Orthografier

Orthografier, also known as orthographies, are the conventional spelling systems used by a language. An orthography comprises the set of rules for how sounds are represented in writing, including letters or characters, diacritics, punctuation, capitalization, hyphenation, and word breaks. It usually reflects a language’s standard form and is distinct from pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, though the spelling often encodes phonological information to varying degrees.

Orthografier are frequently codified by dictionaries, grammars, language academies, or government bodies. Standardization aims to enable consistent reading and writing across a community, support education, and preserve national or cultural identity. In practice, most languages exhibit some variation between standard orthography and regional or historical spellings.

Orthografier can differ in how closely they align with pronunciation. Some languages use phonemic orthographies, where spelling mirrors sound more directly (as in Turkish after its 1928 reform, which adopted a Latin-based alphabet). Others retain irregular spellings that reflect history, loanwords, or pronunciation changes over time (as in English or French). Many languages also use diacritics or multiple scripts, and some offer parallel orthographies, such as Bokmål and Nynorsk in Norwegian, or Cyrillic and Latin scripts in Serbian.

Orthografier reform is a recurring process in many languages, balancing modernization with tradition. Reforms can simplify spelling, regularize irregularities, or adapt to new sociopolitical contexts, but they may also provoke debate about identity and heritage.