This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (January 2026) |
A phonemic orthography is an orthography (system for writing a language) in which the graphemes (written symbols) correspond consistently to the language's phonemes (the smallest units of speech that can differentiate words), or more generally to the language's diaphonemes.[citation needed]
For a systemic analyis of the phoneme/grapheme correspondence Petr Sgall, disinguishes two conditions, both of which are to be satisfied for a phonemic orthography:[1]
- (a) in any context the given grapheme is pronounced as the same phoneme ("uniqueness of pronunciation")
- (b) in any context the given phoneme is written with the same grapheme ("uniqueness of spelling")
See also
- Alphabetic principle
- English-language spelling reform
- International Phonetic Alphabet
- Spelling
- Morphophonology
- Orthographic depth
- Orthographic transcription
References
- ^ Petr Sgall, "Towards a Theory of Phonemic Orthography", In book: Orthography and Phonology, pp. 1-30, p. 10
