An abugida is a type of writing system in which each character represents a consonant with an inherent vowel sound. The vowel can be modified or changed by adding diacritics or additional symbols. This system is commonly used in languages such as Hindi, Amharic, and Bengali, allowing for efficient representation of syllables. In an abugida, the base character typically indicates a consonant, and the default vowel sound is often "a." For example, in the Devanagari script used for Sanskrit and Hindi, the character क (ka) represents the consonant "k" with the vowel "a." Modifications can create different sounds, making abugidas versatile for various languages.