dot is put over the symbol. For instance, the word "Yes" is "II" which is written . 
Let's try a phrase: "It's cold" is "IKKIIRNAQTUQ", which can be broken down to "I+K+KII+R+NA+Q+TU+Q". In written form, it's.

 Here's a summary of Inuktitut symbols: http://www.nisto.com/cree/pic/

The Cree Syllabary
The syllabary is reporoduced in several books, but some mix up the orientation.  Perhaps a dyslexic editor.
[download GIF of Cree Syllabics table]
The cree font (TT)Cree Font 
Instructions on downloading http://www.microsoft.com/truetype/ttfinst/ttfinst.htm



Links According to the ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, the Phoenicians introduced their alphabet to Greece. Cadmus the Phoenician is attributed with the credit for this introduction. Further, Phoenician trade was the vessel which speeded the spread of this alphabet along side Phoenician trade which went to the far corners of the Mediterranean. Phoenician alphabet is the ancestor of the Greek alphabet and, hence, of all Western alphabets. The earliest Phoenician inscription that has survived is the Ahiram epitaph at Byblos in Phoenicia, dating from the 11th century BC and written in the North Semitic alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet gradually developed from this North Semitic prototype and was in use until about the 1st century BC in Phoenicia proper. Phoenician colonial scripts, variants of the mainland Phoenician alphabet, are classified as Cypro-Phoenician (10th-2nd century BC) and Sardinian (c. 9th century BC) varieties. A third variety of the colonial Phoenician script evolved into the Punic and neo-Punic alphabets of Carthage,  which continued to be written until about the 3rd century AD. Punic was a monumental script and neo-Punic a cursive form. Following is the account from Herodotus on the origins of the Greek Alphabet in words of Herodotus. source:Phoenicia.org

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Linguistics Courses
Resources

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Syntax
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Phonetics
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Sociolinguistics
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Writing Systems full text on-line  

What's the Difference between Speech and Writing?
by William Bright (U Colorado). Find out why many more linguists study speech than writing. 
Rabbit In The Moon: Mayan Glyphs And Architecture
Mayan hieroglyphic writing, how to write your name in Mayan, virtual reality Mayan buildings, Maya calendar, Mayan glyph images, and more... 
Georgetown: Writing Systems Resources
Links to sites on writing systems, some of which also appear here. 
Ancient Scripts of the World
        Links

Oregon U: Writing Systems of the World U.Oregon

Writing Systems of the World

Rosetta Stone & Hieroglyphics  

alphabets


Suggested Readings

Coulmas, Florian. 1996. The Blackwell encyclopedia of writing systems. Oxford: Blackwell.

Coulmas, Florian. 1989. The writings systems of the world. Oxford: Blackwell.

Daniels, Peter T., and William Bright (eds.). 1996. The world's writing systems. New York: Oxford University Press.

Sampson, Geoffrey. 1985. Writing systems. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Bett, Steve and Kelley, David. Alphabets, Codes, and Writing Systems.  What would English look like if it was written in Japanese, Korean-Hangul, Chinese, Hieroglyphics, etc.  The writing system is not the language: Speech is not writing.  [in preparation]

Phonology
How to pronounce "ghoti"... and why
R. Beard on phonology 
Online phonology course
From Stirling University in U.K. Learn about phonology and RP (Received Pronunciation, i.e., "Queen's English"). 
Canadian raising and other oddities
Wanna learn why the diphthongs in "knife" and "loud" sound the way they do in Canadian English? Eh? 
UC Berkeley Phonology Lab

"The lab is focused on research and instruction pertaining to acoustic phonetics, phonology, speech sciences and technology." Description from site.
Vowel Chart

Glossary
Italian glossary

Why learn RP [British Received Pronunciation]

Voiced and voiceless consonants   [table]

elision
 

Did you ever wonder why we spell some words in English in ways which bear no resemblance to the way they are pronounced, for example: 
(1) laugh   sigh   sight
enough   nigh   night
rough   thigh   height
tough   high   right
cough   sleigh   light

Gh referred to /x/ the throat clearning sound in loch and lachen
Remember Bernard Shaw's word ghoti with the gh from laugh, the o from women and the ti from nation and pronounced 'fish'? Would you believe after that, that the distribution of the two pronunciations of gh in English is amazingly regular? See if you can figure out the rule. The gh was originally pronounced like the ch in Scottish loch 'lake' or German lachen 'laugh' (like you're clearing your throat). 

In phonetic script, the symbolic alphabet for accurately representing sounds rather than letters, the sound is symbolized as [x] (where the brackets indicate that we are using phonetic script, not the regular alphabet). The preceding u represented lip-rounding (watch yourself pronounce the sound [u] in the mirror--what happens to your lips) which was pronounced simultaneously with gh. When the gh disappeared because it is so softly pronounced, lip-rounding changed to lip-biting (check where your teeth are when you pronounce [v] or [f]. So gh ended up pronounced [f] because of the disappearance of a softly pronounced consonant and a shift of lip activity. 

However, gh did not develop into [f] everywhere. To detect the word position in which it did, compare the following examples with those in (1) above. If you still aren't sure of the answer, click here. 
 

(2) bought   sought   caught   daughter
  fought   ought   taught   slaughter

In fact, the original sound [x] represented by gh in English is the same as the [x] sound in Germanic languages from which English and other Germanic languages (German, Dutch, Flemish, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian) historically developed. Take a look at the following words from German, where the sound is usually represented by ch. The sound goes back to an even older stage when it was pronounced k. To see this, compare the Germanic words in English with related words borrowed from Latin. The stems in the Latin words were originally the same stems in Indo-European as those in the Germanic words. 

(3) ENGLISH GERMAN LATIN
  eight acht octopus [oktopus]
  fight fechten infect [infekt]
  right Recht rectify [rektify]
  high hoch  

By the way, the change of k to German ch followed the same Grimm's Law that gave us Germanic f from Indo-European p and th from t. 

English Learning Resources:  http://www.call.gov/resource/language/englr000.htm

Double guldiner of Emperor Maximilian I (1493-1519), bought with the aid of the NACF
Today in Old English

     Anno mm. Todæg is se xxiii dæg þæs monþes þe mon nemneð Septembris, þæt is on ure geþeode haligmonað. Hit is sæternesdæg. Nu is seo tid & ii pricon. 

     2000. Today is the 23rd day of the month that is called Septembris, that is in our tongue September. It is Saturday. It is now the 0th hour [after midnight] and 2 points. 
<update>

Historical Linguistics hwat's disAngelcynn Logo

Exercises

Michael Barlow's historical linguistics exercises
Hypercard stacks you can download for practice with Indo-European roots, Grimms Law, and comparative reconstruction.

Links 

What has a hippo in common with a feather?
R. Beard on historical linguistics 
Language Variation and Change
by Sarah Thomason (U Pittsburgh). Language families, language variation, types of language change. 
HEL Website
Devoted to the history of the English language 
Take Our Word for It
"The purpose of this site is to introduce you to some basic ideas behind 

etymology... and to pique your curiosity to learn more about the origin of the English language." Description from site.
Edo Nyland's Home Page
Introduction to linguistic archaeology. 
Old English Pages
Info on Old English, the language of Beowulf (from Georgetown University). 
Labyrinth Library: Middle English
Links to info on Middle English, the language of Chaucer. 
Buber's Basque Page

One of the most well-known language isolates.
 

Getting Started
Sources of Fonts

These are other font pages found on the WWW. 
Some are free, but many require payment. Read the instructions and FAQs.  The free fonts from Microsoft such as the one used here [Georgia Reference] are listed near the top. 

Visual tutorial on how to install fonts on your computer.  Basically download the font file [they are usually very small] and then move to the FONT folder.