Definition of Abugida

An abugida is a term coined by Peter T. Daniels in order to describe a writing system in which consonant signs (graphemes) are inherently associated with a following vowel. Thus, the absence of such a vowel, or other following vowels, are usually indicated explicitly. About half the writing systems in the world, including the extensive Brahmic system used for most Indo-Aryan languages, are abugida.