What does orthography mean?
Word: Orthography
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Orthography means the accepted way the words of a language are written down, letter by letter, or the study of correct written forms.
Word origin: From two Greek words meaning correct and to write.
How do you spell orthography?
Syllables: or - thog - ra - phy
Tricky part: Two h's hide in it: the th after or and the ph that makes the f sound. Students drop one and write ortography or orthografy.
Watch out for: ortography, orthografy
Memory tip: A thumb on a phone holds both pairs: th near the start, ph near the end, each with h second.
Orthography in a sentence
Example 1: English orthography is known for its silent letters, as in knife and island.
Example 2: Spell Bee contests reward students who know English orthography well.
Example 3: Linguists study how orthography changes when a language starts being written in a new script.
Fun Fact
Noah Webster's dictionary of 1828 helped give American English its own orthography, with spellings such as color and center.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose its meaning:
1. orthography 2. punctuasion 3. vocabulery 4. pronounciation
a) the way a word is said aloud
b) the set of rules for how words are written
c) all the words a person knows
d) marks such as commas and full stops in writing
Show answer
b) the set of rules for how words are written. Punctuation needs a t before ion, vocabulary ends in ary and pronunciation has no o after its first n, so orthography is the one to define.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Our language club spent the whole afternoon comparing the orthagraphy of Hindi and Marathi, which share one script but differ in a few letters.
a) comparing
b) orthagraphy
c) language
d) afternoon
Show answer
b) orthagraphy. The vowel just before the g is an o; orthagraphy has slipped an a into that place.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
The gotyhrphoar of English puzzles learners because ough can be said in so many ways.
a) philosophy
b) orthography
c) hierarchy
d) authority
Show answer
b) orthography. Each of the other three needs an i, and the jumble has none; its eleven letters spell orthography.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word orthography as used in the sentence:
Hindi orthography is easy to learn because each letter usually stands for one sound.
a) literature
b) spelling
c) handwriting
d) grammar
Show answer
b) spelling. The sentence is about how letters stand for sounds when words are written, which is spelling.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these is a question about orthography?
a) How old is this book?
b) Who wrote this old poem?
c) Is it theatre or theater?
d) Where is this tongue spoken?
Show answer
c) Is it theatre or theater?
2. Which change is a change in orthography?
a) writing a word with new letters
b) giving an old word a new meaning
c) saying a word with a new stress
d) borrowing a word from Hindi
Show answer
a) writing a word with new letters
