What is the difference between an abjad with diacritics (like Hebrew or Arabaci) and an abiguda?

Question

What is the difference between an abjad with diacritics (like Hebrew or Arabaci) and an abiguda?

In: 0

Answer 1

These classifications are fuzzy in practice, but

– the plain form of a letter in an abiguda usually encodes a consonant *and* vowel – a word without diacritics spells out syllables

– the plain form of a letter in an abjad encodes just a consonant – letters without diacritics are either abbreviated (you know the vowels from context and experience) or they show consonant clusters