Theoretical syllables

A number of writing systems are commonly described as syllabaries. Their basic operational graphic units are interpreted as speech syllables. Japanese kana is well known as one of the purest examples (see below), but there are many others, such as Akkadian cuneiform (von Soden and Rölling 1991), Elamite (Stève 1992), Hurrian (Wilhelm 1983), the Aegean scripts Linear B (Palaima 1989) and Cypriot (Baurain 1991), as well as the Vai (Scribner and Cole 1981) and several other West African scripts (Dalby 1970), and the Cree (Darnell and Vanek 1973) and Cherokee (Walker and Sarbough 1993) scripts of North America. A number of writing systems have developed a syllabographic component without shedding logography, a tendency exemplified by Hittite cuneiform (Laroch 1960), late forms of Egyptian (Schenkel 1994), as well as by Maya (Coe 1992). Some syllabic writing systems evolved gradually in antiquity (Sanmartín 1988), others were created deliberately in modern times (Burnaby 1985). Some undeciphered scripts such as the Iberian (Anderson 1988) and the Indus script (Parpola 1994) are thought to be syllabic or to contain strong syllabic elements. The letters of the Latin alphabet have names that, except for some peculiar cases such as English double-u and French i grec, usually have monosyllabic names used in sounding out the spelling of words.