Ortográfico

Ortográfico is the adjective used to designate matters related to orthography, the set of conventions that regulate the written form of a language. It concerns how sounds and meanings are represented in writing, including the choice of letters, diacritics, punctuation, capitalization, and word boundaries. Orthography distinguishes written form from pronunciation and grammar, and it provides standardized rules for consistent spelling.

The scope of orthographic systems typically includes the alphabet or grapheme inventory, rules for diacritics and accent marks, punctuation conventions, capitalization norms, hyphenation and line breaks, and the guidelines for punctuation and quotation marks. These rules are often codified in normative texts produced by language academies or linguistic authorities, and they can be prescriptive, describing correct usage, or descriptive, documenting actual usage patterns.

Historically, orthographic norms vary across languages and communities and have changed through reforms aimed at standardization, simplification, or modernization. Notable examples include reforms in Spanish that redefined how certain digraphs are treated in alphabetization and spelling; reforms in Portuguese that harmonized orthography across lusophone countries; and long-standing processes in English driven by dictionaries, publishers, and educational institutions. Such changes typically balance traditional conventions with practical considerations for literacy and cross-dialect communication.

In modern contexts, orthography intersects with education, publishing, typography, and digital technology. Proper orthography facilitates literacy, searchability, and accurate information exchange, while digital encoding (such as Unicode) and input methods influence how diacritics and special characters are rendered and entered across platforms.