A syllabary gives each syllable its own symbol, which is how the Japanese kana systems are written.

The longer version

Kana give one sign to each sound unit, so a word is written as a short chain of open syllables rather than as individual consonants and vowels. Japanese runs on that rhythm, with most syllables ending in a vowel, which is what makes the system fit; a language with heavy consonant clusters would need hundreds of signs.

Hiragana and katakana are the two sets, one for native grammar and one largely for foreign words and emphasis, and both descend from simplified characters. Other scripts of this type include the Cherokee syllabary and the Bronze Age Greek script known from clay tablets. A syllabary asks the reader to memorise more signs than an alphabet but fewer than a character-based system.

Where this entry sits

This category gathers small surprises about the English language, from odd spelling rules to words that quietly hide their own history. Expect palindromes, punctuation oddities, borrowed terms, and the strange ways writing systems record spoken speech. The full list sits on the Words and Language page, where every entry is listed in order.