Peter asked: > >Ethiopic and Canadian Syllabics and Tengwar are featural. > > I have never heard anyone suggest any script other than Hangul to be > featural. Please explain.
If you examine the UCAS, you'll see that the orientation of the base consonant symbols (rotationally), and the placement of the dots (or dashes), correlate with the vowellings of the syllables. Other diacritic modifications of the base consonants are semi-regular, as well, too. This is very different from the Yi syllabary, for example, where each syllable is a unique graphic form, with no systematic connection between that form and either the consonantal or vocalic part of the syllable. Ethiopic, examined as a syllabary, has some of the same kinds of characteristics as UCAS. The placement of the flags and loops correlates with the vowel ranks, and the placement of the top "butterflies" corresponds with manner or other distinctions among the consonant ranks. --Ken
