Syllabic alphabets, alphasyllabaries or abugidas are writing systems in which the main element is the syllable. Syllables are built up of consonants, each of which has an inherent vowel, e.g. ka, kha, ga, gha. Diacritic symbols are used to change or mute the inherent vowel, and separate vowel letters may be used when vowels occur at the beginning of a syllable or on their own.
The illustration below shows some of the letters and other symbols used in Devanagari, which is used to write Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and many other languages. The vowel diacritics are highlighted in red, and the consonant clusters are used when two or more consonants occur together without vowels between them.