Re: Derivation of Term Abugida

Peter T. Daniels wrote:

       How was the term "abugida" derived?  I know "abjad" is from
the old order of the Arabic abjad.  I've been told that
"abugida" is from the first characters of the Ethiopic
abugida.  I know Peter T. Daniels coined the terms, so
obviously he can say.


Every time I have used the words in an article, I have explained their
origin.

When some idiot put the words into a Unicode glossary, he or she screwed
up "abjad" only a little but screwed up "abugida" royally.

Where did you encounter the words?

From John Koontz at the University of Colorado, on an e-mail list we participate in. I saw definitions on Wikipedia. Wikipedia does not give an origin for "abugida". I am well aware that because anyone can write an article in Wikipedia, one must use it with caution. Hence my question.

"Abugida" is identical in origin to "abjad": it is the Ethiopic word (in
both Ge`ez and Amharic) for the Northwest Semitic alphabetical order,
which is known in Ethiopia from the superscriptions to Psalm 119, the
acrostic psalm, and is used in certain liturgical contexts. The four
vowels are simply the vowels of the first four of the seven columns of
the standard Ethiopian syllable chart.

The Northwest Semitic alphabetical order being: alpeh beth gimel daleth? OK. Does that mean that it really should be "abgad"?

(It's _not_ the standard order, which begins h l H m.) 

	Thanks.

Dennis

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