different between abjad vs alphabet

English

Etymology

From Arabic ????? (?abjad), the term for the traditional ordering of the Arabic script (from the first four letters: ?? (?), ?? (b), ?? (j), ?? (d)). Compare English ABC and alphabet.

Linguistics sense coined by Peter T. Daniels.

Noun

abjad (plural abjads)

1. A writing system for Arabic, historically also employed as a numeral system, in which there is one glyph (symbol or letter) for each consonant but vowels are not specified.
   • 2014, Agnès Nilüfer Kefeli, Becoming Muslim in Imperial Russia: Conversion, Apostasy, and Literacy, Cornell University Press, unnumbered page,

     In Rabghuzi's Stories of the Prophets, a teacher asked Jesus, who was seven years old at the time, to repeat the alphabet and the abjad by rote.

   • 2018, Amine Bouchentouf, Arabic for Dummies, Wiley, 3rd Edition, page 16,

     Abjad is the writing system used in this book, and it's also the writing system used throughout the Arabic world. For instance, most newspapers you pick up in the Middle East use the abjad writing system, whereby the consonants are included but not the vowels.

2. (linguistics) Any writing system in which glyphs are used to represent consonants or consonantal phonemes, but not vowels.

3. The system of abjad numerals; a numeral system in which the letters of the Arabic abjad are interpreted as numerals, typically used to enumerate lists and nested lists, as well as in numerology.
   • 1971, Mohibbul Hasan, History of Tipu Sultan, Aakar Books, 2nd Edition, 2005 Reprint, page 399,

     The other names had no significance, except that the initial letter of each month denoted its place in the calendar according to the abjad system, which assigned a certain numerical power to every letter in the alphabet.

   • 2010, Stephen Chrisomalis, Numerical Notation: A Comparative History, Cambridge University Press, page 166,

     As Islam spread eastward throughout the eighth century AD as far as the Indus River, the Indian style of numeration began to diffuse westward and supplant the Arabic abjad, which itself was still a novelty in western regions such as North Africa.

Synonyms

• (writing system with a glyph for each consonant): consonantary

Hypernyms

• (linguistics): signary

Derived terms

• abjad numeral

Translations

See also

• abugida
• Appendix:Abjad numerals

Further reading

• Abjad numerals on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Indonesian

Etymology

From Malay abjad, from Arabic ???????? (?abjad).

Noun

abjad (first-person possessive abjadku, second-person possessive abjadmu, third-person possessive abjadnya)

1. alphabet (an ordered set of letters used in a language)
2. abjad (writing system)

Synonyms

• aksara

See also

• abjadiah

Malay

Etymology

From Arabic ???????? (?abjad).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /abd??at/
• Rhymes: -abd??at

Noun

abjad (Jawi spelling ?????, plural abjad-abjad, informal 1st possessive abjadku, impolite 2nd possessive abjadmu, 3rd possessive abjadnya)

1. alphabet (an ordered set of letters used in a language)
2. abjad (writing system)

Synonyms

• aksara / ???????

Further reading

• “abjad” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

Maltese

Etymology

From Arabic ???????? (?abya?).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ab.jat/

Adjective

abjad (feminine singular bajda, plural bojod)

1. white
2. pale
3. calm (of water)

Related terms

Related terms

• bajda (“egg”)

See also

Portuguese

Noun

abjad m (plural abjads)

1. (orthography) abjad (writing system with a symbol for each consonant)

Spanish

Alternative forms

• abyad

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ab?xad/, [a???xað?]

Noun

abjad m (plural abjades)

1. (linguistics) abjad (writing system)

English

Etymology

Doublet of alfabeto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æl.f?.b?t/
• (uncommon) IPA^(key): /?æl.f?.b?t/
• Hyphenation: al?pha?bet

Noun

alphabet (plural alphabets)

1. The set of letters used when writing in a language.

2. A writing system in which letters represent phonemes. (Contrast e.g. logography, a writing system in which each character represents a word, and syllabary, in which each character represents a syllable.)
   1. A writing system in which there are letters for the consonant and vowel phonemes. (Contrast e.g. abjad.)
3. (computer science) A typically finite set of distinguishable symbols.

4. (India, Hong Kong, Singapore) An individual letter of an alphabet; an alphabetic character.
5. The simplest rudiments; elements.

Synonyms

• ABC, absey

Hypernyms

• (linguistics): signary

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Verb

alphabet (third-person singular simple present alphabets, present participle alphabeting, simple past and past participle alphabeted)

1. (rare) To designate by the letters of the alphabet; to arrange alphabetically.

Synonyms

• alphabetize

Further reading

• alphabet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /al.fa.b?/
• Rhymes: -?
• Homophone: alphabets

Noun

alphabet m (plural alphabets)

1. alphabet (set of letters considered as a group)

Derived terms

• alphabet latin
• alphabet phonétique international

Related terms

• alphabète
• alphabétique
• alphabétiquement
• inalphabète

Further reading

• “alphabet” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Etymology

Noun

alphabet m (plural alphabets)

1. alphabet (set of letters considered as a group)