Defective script: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Writing system which does not represent all sounds of a language}}

A '''defective script''' is a [[writing system]] that does not represent all the [[phoneme|phonemic]] distinctions of a language.<ref name="Sampson">{{cite book|last=Sampson|first=Geoffrey|year=1985|title=Writing Systems|url=https://archive.org/details/writingsystems00geof|url-access=registration|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-1756-4}}</ref>{{rp|36-38}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Coulmas|first=Florian|year=1996|title=The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems|publisher=Blackwell|isbn=978-0-631-21481-6}}</ref>{{rp|118}} This means that the concept is always relative to a given language. Taking the [[Latin alphabet]] used in [[Italian orthography]] as an example, the [[Italian language]] has seven [[vowel]]s, but the alphabet has only five vowel [[letter (alphabet)|letter]]s to represent them; in general, the difference between the phonemes [[Vowel#height|close]] {{IPA|/e, o/}} and [[Vowel#height|open]] {{IPA|/ɛ, ɔ/}} is simply ignored, though stress marks, if used, may distinguish them. Among the Italian [[consonant]]s, both {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/z/}} are written {{angbr|{{lang|it|s}}}}, and both {{IPA|/t͡s/}} and {{IPA|/d͡z/}} are written {{angbr|{{lang|it|z}}}}; [[Stress (linguistics)|stress]] and [[hiatus (linguistics)|hiatus]] are also not reliably distinguished.<ref>{{cite book|last=Danesi|first=Marcel|year=1996|title=Italian the Easy way|publisher=Barron's Educational Series|url=https://archive.org/details/italianeasyway00dane_0|url-access=registration|isbn=9780812091465}}</ref>

AIn [[graphemics]], a '''defective script''' is a [[writing system]] that does not represent all the [[phoneme|phonemic]] distinctions of a language.<ref name="Sampson">{{cite book|last=Sampson|first=Geoffrey|year=1985|title=Writing Systems|url=https://archive.org/details/writingsystems00geof|url-access=registration|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-1756-4}}</ref>{{rp|36-3836–38}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Coulmas|first=Florian|year=1996|title=The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems|publisher=Blackwell|isbn=978-0-631-21481-6}}</ref>{{rp|118}} This means that the concept is always relative to a given language. Taking the [[Latin alphabet]] used in [[Italian orthography]] as an example, the [[Italian language]] has seven [[vowel]]s, but the alphabet has only five vowel [[letter (alphabet)|letter]]s to represent them; in general, the difference between the phonemes [[Vowel#heightHeight|close]] {{IPA|/e, o/}} and [[Vowel#heightHeight|open]] {{IPA|/ɛ, ɔ/}} is simply ignored, though stress marks, if used, may distinguish them. Among the Italian [[consonant]]s, both {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/z/}} are written {{angbr|{{lang|it|s}}}}, and both {{IPA|/t͡s/}} and {{IPA|/d͡z/}} are written {{angbr|{{lang|it|z}}}}; [[Stress (linguistics)|stress]] and [[hiatus (linguistics)|hiatus]] are also not reliably distinguished.<ref>{{cite book|last=Danesi|first=Marcel|year=1996|title=Italian the Easy way|publisher=Barron's Educational Series|url=https://archive.org/details/italianeasyway00dane_0|url-access=registration|isbn=9780812091465}}</ref>

==Ancient examples of defective script==

Such shortcomings are not uncommon. The [[Greek alphabet]] was defective during its early history. [[Ancient Greek language|Ancient Greek]] had distinctive [[vowel length]]: five short vowels, {{IPA|/i e a o u/}}, and seven long vowels, {{IPA|/iː eː ɛː aː ɔː oː uː/}}. When the [[Phoenician alphabet]] was adapted to Greek, the names of five letters were pronounced by the Greeks with initial consonants made silent, and were then used [[acrophony|acrophonically]] to represent vowels. These were ''[[alpha (letter)|alpha]]'', ''e'' (later called ''[[epsilon|e psilon]]''), ''[[iota (letter)|iota]]'', ''o'' (later called ''[[omicron (letter)|o micron]]''), and ''u'' (later called ''[[upsilon (letter)|u psilon]]'') &ndash; <{{lang|grc|α, ε, ι, ο, υ}}> &ndash; five letters for twelve vowel sounds. (The lost initial consonants were {{IPA|/ʔ, h, j, ʕ, w/}}.) Later the [h] (from {{IPA|/ħ/}}) dropped out from the Eastern Greek dialects, and the letter ''heta'' (now pronounced ''[[eta (letter)|eta]]'') became available; it was used for {{IPA|/ɛː/}}. About the same time, the Greeks created an additional letter, ''[[omega (letter)|o mega]]'', probably by writing ''o micron'' with an underline, that was used for {{IPA|/ɔː/}}. [[Digraph (orthography)|Digraph]]s <{{lang|grc|ει}}> and <{{lang|grc|ου}}>, no longer pronounced as [[Diphthong|diphthongsdiphthong]]s {{IPA|/ej/}} and {{IPA|/ow/}}, were adopted for {{IPA|/eː/}} and {{IPA|/oː/.}} Thus, Greek entered its classical era with seven letters and two digraphs &ndash; <{{lang|grc|α, ε, ι, ο, υ, η, ω, ει, ου}}> &ndash; for twelve vowel sounds. Long {{IPA|/iː aː uː/}} were never distinguished from short {{IPA|/i a u/}}, even though the distinction was meaningful. Although the Greek alphabet was a good match to the consonants of the language, it was defective when it came to some vowels.<ref>{{cite book|author=Pierre Swiggers|editor=P.T. Daniels & W. Bright|title=The World's Writing Systems|year=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-507993-7|chapter=Transmission of the Phoenician Script to the West|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195079937}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Leslie Threatte|editor=P.T. Daniels & W. Bright|title=The World's Writing Systems|year=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-507993-7|chapter=The Greek Alphabet|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195079937}}</ref>

Other ancient scripts were also defective. Egyptian [[hieroglyphs]] had no vowel representation at all, while the [[cuneiform script]] frequently did not distinguish among a consonant triad like /t/, /d/ and /t'/ (emphatic /t/), or between the vowels /e/ and /i/.

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==Modern examples of defective script==

Languages with a long literary history have a tendency to freeze spelling at an early stage, leaving subsequent pronunciation shifts unrecorded. Such is the case with English, French, Greek, Hebrew, and Thai, among others. By contrast, some writing systems have been periodically respelled in accordance with changed pronunciation, such as Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Irish, and Japanese hiragana. Note that all of these languages indeed have long literary histories but have simply evolved where others did not.

=== Non-Latin scripts ===

A broadly defective script is the [[Arabic abjad]].<ref name="DB">{{cite book|author1=Peter T. Daniels|author2=William Bright|title=The World's Writing Systems|year=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-507993-7|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195079937}}</ref>{{rp|561-3561–3}} The modern script does not normally write short vowels or [[Gemination|geminate]] (double) consonants, and for the first few centuries of the [[Islam]]ic era, long ''ā'' was also not consistently written and many consonant letters were ambiguous as well. The Arabic script derives from the Aramaic, and not only did the [[Aramaic language]] have fewer [[phoneme]]s than Arabic, but several originally distinct Aramaic letters had conflated (become indistinguishable in shape), so that in the early Arabic writings, 28 consonant phonemes were represented by only 18 letters—and in the middle of words, only 15 were distinct. For example, medial {{angbr|{{lang|ar|ـٮـ}}}} represented {{IPA|/b, t, θ, n, j/}}, and {{angbr|{{lang|ar|ح}}}} represented {{IPA|/d͡ʒ, ħ, x/}}. A system of [[diacritic]] marks, or ''pointing'', was later developed to resolve the ambiguities, and over the centuries became nearly universal. However, even today, unpointed texts of a style called ''{{transltransliteration|ar|DIN|mašq}}'' are found, wherein these consonants are not distinguished.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Richard Bell|author2=William Montgomery Watt|title=Bell's Introduction to the Qur'ān|year=1970|publisher=University Press|___location=Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-85224-171-4}}</ref>

Without short vowels or geminate consonants being written, modern Arabic script {{lang|ar|نظر}} ''{{transltransliteration|ar|DIN|nẓr}}'' could represent {{lang|ar|نَظَرَ}} {{IPA|/naðˤara/}} 'he saw', {{lang|ar|نَظَّرَ}} {{IPA|/naðˤːara/}} 'he compared', {{lang|ar|نُظِرَ}} {{IPA|/nuðˤira/}} 'he was seen', {{lang|ar|نُظِّرَ}} {{IPA|/nuðˤːira/}} 'he was compared', {{lang|ar|نَظَر}} {{IPA|/naðˤar/}} 'a glance', or {{lang|ar|نِظْر}} {{IPA|/niðˤr/}} 'similar'. However, in practice there is little ambiguity, as the vowels are more easily predictable in Arabic than they are in a language like English. Moreover, the defective nature of the script has its benefits: the stable shape of the root words, despite grammatical [[inflection]], results in quicker word recognition and therefore faster reading speeds; and the lack of short vowels, the sounds which vary the most between [[Varieties of Arabic|Arabic dialects]], makes texts more widely accessible to a diverse audience.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Bauer|editor=P.T. Daniels & W. Bright|title=The World's Writing Systems|year=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-507993-7|chapter=Arabic Writing|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195079937}}</ref> Non-native speakers learning Arabic or Persian, however, do suffer difficulties in acquiring correct pronunciation from undermarked pedagogical material.

Further, in ''{{transltransliteration|ar|DIN|mašq}}'' and those styles of ''[[kufic]]'' writing which lack consonant pointing, the ambiguities are more serious, for here different roots are written the same. {{lang|ar|ٮطر}} could represent the root ''{{transltransliteration|ar|DIN|nẓr}}'' 'see' as above, but also ''{{transltransliteration|ar|DIN|nṭr}}'' 'protect', ''{{transltransliteration|ar|DIN|bṭr}}'' 'pride', ''{{transltransliteration|ar|DIN|bẓr}}'' 'clitoris' or 'with flint', as well as several inflections and derivations of each of these root words.

The Arabic alphabet has been adopted by many Muslim peoples to write their languages. In them, new consonant letters have been devised for sounds lacking in Arabic (e.g. {{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/g/}}, {{IPA|/t͡ʃ/}}, and {{IPA|/ʒ/}} in [[Persian language|Persian]];<ref name="DB" />{{rp|747}} and all the aspirate and retroflex stops in [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]]<ref name="DB" />{{rp|757}}). But rarely have the full set of vowels been represented in those new alphabets: [[Ottoman Turkish language|Ottoman Turkish]] had eight vowels, but used only three letters to notate them.<ref name="DB" />{{rp|758}} However, some adaptions of the Arabic alphabet do unambiguously and compulsorily mark all vowels: among them, those for [[Arebica|Bosnian]], [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]],<ref name="DB" />{{rp|753}} [[Kyrgyz alphabets|Kyrgyz]], [[Xiao'erjing|Mandarin]], [[Kurdish alphabets#Sorani alphabet|Sorani]], and [[Uyghur Arabic alphabet|Uyghur]].<ref name="DB" />{{rp|748}}

When a defective script is written with diacritics or other conventions to indicate all phonemic distinctions, the result is called ''plene'' writing.<ref>{{cite book|author=Werner Weinberg|title=The History of Hebrew Plene Spelling|year=1985|publisher=Hebrew Union College Press|isbn=978-0-87820-205-8|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofhebrewp0000wein}}</ref>

===Latin script===

Some otherwise [[phonemic orthography|phonemic orthographies]] based on the [[Latin script]] are slightly defective:{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

* [[Malay alphabet|Malay]] (incl. [[Malaysian language|Malaysian]] and [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]] where /e/ and /ə/ are written as <e>).

* [[Italian alphabet|Italian]] does not distinguish open-mid and close-mid vowels in stressed syllables; /s/ and /z/; /ts/ and /dz/.

* [[Maltese alphabet|Maltese]] and [[Welsh orthography|Welsh]] do not distinguish most vowel length.

* [[Kazakh alphabets|Kazakh]]

* [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] and [[Serbo-Croatian#Writing systems|Serbo-Croatian]] do not distinguish [[pitch accent|tone and vowel length]] (also additional vowels for Lithuanian).

* [[Latvian language|Latvian]] does not distinguish tone and some of its vowels.

* [[Somali alphabet|Somali]] does not distinguish vowel [[phonation]] and tone.

==Stenography systems==

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==Considerations==

Defectiveness is a [[cline (linguistics)|cline]]: the Semitic ''[[abjad]]s'' do not indicate all vowels, but there are also alphabets which mark vowels but not [[tone (linguistics)|tone]] (e.g. many [[Writing systems of Africa|African languages]]), or vowel quality but not vowel length (e.g. [[Latin spelling and pronunciation|Latin]]). Even if English orthography were regularized, the English alphabet would still be incapable of unambiguously conveying [[intonation (linguistics)|intonation]], though; since this is not expected of scripts, it is not normally counted as defectiveness.<ref name="Sampson" />

==See also==

* [[Phonemic orthography]]{{snd}}Orthography in which there is an exact one-to-one correspondence between the graphemes and the phonemes of the language

==References==