Deep orthographies are writing systems, such as those of English and Arabic, that do not have a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and the letters that represent them. Shallow orthographies have a one-to-one relationship between graphemes and phonemes, and the spelling of words is very consistent. For languages with more shallow orthographies, such as Italian and Finnish, new readers have few problems learning to decode words. As a result, children learn to read relatively quickly.

PropertyValue
dbpprop:abstract
  • Deep orthographies are writing systems, such as those of English and Arabic, that do not have a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and the letters that represent them. Shallow orthographies have a one-to-one relationship between graphemes and phonemes, and the spelling of words is very consistent. For languages with more shallow orthographies, such as Italian and Finnish, new readers have few problems learning to decode words. As a result, children learn to read relatively quickly. Most dyslexic readers of shallow orthographies learn to decode words with relative ease, but they tend to have more difficulty with reading fluency and comprehension. The hallmark symptom of dyslexia in a shallow orthography is naming speed. For languages with relatively deep orthographies, such as English and French, new readers have a great deal more difficulty learning to decode words. As a result, children learn to read more slowly. Research has shown that the hallmark symptoms of dyslexia in a deep orthography are a deficit in phonological awareness and difficulty reading at the word level. For these dyslexic readers, learning to decode words may take a long time—indeed, in the deepest orthographies the hallmark symptom of dyslexia is the inability to read at the word level—but many dyslexic readers have relatively fewer problems with fluency and comprehension once some level of decoding has been mastered. Studies between German and English have shown that the greater depth of English orthography had a "marked adverse effect on reading skills" among dyslexic children.
dbpprop:reference
dbpprop:seeAlsoProperty
  • Alphabet
  • Managing dyslexia: alphabetic orthography
dbpprop:wikiPageUsesTemplate
rdfs:comment
  • Deep orthographies are writing systems, such as those of English and Arabic, that do not have a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and the letters that represent them. Shallow orthographies have a one-to-one relationship between graphemes and phonemes, and the spelling of words is very consistent. For languages with more shallow orthographies, such as Italian and Finnish, new readers have few problems learning to decode words. As a result, children learn to read relatively quickly.
rdfs:label
  • Orthographies and dyslexia
skos:subject
foaf:page