An inherent vowel is part of an abugida (or alphasyllabary) script. It is the vowel sound which is used with each unmarked or basic consonant symbol.
There are many abugida scripts, Brahmic scripts and cursive Meroitic script for example, which developed in Nubia (Today in Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan) and in India approximately at the same time before spreading throughout Southern Asia. Many of them are still used today for modern South-Asian languages.
All these scripts use such characters as base graphemes, from which the syllables are built up. Base graphemes having a consonant with an inherent vowel can be usually changed to other graphemes by joining a tone mark or dependent vowel to the grapheme.
Famous quotes containing the words inherent and/or vowel:
“The “universal moments” of child rearing are in fact nothing less than a confrontation with the most basic problems of living in society: a facing through one’s children of all the conflicts inherent in human relationships, a clarification of issues that were unresolved in one’s own growing up. The experience of child rearing not only can strengthen one as an individual but also presents the opportunity to shape human relationships of the future.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“Brute animals have the vowel sounds; man only can utter consonants.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)