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Phonemic orthography

Orthography in which the graphemes correspond to the phonemes of the language

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Through Orthography

For a systemic analysis of the phoneme/grapheme correspondence, Petr Sgall distinguishes two conditions, both of which are to be satisfied for a phonemic orthography:

  • in any context, a given grapheme is pronounced as the same phoneme ("uniqueness of pronunciation")
  • in any context, a given phoneme is written with the same grapheme ("uniqueness of spelling")

Phonetic orthography

In the past, the term phonetic orthography was used to refer to various proposals of phonetic English-language spelling reforms, e.g., by J.I.D. Hinds or Tobias Witmer.

On the other hand, Morris Swadesh defined "phonetic orthography" or "phonetic alphabet" as a writing system to make a phonetic record using symbols for "selected characteristic points in the total range of possible speech sounds", which is more commonly referred to as "phonetic transcription".

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