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The Brahmi Family of Scripts and Hangul: Alphabets Or Syllabaries? PUB DATE 92 NOTE 25P.; In: Linn, Mary Sarah, Ed

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The Brahmi Family of Scripts and Hangul: Alphabets Or Syllabaries? PUB DATE 92 NOTE 25P.; In: Linn, Mary Sarah, Ed DOCUMENT RESUME ED 351 852 FL 020 606 AUTHOR Wilhelm, Christopher TITLE The Brahmi Family of Scripts and Hangul: Alphabets or Syllabaries? PUB DATE 92 NOTE 25p.; In: Linn, Mary Sarah, Ed. and Oliverio, Giulia, R. M., Ed. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 17, Numbers 1 and 2; see FL 020 603. PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PCO1 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Alphabets; Foreign Countries; Language Classification; *Written Language IDENTIFIERS Asia (Southeast); *Brahmi Script; *Hangul Script; Korea; Syllabaries ABSTRACT A great deal of disagreement exists as to whether the writing systems of the Brahmi family ol7 scripts from Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent and the Hangul script,..+f Korea should be classified as alphabets or syllabaries. Both have in common a mixture of syllabic and alphabetic characteristics that has spawned vigorous disagreement among scholars as to their classification. An analysis of the alphabetic and syllabic aspects of the two writing systems is presented and it is demonstrated that each exhibits significant characteristics of both types of writing systems. It is concluded that neither label entirely does either writing system justice. (JL) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION tyke dl EduCat,Onal Research andImprovement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER IERICI reproducea as Tn s. document has been rece,ved from the person ororganaatton ongtnattng tt made to trnprove C Mtnor Changes nave been reproductton qualay od.ntonS stated ,nin,s doca Points 01 VIeVa trent Ma not neCessaroy repsent otttctat THE BRAHMI FAMILYOF SCRIPTS AND HANGUL: OERIOosInonor001.cV Alphabets or Syllabaries? "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCETHIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTEDBY Christopher Wilhelm ABSTRACT: A greatdeal of disagreementexists systems of the as to whetherthe writing TO THE EDUCATIONALRESOURCES Brahmi family ofscripts and theHangul script INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." be classified asalphabets or of Korea should exhibits a syllabaries. In fact, each system significant amount ofcharacteristics of both does either types, andneither label entirely of them justice. the world Linguists studying thewriting systems of classified them accordingto three have traditionally and categories, those oflogographic, syllabic, systems found alphabetic scripts. The Brahmi writing subcontinent and SoutheastAsia a. throughout the Indian both defy well as the KoreanHangul script, however, The two have in common amixture of classification. spawned syllabic and alphabeticcharacteristics that has the scholarsdiscussing vigorous disagreement among the them. For example,Lambert (1953) refers to Devanagari script used towrite Sanskrit andits (1906) as daughter languages as asyllabary, Shamasastry :;:escribes it as 'halfway an alphabet,Coulson (1976:3) alphabet and a veryregular in character between an it a syllabary,' while Cardona(1987) simply calls of Sanskrit. script and avoids theissue in his overview of the variousalphabetic and syllabic An examination therefore in order, aspects of thesewriting systems is results of such aninvestigation would and indeed the fully does justice seem to indicatethat neither label to them. of scripts, so namedfor their The Brahmi family attested descent from the Brahmiscript which is first in having in in the third centuryB.C.,1 are distinctive extent, a number of common, to agreater or lesser characteristics that begin tosurface in their Foremost of theseis what Masica (1991:136) progenitor. script, its hails as 'The greatinnovation of the Brahmi indication of vowelsother than A ([8)) bymodifications The vowel added to the basicc.:.,risonant symbols.' corresponding to (a) itselfis regarded as assumed or BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 55-78 Karsas Working Papers in Linguistics,Volume 17, Number 1, 1992, pp. 56 inherent to each consonant in its most basic form, and any vowel pronounced after the consonant is represented by a marker appended in some fashion to the consonantal symbol. Vowels also tend to have distinct allographs when they occur in an initial position. A consonant standing alone must be so indicated by a special diacritic, and consonants otherwise not followed by any vowel, as in consonant clusters, tend to appear in some altered or abbreviated form. Descendants of the Brahmi script are most commonly associated with the Indic and the Dravidian languages of India. They are also represented in the two primary members of the Tibeto-Burmese family, as well as in significant members of the Khmer and Kam-Tai families. Brahmi-derived scripts have also made their way to such scattered locales in time and place as Sumatra, the Philippines, and the extinct Tokharian language.2 The most widely known member of this family of scripts, however, is the Devanagari script, most particularly as it is employed in writing Sanskrit. It was also at the hands of the grammarians who adapted Devanagari to the writing of Sanskrit that the aforementioned qualities peculiar to Brahmi writing systems become perhaps most pronounced. While an analysis of Brahmi scripts should consider a representative sampling of them, Sanskrit Devanagari is generally taken as the most representative case, and is therefore the best point at which to begin. The characters f the Devanagari script are elegant not only in appearance but also, in Sanskrit at least, in operation as well.As mentioned above, Devanagari consonantal characters are considered to include in their basic, 'unmarked' form the vowel [a], corresponding to [ ] in Sanskrit and most of its daughter languages, pronounced after the articulation of the consonant itself. Thus, the characters for Sanskrit's voiceless unaspirated plosives,EB , and IT , stand for the syllables [ka], [ca],Eta], Eta], and [pa], respectively. When the consonant has no following sourd, as utterance-finally or in isolation,a diacritic known as a vir5ma is placed to the lower right of the character, so that -c.7.and -cT, indicate [c] and [t] alone. The vowel [a] is overtly indicated only inan initial position, by the character JT . All other vowels and diphthongs have one allograph used initially, and another, smaller one when pronounced followinga consonant. These latter allographs may be attached to 57 the consonantal sign at almost any portion of it,such as to the right, as for TW [ta], -m- [ti]; belo , as inir [tu], [ta], [q]; above, as in tr [te], [tai]; above and to the right, as forrr [to], [tau]; and even to the left of the consonantal symbol, as in fh- [ti]. The signs for these vowels in an initial position, on the other hand, are 37r[a] [i],t [ai] ,If [o], ,Ahr [I] , [u], M], iT [rj, IF [e] ,tr [au].3 When consonantal [r],17 , an alveolar flap, is followed by [u] or [a], these, too, appear to the right of the consonantal sign, seemingly turned ninety degrees: "45 , . Two diacritics frequently modify vowels. The anuamara ( ) indicates vowel nasalization and is customarily transcribed, e.g., -am. The visaraa (37: ; h) is an aspirated echo of the vowel it modifies (Coulson 9). Although Devanagari does not readily lend itself to the representation of consonant clusters, such clusters are quite common in Sanskrit. These are represented by ligatures known as conjunct consonants, wherein two or more consonantal characters are modified tofit together in a larger conglomeration. The two most common means of effecting these combinations are horizontally, which generally involves deleting the vertical stroke where present for non-final members of the clusters, as in RT. [sta], from "Ris] and Tr[ta], or aZi [byal, from "Et [b] and Zr [ya]; and vertically, as in---;;F[iga], from [g) and 71. [gal, or [dva) , from [d] and 1 [val. Some combinations may be made in either fashion, as inr-r4 or [cca], although the advent of printing has made the former method more desirable. These conjuncts can appear quite formidable and bewildering; Coulson presents approximately 250 of them (22-4) and does not state whether this list is exhaustive, and he and Lambert both offer examples of clusters of four consonants: 54 [1:14rYa] (Coulson 23) and lEr4" [rstya] (Lambert 35). Two conjuncts, or 4:Er[ksa] and if [jPia] bear little or no resemblance to the signs for their component members ("R [S] 59- [j], [fi]). Conjuncts involving the flap [r] are of particular interest. [r] following a consonant is represented by a short diagonal mark to the lower left of the consonantal character, as in [kra]. However, when [r] precedes a consonant, it is indicated by a small hook above and as far to the right of the character as possible, as inTf [rta]. In syllables involving the diacritic anusvara, 4 or- p 58 this hook appears even tothe right of it, as in<4..rii'zir [yajfiartham], 'for sacrificialpurposes.' A question commonlyinvoked indetermining::whether be considered alphabetic orsyl;lAbic is a script might or whether or not its mostbasic unit corresponds more approaches an less with the phoneme;that is, whether it ideal principle of 'onesign per phoneme.' (Gaur 1985:119; see also Kim1987:888-9). However,:this principle would seem to be forthe most partirrelevant this view. in Sanskrit Devanagari. Two points support The first is whatMasica (146) refers to as'phonemic overkill' in the inventoryof characters. He argues that the visaraa is infact an allophone of/s/ t ), and argues that the velarand
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