abjad

English

Etymology

From Arabic أبجد (ʔabjad), the term for the traditional ordering of the Arabic script (from the first four letters: أ (ʔ), ب (b), ج (j), د (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, 3rd edition, Wiley, 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.

   Languages that use abjads include Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu. Abjads differ from syllabaries (such as the Japanese hiragana) in that the vowel quality of each letter is left unspecified, and must be inferred from context and grammar.

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

• abjadic

 

Translations

writing system

• Arabic: أَبْجَد (ar) m (ʔabjad)
• Aramaic:

  Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܐܲܒܓܲܕ (ābgād)

• Armenian: աբջադ (abǰad)
• Azerbaijani: əbcəd
• Bengali: আবজাদ (bn) (abojad)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 輔音音素文字 / 辅音音素文字 (fǔyīn yīnsù wénzì)

• Esperanto: abĝado
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: konsonanttikirjoitus
• French: abjad (fr) m
• Georgian: აბჯადი (abǯadi)
• German: Abdschad (de) m
• Hebrew: אַבְּגַ'ד m (abjad)
• Hindi: अब्जद (hi) m (abjad)
• Indonesian: abjad (id)
• Italian: alfabeto consonantico m
• Japanese: アブジャド (ja) (abujado), 子音文字 (しいんもじ, shiin moji)
• Kazakh: абджәд (abdjäd)
• Korean: 아브자드 (abeujadeu), 자음문자(子音文字) (ja'eummunja)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: ebced (ku)

• Kyrgyz: эбжед (ebjed)
• Macedonian: абџад m (abdžad)
• Malay: abjad (ms)

  Jawi: ابجد

• Pashto: ابجد (ps) m (abjad)
• Persian:

  Dari: اَبْجَد (abjad)

  Iranian Persian: اَبْجَد (abjad)

• Polish: abdżad (pl) m
• Portuguese: abjad m
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: абджа́д (ru) m (abdžád), а́бджад (ru) m (ábdžad), консона́нтное письмо́ (ru) n (konsonántnoje pisʹmó)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: suglasopis m, ebdžed m

• Spanish: abyad m, abjad (es)
• Tajik: абҷад (abjad)
• Turkish: ebced (tr)
• Turkmen: abjad
• Urdu: اَبْجَد (ur) m (abjad)
• Uzbek: abjad (uz)
• Yiddish: please add this translation if you can

See also

• abugida
• Appendix:Abjad numerals, abjad numeral

Further reading

• Abjad numerals on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• adjab

Indonesian

Etymology

From Malay abjad, from Classical Malay ابجد (abjad), from Arabic أَبْجَد (ʔabjad).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈabd͡ʒad/ [ˈap̚.d͡ʒat̪̚]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Syllabification: ab‧jad

Noun

abjad

1. alphabet (an ordered set of letters used in a language)

   Synonyms: aksara, alfabet

2. abjad (writing system)

Derived terms

• berabjad
• mengabjad
• mengabjadkan
• pengabjadan

 

Compounds

• abjad fonemis
• abjad fonetis

 

Related terms

• abjadiah

 

Further reading

• “abjad” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Malay

Etymology

From Arabic أَبْجَد (ʔabjad).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ap.d͡ʒat], [a.bə.d͡ʒat]
• Rhymes: -d͡ʒat, -at
• Hyphenation: ab‧jad

Noun

abjad (Jawi spelling ابجد)

1. An ordered set of letters used in a language; an alphabet.

   Synonym: alfabet (informal)

   abjad Inggeris ― English alphabet

2. An abjad:
   1. (linguistics) A writing system where all the letters only represents consonants.
   2. The Arabic alphabet.
   3. The Arabic abjad numeral system.

Affixations

• abjadkan (“to alphabetize”)
• pengabjadan (“alphabetization”)

 

Compounds

• menurut abjad / menurut urutan abjad (“in alphabetical order”)

 

Descendants

• Indonesian: abjad

References

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

Maltese

Root
b-j-d
17 terms

Etymology

From Arabic أَبْيَض (ʔabyaḍ).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈab.jat/

• Audio (Gozo):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -abjat

Adjective

abjad (feminine singular bajda, plural bojod)

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

Related terms

• abjad fiġla
• abjad ħalib
• abjad qotna (abjad qoton)
• abjad silġ
• abjad tal-bajd
• abjad tal-għajn
• għamel l-iswed fl-abjad

 

Related terms

• bajda (“egg”)

 

See also

Colors in Maltese · kuluri/lwien (layout · text)

abjad	griż, rmiedi, ixheb	iswed
aħmar; krimżi	oranġjo; kannella (ismar); kafelatte; ixqar	isfar; krema
limetti	aħdar
turkin, turkważ	iżraq, ċelesti (smewwi)	blu (ikħal)
vjola; indigo, nir	maġenta; vjola	roża (wardi)

Portuguese

Noun

abjad m (plural abjads)

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

Spanish

Alternative forms

• abyad

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /abˈxad/ [aβ̞ˈxað̞]
• Rhymes: -ad
• Syllabification: ab‧jad

Noun

abjad m (plural abjades)

1. (linguistics) abjad (writing system)