orthography
Correct writing conventions
Orthography is the conventional spelling system of a language—the accepted way words are written.
English orthography is notoriously irregular, with silent letters and inconsistent sound-spelling correspondences.
The term also covers broader writing conventions like punctuation and capitalization: The editor corrected errors in orthography throughout the manuscript.
Language's letter system
- phoneticsStudy of speech sounds
- syllableUnit of pronunciation
- consonantIn agreement with
- vowelUnobstructed speech sound
diacritic · misspelling · dictionary · morpheme · pronunciation · homophone · homograph · digraph
Written words for performance
- alphabetLanguage's letter system
- syllabaryWriting using sound-units
- logographyWriting system using word-symbols
- CyrillicSlavic alphabet system
Hanzi · kanji · hiragana · katakana · Arabic script · Hebrew script · Greek alphabet · Latin alphabet
Study of ancient handwriting
- manuscriptOriginal text before publication
- codexAncient bound manuscript
- parchmentTreated hide for manuscripts
- vellumPrepared calfskin for writing
papyrus · scroll · inscription · epigraphy · variant · emendation · collation · gloss
Character style set
- serifLetter terminal flourish
- sans-serifType without terminal strokes
- typesetArrange text for printing
- kerningLetter-pair spacing adjustment
leading · typeface · glyph · ligature · tracking · point size · typesetting · letterform
Punctuation marking pauses
- periodPunctuation ending sentences
- semicolonPunctuation joining related clauses
- colonLarge intestine section
- question markInterrogative sentence ender
exclamation mark · quotation marks · apostrophe · brackets · parentheses · hyphen · dash · ellipsis
Skill of forming letters
- handwritingManual letter formation
- cursiveJoined handwriting style
- flourishTo grow vigorously
- swashWater flowing over ground
ink · nib · quill · stroke · lettering · ornamental · manuscript · italic
Systematic writing changes
- prescriptivismEnforcing linguistic correctness
- descriptivismDocumenting actual language use
- conventionAgreed standard of behavior
- codificationOrganizing rules into system
normalization · regularity · irregularity · American spelling · Webster · Johnson
alphabet
Language's letter system
vowel · diacritic · misspelling · dictionary · morpheme · pronunciation · homophone · homograph · digraph · trigraph
script
Written words for performance
- alphabetLanguage's letter system
- syllabaryWriting using sound-units
- logographyWriting system using word-symbols
Cyrillic · Hanzi · kanji · hiragana · katakana · Arabic script · Hebrew script · Greek alphabet · Latin alphabet · Cherokee syllabary
paleography
Study of ancient handwriting
- manuscriptOriginal text before publication
- codexAncient bound manuscript
- parchmentTreated hide for manuscripts
vellum · papyrus · scroll · inscription · epigraphy · variant · emendation · collation · gloss · incunabula
font
Character style set
- serifLetter terminal flourish
- sans-serifType without terminal strokes
- typesetArrange text for printing
kerning · leading · typeface · glyph · ligature · tracking · point size · typesetting · letterform · ascender
comma
Punctuation marking pauses
- periodPunctuation ending sentences
- semicolonPunctuation joining related clauses
- colonLarge intestine section
question mark · exclamation mark · quotation marks · apostrophe · brackets · parentheses · hyphen · dash · ellipsis · slash
penmanship
Skill of forming letters
- handwritingManual letter formation
- cursiveJoined handwriting style
- flourishTo grow vigorously
swash · ink · nib · quill · stroke · lettering · ornamental · manuscript · italic · copperplate
spelling reform
Systematic writing changes
- prescriptivismEnforcing linguistic correctness
- descriptivismDocumenting actual language use
- conventionAgreed standard of behavior
codification · normalization · regularity · irregularity · American spelling · Webster · Johnson
- EnglishAmerican English, British English, Australian English, Canadian English, Irish English
- languagelanguage, word, words, grammar, spelling
- lettersa, d, e, h, q
- vocabularyword, words, new words, term, terms
- English languagelinguistics, semantics, phonetics, vocabulary, speech
- FranceParis, Notre-Dame, Lyon, croissant, Toulouse
orthographymisspelling
Incorrect written form
illiteracy · spelling errors · dysgraphia · typos · scrawl
orthographypronunciation
Manner of speaking words
phonology · phonetics · speech · orality · spoken language