Orthografiska

Orthografiska is an adjective used in several Nordic languages, notably Swedish and Norwegian, to refer to matters relating to orthography—the conventional spelling system of a language. The term derives from orthography (spelling) with the adjective-forming suffix -ska/-isk in these languages. In linguistic and philological contexts, ortografiska describes rules, standards, or phenomena connected to how words are written rather than how they are pronounced.

Orthographic systems encompass alphabet and letter inventories, diacritics, punctuation, capitalization, word breaks, and the representation of phonemes, morphemes, and borrowed forms. Orthografiska conventions influence education, publishing, and digital input methods, and they may be codified by national language authorities, dictionaries, or typography standards. Spelling reforms—such as simplifying spellings, restoring historic forms, or aligning spelling more closely with pronunciation—are common topics under orthografiska discussions, though reforms often meet political and cultural considerations.

In practice, orthografiska considerations separate the written form from pronunciation: languages can have deep orthographies with irregular spellings, or shallow orthographies with close sound-to-spelling correspondence. The study of orthography intersects with lexicography, phonology, and sociolinguistics, as changes in society, technology, and education shape how a language is written.

See also orthography, spelling reform, typography, and language standardization. The term orthografiska thus serves as a descriptive label for a broad range of issues tied to how a language is written.