In orthography, a zero consonant, silent initial, or null-onset letter is a consonant letter that does not correspond to a consonant sound, but is required when a word or syllable starts with a vowel (i.e. has a null onset). Some abjads, abugidas, and alphabets have zero consonants, generally because they have an orthographic rule that all syllables must begin with a consonant letter, whereas the language they transcribe allows syllables to start with a vowel. In a few cases, such as Pahawh Hmong below, the lack of a consonant letter represents a specific consonant sound, so the lack of a consonant sound requires a distinct letter to disambiguate.
In Arabic, the non-hamzated letter ⟨ا⟩alif is often a placeholder for an initial vowel.
In Javanese script, the letter ꦲ ha is used for a vowel (silent 'h').
In Korean hangul, the zero consonant is ㅇ (이응) ieung. It appears twice in 아음; a-eum, "velar consonant". ㅇ also represents /ŋ/ -ng at the end of a syllable, but historically this was a distinct letter.
Burmeseအ, Khmer អ, Thai อ (อ อ่าง), Lao ອ (ອ ໂອ), Shan ဢ (ဢ ဢၢင်ႇ) are null-initial vowel-support letters. Thai อ่าง, for example, is ang "basin". (า is the vowel a and ง the consonant ng.) อ and ອ pull double duty as vowels in some positions.
In Thaana of the Maldives, އ is a zero. It requires a diacritic to indicate the associated vowel: އި is i, އޮ o, etc. This is similar to an abjad, but the vowel mark is not optional.
The Lontara script for Buginese, with zero ᨕ, is similar to Thaana, except that without a vowel diacritic ᨕ represents an initial vowel a. The Lepcha script of Nepal is similar.
In Cree and Inuit, a triangle represents a vowel-initial syllable. The orientation of this triangle specifies the vowel: ᐁ e, ᐃ i, ᐅ o, ᐊ a.
In the Romanized Popular Alphabet used for Hmong, an apostrophe marks a vowel-initial syllable. The absence of any letter indicates that the syllable starts with a glottal stop, a far more common occurrence.
Pahawh Hmong, a semi-syllabary, also has a zero consonant, as well as a letter for glottal stop, with the lack of an initial consonant letter indicating that the syllable begins with a /k/.
See alsoedit
Virama, a zero-vowel diacritic in many abugidas, such as Hindi Devanagari. The virama marks the absence of a vowel; the absence of a virama or vowel diacritic implies an inherent vowel such as /a/.
Sukun, the optional zero-vowel diacritic of Arabic.
zero, consonant, orthography, zero, consonant, silent, initial, null, onset, letter, consonant, letter, that, does, correspond, consonant, sound, required, when, word, syllable, starts, with, vowel, null, onset, some, abjads, abugidas, alphabets, have, zero, c. In orthography a zero consonant silent initial or null onset letter is a consonant letter that does not correspond to a consonant sound but is required when a word or syllable starts with a vowel i e has a null onset Some abjads abugidas and alphabets have zero consonants generally because they have an orthographic rule that all syllables must begin with a consonant letter whereas the language they transcribe allows syllables to start with a vowel In a few cases such as Pahawh Hmong below the lack of a consonant letter represents a specific consonant sound so the lack of a consonant sound requires a distinct letter to disambiguate Uses editThe letter א aleph is a zero consonant in Ashkenazi Hebrew It originally represented a glottal stop a value it retains in other Hebrew dialects and in formal Israeli Hebrew In Arabic the non hamzated letter ا alif is often a placeholder for an initial vowel In Javanese script the letter ꦲ ha is used for a vowel silent h In Korean hangul the zero consonant is ㅇ 이응 ieung It appears twice in 아음 a eum velar consonant ㅇ also represents ŋ ng at the end of a syllable but historically this was a distinct letter Burmese အ Khmer អ Thai x x xang Lao ອ ອ ໂອ Shan ဢ ဢ ဢ င are null initial vowel support letters Thai xang for example is ang basin a is the vowel a and ng the consonant ng x and ອ pull double duty as vowels in some positions In Thaana of the Maldives އ is a zero It requires a diacritic to indicate the associated vowel އ is i އ o etc This is similar to an abjad but the vowel mark is not optional The Lontara script for Buginese with zero ᨕ is similar to Thaana except that without a vowel diacritic ᨕ represents an initial vowel a The Lepcha script of Nepal is similar In Cree and Inuit a triangle represents a vowel initial syllable The orientation of this triangle specifies the vowel ᐁ e ᐃ i ᐅ o ᐊ a In the Romanized Popular Alphabet used for Hmong an apostrophe marks a vowel initial syllable The absence of any letter indicates that the syllable starts with a glottal stop a far more common occurrence Pahawh Hmong a semi syllabary also has a zero consonant as well as a letter for glottal stop with the lack of an initial consonant letter indicating that the syllable begins with a k See also editVirama a zero vowel diacritic in many abugidas such as Hindi Devanagari The virama marks the absence of a vowel the absence of a virama or vowel diacritic implies an inherent vowel such as a Sukun the optional zero vowel diacritic of Arabic Zero linguistics a broader concept Silent letterReferences edit Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Zero consonant amp oldid 1221752281, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
