Orthographic depth

The orthographic depth of an alphabetic orthography indicates the degree to which it deviates from simple one-to-one letter-phoneme correspondence.

Orthographies may be defined as either shallow or deep, depending on the ease of predicting the pronunciation of a word from its spelling. In shallow orthographies, the spelling-sound correspondence is direct: given the rules anyone can immediately "name" the words correctly (Besner & Smith, 1992, p.45).^[1] In other words,Shallow orthographies have a one-to-one relationship between graphemes and phonemes, and the spelling of words is very consistent. A shallow orthography is also sometimes called a phonemic orthography. In contrast, in deep orthographies the relationship is less direct, and reader must learn the arbitrary or unusual pronunciations of irregular words (Besner & Smith, 1992, p.45). In other words, Deep orthographies are writing systems that do not have a one-to-one correspondence between sounds (phonemes) and the letters (graphemes) that represent them.

According to orthographic depth hypothesis, shallow orthographies are more easily able to support a word recognition process that involves the language phonology. In contrast, deep orthographies encourage a reader to process printed words by referring to their morphology via the printed word's visual-orthographic structure (Katz & Frost, 1992,71)^[2]. For languages with relatively deep orthographies, such as English, French, Chinese, Arabic or Hebrew, new readers have a great deal more difficulty learning to decode words. As a result, children learn to read more slowly. ^[3]

For languages with relatively shallow orthographies, such as Esperanto, Italian and Finnish, new readers have few problems learning to decode words. As a result, children learn to read relatively quickly.^[3] The phonetic writing systems of Japanese (hiragana and katakana) are another example of shallow orthography, but Japanese also uses logographs (kanji), which is significantly more complicated, and requires long study to master.

Bosch et al.^[4] consider orthographic depth to be the composition of at least two separate components. One of these relates to the complexity of the relations between the elements at the graphemic level (graphemes) to those at the phonemic level (phonemes), i.e. how difficult it is to convert graphemic strings (words) to phonemic strings. The second component is related to the diversity at the graphemic level, and to the complexity of determining the graphemic elements of a word (graphemic parsing), i.e., how to align a phonemic transcription to its spelling counterpart.

References

1. ^ Besner, D., Smith, M. C. (1992). Basic processes in reading: Is the orthographic depth hypothesis sinking? In R. Frost & L. Katz (Eds.), Orthography phonology morphology and meaning Advances in psychology Vol 94 (pp. 45-66). North-Holland, Oxford, England. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=1993-97079-003
2. ^ Katz, L., & Frost, R. (1992). The reading process is different for different orthographies: the orthographic depth hypothesis. Haskins Laboratories Status Report on Speech Research 1992 (pp. 147-160). Haskins Laboratories.
3. ^ ^{a b} Goswami, Usha (2005-09-06). "Chapter 28: Orthography, Phonology, and Reading Development: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective". in Malatesha, Joshi. Handbook of orthography and literacy. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc Inc. pp. 463–464. ISBN 0805846522.
4. ^ Van den Bosch, A., Content, A., Daelemans, W., and De Gelder, B. (1994). Analysing orthographic depth of different languages using data-oriented algorithms.

This linguistics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Linguistics stubs Orthography Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную? Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990 Orthographies and dyslexia Look at other dictionaries: Orthographies and dyslexia — Main articles: Dyslexia and Dyslexia research The complexity of a language s orthography, or writing system, can be a significant contributing factor to the difficulties experienced by dyslexic readers.[1] Current psycholinguistic models of… …   Wikipedia Orthography — This article is about a standardized way of using a specific writing system. For the type of projection, see Orthographic projection. The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system (script) to write… …   Wikipedia Bengali language — Bangla redirects here. For Bangla speaking people, see Bengali people. Bengali বাংলা Bangla The word Bangla in Bangla Assamese alphabet …   Wikipedia Dyslexia — This article is about developmental dyslexia. For acquired dyslexia, see Alexia (acquired dyslexia). Dyslexia Classification and external resources ICD 10 R48.0 ICD 9 …   Wikipedia Leonard Katz — [http://web.uconn.edu/psychology/people/Faculty/Katz/Katz.html] is an American experimental psychologist. He was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Connecticut (1965 2006) and is now Professor Emeritus. In the late 1960 s, he applied… …   Wikipedia Supercontinent cycle — Wilson cycle Simplified sketch of the western part of Pangaea Th …   Wikipedia Oblique projection — This article discusses imaging of three dimensional objects. For an abstract mathematical discussion, see Projection (linear algebra) …   Wikipedia Rasterisation — Rasterization or Rasterisation is the task of taking an image described in a vector graphics format (shapes) and converting it into a raster image (pixels or dots) for output on a video display or printer, or for storage in a bitmap file… …   Wikipedia P200 — In neuroscience, the visual P200 or P2 is a waveform component or feature of the event related potential (ERP) measured at the human scalp. Like other potential changes measurable from the scalp, this effect is believed to reflect the post… …   Wikipedia Continent — Animated, color coded map showing the various continents. Depending on the convention and model, some continents may be consolidated or subdivided: for example, Eurasia is often subdivided into Europe and Asia (red shades), while North and South… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”