Defective script

A defective script is a writing system that does not represent all the phonemic distinctions of a language.^[1]^: 36–38^[2]^: 118 This means that the concept is always relative to a given language. Taking the Latin alphabet used in Italian orthography as an example, the Italian language has seven vowels, but the alphabet has only five vowel letters to represent them; in general, the difference between the phonemes close /e, o/ and open /ɛ, ɔ/ is simply ignored, though stress marks, if used, may distinguish them. Among the Italian consonants, both /s/ and /z/ are written ⟨s⟩, and both /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ are written ⟨z⟩; stress and hiatus are also not reliably distinguished.^[3]

^ Sampson, Geoffrey (1985). Writing Systems. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-1756-4.
^ Coulmas, Florian (1996). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-21481-6.
^ Danesi, Marcel (1996). Italian the Easy way. Barron's Educational Series. ISBN 9780812091465.

[Sampson-1] Sampson, Geoffrey (1985). Writing Systems. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-1756-4.

[2] Coulmas, Florian (1996). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-21481-6.

[3] Danesi, Marcel (1996). Italian the Easy way. Barron's Educational Series. ISBN 9780812091465.

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