Practice question · Put in order
Arrange these writing systems by the size of the linguistic unit one symbol represents, from largest to smallest.
- Alphabetic: a single consonant or vowel
- Syllabic: a syllable
- Abugida: a consonant with an inherent vowel
- Logographic: a whole morpheme or word
Hints
- Start with the system whose symbols stand for whole words.
- An abugida packages a consonant with a vowel, so its unit is larger than a single segment.
Show the answer
- Logographic: a whole morpheme or word
- Syllabic: a syllable
- Abugida: a consonant with an inherent vowel
- Alphabetic: a single consonant or vowel
Why
The ordering is real and carries no ranking with it. A logography suits a language with heavy homophony and large dialectal differences in pronunciation, because a character conveys the morpheme regardless of how a reader says it, which is exactly the situation across the Chinese-speaking world. Fit to the language decides, not the size of the unit.
Practise Writing Systems
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