This version of the symbol system is less readily interpretable, consequently memorization of these symbols became necessary. The notion is that two words that sound the same can be written by the same sign. The above example is a syllabic representation. Syllabaries Syllabaries are hypothesized to have developed from the need to represent foreign words and proper names. For these words it was necessary to be able to be able to retrieve verbatim forms from their written representations.
Syllables are relatively salient units of spoken language so the rationale was intuitively clear.
Languages which only allow a few syllable types are ideally suited for such a writing system. In English as many as four consonants can cluster in syllable-final position and consonants are allowed in both initial and final positions. By one estimate, English contains about 5,000 syllables. A syllabic script for English would present a formidable initial learning task. Eventually people began representing whole syllables by only their initial consonants.