Is there an alphabet? If yes, how many letters? What do they represent? Are there significant differences between manuscript and print? Has the system changed over time?
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The alphabet system of Bhasa Indonesia consists of the 26 letters from the Latin script. Amongst the latin letters there are a few that have their unique pronunciation in Bhasa Indonesia. For instance the letter "c" is always pronounced as "ch.”
The “latinization” of Bhasa Indonesia with respect to the script reflects a malleability of the language that is not historically unique to the period of European colonization In fact, modern Bhasa Indonesia borrows heavily from Sanskrit (bhasa translates to “language” in Sanskit and Bhasa Indonesia), Arabic (kursi translates to “chair” in Arabic and Bhasa Indonesia), Dutch (apotik in Bhasa Indonesia and apotheek in Dutch mean pharmacy), Chinese (mei translates to “noodles” in Chinese and Bhasa Indonesia) and Portugese (sepatu in Bhasa Indonesia and sapato in Portugese mean shoe).
This malleability of the language comes from the fact that Old Malay, the parent of Bhasa Indonesia and its sister language Malay, has historically been and continues to be a lingua franca language grown out of the need to facilitate trade between groups that had different native languages and perhaps lived on different islands of the archipelago Therefore, as new groups arrived on the scene in Indonesia the language continued to evolve.
Hangeul is the name of the Korean language. It was created by King Sejong, the 4th ruler of the Joseon Dynasty in the year 1441. Korean uses an alphabet. Korean language consists ten vowels and fourteen consonants. A combination of vowels and consonants makes up a syllable, and it is written in the left to right.
The shapes of the consonants are based on the shape the mouth made when the corresponding sound is made, and the traditional direction of writing most likely came from Chinese, as did the practice of writing syllables in blocks. Korean writing in a manuscript is different from everyday writing. Although Korean is an alphabet (in which one shape largely corresponds to one sound), the letters are not written linearly. Instead, they are grouped into syllable blocks.
For example, the name of the script is written not as ㅎㅏㄴㄱㅡㄹ [h-a-n-g-u-l] but as 한글 [han-gul].
Korean characters are profoundly affected by the classic Chinese characters. Korean was formulated from Chinese into three different systems of writing, including Hyangchal, Gukyeol and Idu. Hyangchal is mostly used in writing poetry, while Idu combine Chinese characters with special symbols into a Korean way to record documents.
Grammatically Korean is very similar to Japanese and the Koreans borrowed a huge number of Chinese words (about 70% of its vocabulary comes from Chinese.) It also invented about 150 new characters. Alphabet is used in the Korean writing system. There are 24 letters (jamo) in Korean, including 14 consonants and 10 vowels. For vowels. The shapes are dependent on three factors, man means a vertical line, earth means a horizontal line and heaven is a dot.
Even after the invention, however, most Koreans who could write continued to write both in Classical Chinese and in Korean (using Gukyeol or Idu systems). In 19th and 20th century, the combination of Chinese and Korean is very popular. But the usage of Chinese decreased a lot after 1945. For most of their casual and informal writing, they only use Hngeul. However, for very formal cases, they might use the combination of Hangeul and Hanja.
Another interesting fact about writing Hanguel is the direction of writing. A long time ago, Korean was written from right to left. However, after 1980s, writing from left to right became the main writing direction.
Hindi script has 13 vowels and 38 consonants. Each consonant automatically comes with the "ah" vowel after it, unless one of the remaining 12 vowel symbols is attached to it. For instance, the letter K is pronounced "kah" automatically unless you add the symbol for another vowel to the letter K.
Consonants are divided up into 8 categories, each with 4-5 sounds. For example, the Gutteral category includes ka, kha, ga, gha, and nga. Most consonants have both a normal sound and an aspirated sound. For instance, ka is one consonant, and the aspirated version, kha, is another consonant all together and is written completely differently. Using aspiration can also completely change the meaning of a word. For instance, I have trouble pronouncing the difference between "bindi", the dot that women wear on their foreheads, and "bHindi", which means okra.
There is also a difference between dental and retroflex versions of D's and T's. Dental D's and T's are said by placing the tongue to the back of the teeth, while retroflex D's and T's are said by reaching the tongue to the back of the palate. Retroflex D's almost sound like R's. Four of the Hindi consonants have been integrated into the language from Persian, including the Z, Q, and F sounds. These sounds were not originally in the Hindi language at all until it was influenced by Urdu and other Arabic languages.
There is not a large difference between manuscript and print Hindi, although it is common when writing quickly in Hindi script to omit the line that tops each word. Indian people would say that there is no need for this unless you are writing something formally.
Yes, Korean utilizes an alphabet that consists of 24 letters; 14 consonants and 10 vowels. The letters are combined to make sound blocks. It originally evolved from Chinese where Korean shares about 70% of Chinese vocabulary and follows the same flow of writing from top to bottom and right to left. The Korean alphabet was created in 1444. The shapes of the consonants are based upon the shape the mouth makes to create the sound and some sounds of the consonants change depending on whether they appear at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence. Korean writing in a manuscript differs from everyday writing. Korean manuscript writing reflects its Chinese influence through the use of a character system.
Is Korean written from right to left now? Can you explain a bit more about the distinction between the alphabet and a 'character system'?
Korean is written from left to right and is read the same way. An alphabet makes reading and writing a lot easier than a character system. A character system requires memorizing and knowing specific meanings, but with an alphabet you can at least distinguish the phonetic sound of the word.