Other ancient scripts were also defective. Egyptian hieroglyphs had no vowel representation at all, while the cuneiform script frequently did not distinguish among a consonant triad like /t/, /d/ and /t'/ (emphatic /t/), or between the vowels /e/ and /i/.

With only 16 characters, the Younger Futhark was an even more defective form of the Elder Futhark, from which it had evolved