syllabary

American  

[sil-uh-ber-ee] / ˈsɪl əˌbɛr i /

noun

plural

syllabaries

1. a list or catalog of syllables.

2. a set of written symbols, each of which represents a syllable, used to write a given language.

   the Japanese syllabary.

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syllabary British  

/ ˈsɪləbərɪ /

noun

1. a table or list of syllables

2. a set of symbols used in certain writing systems, such as one used for Japanese, in which each symbol represents a spoken syllable

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Etymology

Origin of syllabary

From the New Latin word syllabārium, dating back to 1580–90. See syllable, -ary

Example Sentences

In the early 1800s Cherokee polymath Sequoyah invented the Cherokee syllabary of written characters.

From Scientific American • Apr. 10, 2023

With a collaborator, Rozin devised an experimental curriculum that moved children through degrees of linguistic abstraction by teaching them Chinese logographs followed by a Japanese syllabary, and only then applying the same logic to English.

From New York Times • Dec. 27, 2021

Or, going back to the beginning of this chapter and Sequoyah’s syllabary, you may choose to take inspiration from something linguistic, an expression or a way of talking that is associated with your culture.

From Textbooks • Dec. 21, 2021

This year, the Braves sold T-shirts with a word that translated roughly to “ballplayer” in Cherokee syllabary; the proceeds supported the tribe’s language immersion program.

From Washington Post • Oct. 28, 2021

People who teach and speak the Cherokee language today use Sequoyah’s syllabary.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz