Languages have different levels of othographic depth, that means that a language’s orthography can vary in a spectrum of a very irregular and complex orthography (deep orthography) to a completely regular and simple one (shallow orthography).
English, French, Danish, Swedish, Arabic, Urdu, Tibetan, Burmese, Thai, Khmer, Lao, Chinese, and Japanese have orthographies that are highly irregular, complex and where sounds cannot be predicted from the spelling. These writing systems are more difficuld and slow to be learned by children, who may take years. In the medium of the scale there’s Spanish, Portuguese, German, Polish, Greek, Russian, Persian, Hindi, Korean, where there are some irregularities but overall the correspondence of one sound to one phoneme is not that bad. At the positive end of the scale there’s Italian, Serbo-Croat, Romanian, Finnish, Basque, Turkish, Indonesian, Quechua, Ayamara, Guarani, Mayan languages, and most African languages (because there were no history of spelling, so a new one of scratch was made as very regular), they all have very simple and regular spelling systems, with usually a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters. These are very easily learned by children.
Orthographic depth has several implications for the study of psycholinguistics and the study of language processing and also acquisition of reading and writing by children.
Note: remember that there’s no objective numbering on the three categories I made, there are more than just these three categories, because it works like a spectrum. Three categories were used just as a means for simplification.
Kinda cool how just a dot in different places means many different things in devanagari Up top? Assimilated nasal Down below? Lenition (frication) Also dot below? Flap Also dot below? Alveolarization/backing Three below? backing On the side? Approximation Two on the right? -h
samtaims ai vonder if inglis spiiking piipöl aar eiböl tu riölais thät ai äm äksöli vraiting in inglish rait nau bat tsast vith veri finnish spelling
sou if juu spiik inglish bat not finnish kän juu pliis reblog änd liiv ö komment on tis post tänk juu veri mats
Sammteims ei wonda iff inglisch schbieking pipel ahr ebel tu rieleis set ei ehm ecktschuli reiting in inglisch reit nauh batt schast wiss währi tschörmen schbelling
So iff ju schbiek inglisch batt nott tschörmen kenn ju plies riplock end lief eh kommänt on dies pust senk ju wäri matsch
tänk juu for joor tsörman kontribjuusson, ai äpprishieit it veri mats. änd it oolsou helps mii tu gräsp tö essens of tsörman äksent
Samtajms aj vonder if ingliš spíking pípl ár ejbl tu rielajz det aj em ekšuely rajting in ingliš rajt náv bat džast vit veri slovak speling. Sou if jú spík ingliš bat not slovak ken jú plís riblog end lív en koment on tiz poust tenk jú veri mač
Самтаймз ай вондр иф иньглиш спикинь пийпль ар эйбль ту риэлайз дзят ай эм экшуалий райтинь ин иньглиш райт нау бат джаст виць вейрий рашин спеллинь. Со иф ю спик иньглиш бат нот рашин кэн ю плиз риблог энд лив э комент ан дзис пост цянк ю вейрий мач
Samtæms æ wonda if ínglis spíking pípl ar eybel tú ríalæs ðet æ em ektsuali ræting in ínglis ræt ná bat dsast við veri æslendik speling
so if jú spík ínglis bat nott æslendik ken jú plís ríblog end líf a komment on ðis post þenk jú veri mats
Samtaims ai uonder if inglisc spiching pipol ar eibol tu rialais det i em acscualli raiting in inglisc rait nau bat dez uid veri italian spelling. sou if iu spic inglisc bat not italian chen iu plis riblog end liv a comment on dis post tenk iu veri macc’.
sumtaimes ai wundère eef angliche peepole ar ébl tu rayolize zat i am actualie ritin en angliche rite nau bat dees iz veri french spélling. sau if u speec angliche bat nut french plis cun u reeblog end leev a commant en deez post tank u veri muche
somtajms ai wonde if inglisj spieking piepel ar ebel toe riëlais det ai em eksjelie wraiting in inglisj rait nau but djust wif verrie dutsj spelling
so if joe spiek inglisj but not dutsj ken joe plies rieblok ent lief uh komment on dis poost tenk joe verrie mutsj
Samtajms aj łonder if inglisz spikink pipul ar ejbul tu rielajs dat aj em akczueli rajtink in inglisz rajt nał bat dżast łif weri połlisz spelink
Soł if ju spik inglisz bat not połlisz ken ju plis riblok ent lif a koment on dis połst fenk ju weri macz
somtaghms aigh bhondar iobh iunglois spíocang píopal ár éabal ta ríalaghs dat aigh eim aicsiúlaí raghtuing in iunglois raght nadh bot diost bhot bhéirí aighris spoiling
sómh iobh dhiú spíoc iunglois bot nát aighris cean dhiú plíos ríoblág eand líomh a camoint án dus póst taenc dhiú bhéirí moit
samtaims ai uandăr if ingliș spiking pipăl ar eibăl tu riălaiz zet ai em ecșuali riating in ingliș rait nau băt giast uiz a veri rumeiniăn speling. său if iu spic ingliș băt not rumeiniăn chen iu pliz riblog end liv a coment on zis post senk iu veri maci.
santaime ai wanda yifu yinglishe supiqing pipo er eibo tu rilaisi sate ai ame aketuali reaiting yin yinglishe reaite nao bate jiasete wuyite ei beili chainise sepeiling. Sou yifu yü sepiku yinglishe bate noute chainise kan yü pilise riyibuluoge ande libu ei koumente oune zise posete sanke yü beili mache.
I was gon say “I’m not smart enough to do this in chinese” and you absolute mad fuckin lad you did it
but also yifu,,,,YIFU,,,, AHSHSHSSH
im too slow for this
Reblogging with amazement and amusement.
This is when linguistics meets gymnastics. Or possibly origami. :-D
Joke’s on you, other languages, English is so inconsistently spelled that we can read any of them except the ones in other alphabets. Half of learning to read in this language is having a gap where our brain takes a millisecond to take a guess at the pronunciation *this* time.
If this is your first time encountering shorthand then you’re in for a treat. What’s shorthand? Shorthand is a technique for writing very quickly.
At its basics you’re writing sounds not spelling and combining simple lines to make full words.
Get it? You’re optimizing for speed of writing not density or accuracy. So it’s hard to read and takes up more space but you can write down notes fast. How fast? Here’s someone writing at 120 words per minute.
The world record is 250 wpm, but even with a little practice you can get a lot faster than cursive or print.
I’ve seen a few people ask if Jonathan is writing assuming Dracula can’t read his notes. I don’t know the answer to that, but I can share exactly that happening with Superman and Lex Luthor.
Naturally a reporter like Kent would use shorthand to quickly transcribe notes in the field.
This is the sort of think Mina is practicing specifically because it’s the language used in business. You can read a great article on the expectations of men’s and women’s writing of the era here:
IJ is considered a single letter in Dutch, but was not counted as such considering “ijk” is given for the triplet (though I’d guess the triplet would be “lijk”). in West Frisian, which is not shown on the map, IJ is simply an i+j sequence
also it is worth clarifying how these were determined. helps explain some of the surprising results :
![Pronounciation of the digraph <OU> [ow] - Spanish (very rarely), Northern European Portuguese](https://64.media.tumblr.com/d59b3ffbdcb3f395a34a64913e12b2f4/becbddcc5ea3ae1b-27/s1280x1920/bed4ae9f83c4d9a6ad7fb54c1d106bb620a3efdd.png "Pronounciation of the digraph <OU> [ow] - Spanish (very rarely), Northern European Portuguese")
