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{{Short description|Set of conventions for written language}}
{{For|the type of projection|Orthographic projection}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=November 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2016}}
{{Linguistics|Topics}}
An '''orthography''' is a set of [[convention (norm)|conventions]] for [[writing]] a [[language]], including norms of [[spelling]], [[punctuation]], [[Word#Word boundaries|word boundaries]], [[capitalization]], [[hyphen]]ation, and [[Emphasis (typography)|emphasis]].

Most national and international languages have an established [[writing system]] that has undergone substantial standardization, thus exhibiting less [[dialect]] variation than the spoken language.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1515/9783110141894.1.2.273 |chapter=Standard Variety |title=Sociolinguistics |date=2004 |last1=Ammon |first1=Ulrich |pages=273–283 |isbn=978-3-11-014189-4 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Coulmas|Guerini|2012|pp=454ff}} These processes can fossilize pronunciation patterns that are no longer routinely observed in speech (e.g. ''would'' and ''should''); they can also reflect deliberate efforts to introduce variability for the sake of national identity, as seen in [[Noah Webster]]'s efforts to introduce easily noticeable differences between [[American and British spelling]] (e.g. ''honor'' and ''honour'').

Orthographic norms develop through social and political influence at various levels, such as encounters with print in education, the workplace, and the state. Some nations have established [[language academies]] in an attempt to regulate aspects of the national language, including its orthography—such as the [[Académie Française]] in France and the [[Royal Spanish Academy]] in Spain. No such authority exists for most languages, including English. Some non-state organizations, such as [[newspapers of record]] and [[academic journal]]s, choose greater orthographic homogeneity by enforcing a particular [[style guide]] or spelling standard such as [[Oxford spelling]].

== Terminology ==
The English word ''orthography'' is first attested in the 15th century, ultimately from {{langx|grc|ὀρθός}} ({{Transliteration|grc|orthós}} 'correct') and {{lang|grc|γράφειν}} ({{Transliteration|grc|gráphein}} 'to write').<ref>{{Citation |title=Orthography |work=Online Etymology Dictionary |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=orthography&searchmode=none}}</ref>

Orthography in phonetic writing systems is often concerned with matters of [[spelling]], i.e. the correspondence between written [[grapheme]]s and the [[phoneme]]s found in speech.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1016/S0166-4115(08)62790-9 |chapter=Beyond Orthographic Depth in Reading: Equitable Division of Labor |title=Orthography, Phonology, Morphology, and Meaning |series=Advances in Psychology |date=1992 |last1=Seidenberg |first1=Mark S. |volume=94 |pages=85–118 |isbn=978-0-444-89140-2 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Donohue |first=Mark |title=Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Crowley |volume=30 |page=396 |year=2007 |editor-last=Siegel |editor-first=Jeff |editor-last2=Lynch |editor-first2=John |editor-last3=Eades |editor-first3=Diana |series=Creole Language Library |chapter=Lexicography for Your Friends |place=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins |doi=10.1075/cll.30 |isbn=978-90-272-5252-4}}</ref> Other elements that may be considered part of orthography include [[hyphen]]ation, [[capitalization]], [[Word#Word boundaries|word boundaries]], [[Emphasis (typography)|emphasis]], and [[punctuation]].{{sfnp|Coulmas|1996|p=379}} Thus, ''orthography'' describes or defines the symbols used in writing, and the conventions that regulate their use.

Most [[natural language]]s developed as oral languages and [[writing system]]s have usually been crafted or adapted as ways of representing the spoken language. The rules for doing this tend to become [[Standard language|standardized]] for a given language, leading to the development of an orthography that is generally considered "correct". In [[linguistics]], ''orthography'' often refers to any method of writing a language without judgement as to right and wrong, with a scientific understanding that orthographic standardization exists on a spectrum of strength of convention. The original sense of the word, though, implies a dichotomy of correct and incorrect, and the word is still most often used to refer specifically to a standardized [[prescriptive linguistics|prescriptive]] manner of writing. A distinction is made between [[emic and etic]] viewpoints, with the emic approach taking account of perceptions of correctness among language users, and the etic approach being purely descriptive, considering only the empirical qualities of any system as used.

== Units and notation ==
{{Orthography notation}}
Orthographic units, such as letters of an [[alphabet]], are conceptualized as [[grapheme]]s. These are a type of [[abstraction]], analogous to the [[phoneme]]s of spoken languages; different physical forms of written symbols are considered to represent the same grapheme if the differences between them are not significant for meaning. Thus, a grapheme can be regarded as an abstraction of a collection of [[glyph]]s that are all functionally equivalent. For example, in written English (or other languages using the [[Latin alphabet]]), there are two different physical representations (glyphs) of the [[lowercase]] Latin letter ''[[a]]'': {{gpm|a}} and {{gpm|ɑ}}. Since the substitution of either of them for the other cannot change the meaning of a word, they are considered to be [[allograph]]s of the same grapheme, which can be written {{gph|a}}. The [[Italic type|italic]] and [[Font#Weight|boldface]] forms are also allographic.

Graphemes or sequences of them are sometimes placed between angle brackets, as in {{gph|b}} or {{gph|back}}. This distinguishes them from phonemic transcription, which is placed between slashes ({{IPA|/b/}}, {{IPA|/bæk/}}), and from [[phonetic transcription]], which is placed between square brackets ({{IPA|[b]}}, {{IPA|[bæk]}}).

== Types ==
The [[writing systems]] on which orthographies are based can be divided into a number of types, depending on what type of unit each symbol serves to represent. The principal types are ''[[logographic]]'' (with symbols representing words or morphemes), ''[[syllabary|syllabic]]'' (with symbols representing syllables), and ''[[alphabet]]ic'' (with symbols roughly representing phonemes). Many writing systems combine features of more than one of these types, and a number of detailed classifications have been proposed. Japanese is an example of a writing system that can be written using a combination of logographic [[kanji]] characters and syllabic [[hiragana]] and [[katakana]] characters; as with many non-alphabetic languages, alphabetic [[romaji]] characters may also be used as needed.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9780203935668 |page=17 |title=Learning to Read Across Languages |date=2008 |isbn=978-1-135-60034-1 |editor-last1=Koda |editor-last2=Zehler |editor-first1=Keiko |editor-first2=Annette M. }}</ref>

== Correspondence with pronunciation ==
Orthographies that use [[alphabet]]s and [[syllabaries]] are based on the principle that written graphemes correspond to units of sound of the spoken language: phonemes in the former case, and [[syllable]]s in the latter. In virtually all cases, this correspondence is not exact. Different languages' orthographies offer different degrees of correspondence between spelling and pronunciation.  An orthography in which the correspondences between spelling and pronunciation are highly complex or inconsistent is called a ''[[deep orthography]]'' (or less formally, the language is said to have ''irregular spelling''). An orthography with relatively simple, consistent correspondences (i.e. more [[bijective]], or one-to-one) between spelling and pronunciation is called ''shallow'' (and the language has ''regular spelling'').{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}

The [[Navajo alphabet]] is a deep orthography.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDonough |first=Joyce |title=The Navajo Sound System |date=2003 |publisher=Springer Netherlands |isbn=978-1-4020-1351-5 |series=Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory |volume=55 |location=Dordrecht |doi=10.1007/978-94-010-0207-3}}</ref> The Navajo language is a complex language system that relies on relatively subtle phonetics, including distinct tones and nasalization. The script likewise exhibits complexities representing the language, which presents challenges for people trying to acquire literacy.

Spanish is an alphabet with shallow orthography; there is clear one-to-one correspondence between phonemes and graphemes.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Carrillo |first=María Soledad |last2=Alegría |first2=Jesús |last3=Marín |first3=Javier |date=July 2013 |title=On the acquisition of some basic word spelling mechanisms in a deep (French) and a shallow (Spanish) system |journal=Reading and Writing |language=en |volume=26 |issue=6 |pages=799–819 |doi=10.1007/s11145-012-9391-6 |issn=0922-4777}}</ref>  Another is the [[Hawaiian alphabet]], which only includes eight vowel letters and five consonant letters, for a total of thirteen. This allows literacy to be acquired quickly compared to deeper orthographies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elbert |first=Samuel H. |url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824840792 |title=Hawaiian Grammar |last2=Pukui |first2=Mary Kawena |date=1979-12-31 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-4079-2}}</ref>

=== Developing literacy ===
According to studies, children learn to read and write more quickly in shallow orthographies, such as Spanish, compared to deeper orthographies, like English. Orthographic mapping is the process of associating phonemes with graphemes. By establishing these strong connections, children can easily decode unfamiliar words with what they already know. Orthographic mapping also helps with vocabulary development and reading fluency. Although shallow orthography is easier to grasp, researchers have argued that deeper orthographies make it challenging for individuals with [[dyslexia]] to learn.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carioti |first=Desiré |last2=Masia |first2=Marta Franca |last3=Travellini |first3=Simona |last4=Berlingeri |first4=Manuela |date=2021-10-01 |title=Orthographic depth and developmental dyslexia: a meta-analytic study |journal=Annals of Dyslexia |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=399–438 |doi=10.1007/s11881-021-00226-0 |issn=1934-7243 |pmc=8458191 |pmid=33982221}}</ref>

=== Defective orthographies ===
An orthography based on a correspondence to phonemes may sometimes lack characters to represent all the phonemic distinctions in the language. This is called a [[defective orthography]]. An example in English is the lack of any indication of [[stress (linguistics)|stress]].{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} Another is the [[digraph (orthography)|digraph]] {{gph|th}}, which represents two different phonemes (as in ''then'' and ''thin'') and replaced the old letters {{gph|[[ð]]}} and {{gph|[[þ]]}}. A more systematic example is that of [[abjad]]s like the [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] and [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]] alphabets, in which the short vowels are normally left unwritten and must be inferred by the reader.

When an alphabet is borrowed from its original language for use with a new language—as has been done with the [[Latin alphabet]] for many languages, or Japanese [[katakana]] for non-Japanese words—it often proves defective in representing the new language's phonemes. Sometimes this problem is addressed by the use of such devices as digraphs (such as {{gph|sh}} and {{gph|ch}} in English, where pairs of letters represent single sounds), [[diacritic]]s (like the [[caron]] on the letters {{gph|š}} and {{gph|č}}, which represent those same sounds in [[Czech language|Czech]]), or the addition of completely new symbols (as some languages have introduced the letter {{gph|[[w]]}} to the Latin alphabet) or of symbols from another alphabet, such as the [[rune]] {{gph|[[þ]]}} in Icelandic.

After the classical period, Greek developed a lowercase letter system with diacritics to enable foreigners to learn pronunciation and grammatical features. As pronunciation of letters changed over time, the diacritics were reduced to representing the stressed syllable. In Modern Greek typesetting, this system has been simplified to have only a single accent to indicate which syllable is stressed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bulley |first1=Michael |title=Spelling reform – a lesson from the Greeks: Learning from the Greeks about English spellings |journal=English Today |date=December 2011 |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=71–72 |doi=10.1017/S0266078411000575 }}</ref>

== See also ==

* {{Annotated link |Cursive}}
* {{Annotated link |Keyboard layout}}
* {{Annotated link |Lateral masking}}
* {{Annotated link |List of language disorders}}
* {{Annotated link |Palaeography}}
* {{Annotated link |Penmanship}}
* {{Annotated link |Prescription and description}}
* {{Annotated link |Spelling reform}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|25em}}

=== Works cited ===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{Citation |last1=Borgwaldt |first1=Susanne R. |title=Typology of Writing Systems |year=2013 |publication-place=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins |isbn=978-90-272-0270-3 |last2=Joyce |first2=Terry}}
* {{Citation |title=The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Orthography |year=2023 |editor-last=Condorelli |editor-first=Marco |editor-last2=Rutkowska |editor-first2=Hanna |series=Cambridge handbooks in language and linguistics |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-48731-3}}
* {{Citation |last=Coulmas |first=Florian |title=The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems |year=2002 |orig-date=1996 |edition=Repr. |place=Malden, MA |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-19446-0 |ref={{sfnref|Coulmas|1996}}}}
* {{Citation |last=Sebba |first=Mark |title=Spelling and society: the culture and politics of orthography around the world |year=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-84845-9}}
* {{Citation |title=The Cambridge Handbook of Language Policy |year=2012 |editor-last=Spolsky |editor-first=Bernard |series=Cambridge handbooks in language and linguistics |chapter=Literacy and Writing Reform |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511979026 |isbn=978-0-511-97902-6}}
** {{Harvc |in=Spolsky |year=2012 |last=Coulmas |first=Florian |last2=Guerini |first2=Federica |c=Literacy and Writing Reform |pages=437–460}}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Citation |last1=Cahill |first1=Michael |title=Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages |year=2014 |place=Dallas |publisher=SIL International |isbn=978-1-55671-347-7 |last2=Rice |first2=Keren}}
* {{Citation |last=Smalley |first=William A. |title=Orthography Studies: Articles on New Writing Systems |year=1964 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vIMTAAAAIAAJ |series=Helps for translators |place=London |publisher=United Bible Societies |oclc=5522014 |via=Google Books}}
* {{Citation |last1=Venezky |first1=Richard L. |title=From orthography to pedagogy: essays in honor of Richard L. Venezky |year=2005 |place=Hillsdale, NJ |publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum |isbn=0-8058-5089-9 |last2=Trabasso |first2=Tom}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Orthography| ]]
[[Category:Applied linguistics]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Linguistics terminology]]