A '''defective script''' is a [[writing system]] that does not represent all the [[phoneme|phonemic]] distinctions of a language. For Itexample, is[[Italian differentlanguage|Italian]] fromhas anseven irregular[[vowel]]s, scriptbut the [[Italian alphabet]] has only five vowel [[letter (alphabet)|letter]]s to represent them; in general, whichthe ''can''differences between {{IPA|/e, ɛ/}} and {{IPA|/o, ɔ/}} are simply ignored, though when stress marks are used they may distinguish allthem. Among the phonemes[[consonant]]s, ofboth the{{IPA|/s/}} languageand even{{IPA|/z/}} ifare inwritten practice{{angbr|{{lang|it|s}}}}, and both {{IPA|/ts/}} and {{IPA|/dz/}} are written {{angbr|{{lang|it|z}}}}, doesthough not alwaysmany dowords soare distinguished by the latter. [[Stress (linguistics)|Stress]] and [[hiatus (linguistics)|hiatus]] are not reliably distinguished.<ref>{{cite book
For example, [[Italian language|Italian]] has seven [[vowel]]s, but the [[Italian alphabet]] has only five vowel [[letter (alphabet)|letter]]s to represent them; in general, the differences between {{IPA|/e, ɛ/}} and {{IPA|/o, ɔ/}} are simply ignored, though when stress marks are used they may distinguish them. Among the [[consonant]]s, both {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/z/}} are written {{angbr|{{lang|it|s}}}}, and both {{IPA|/ts/}} and {{IPA|/dz/}} are written {{angbr|{{lang|it|z}}}}, though not many words are distinguished by the latter. [[Stress (linguistics)|Stress]] and [[hiatus (linguistics)|hiatus]] are not reliably distinguished.<ref>{{cite book
