Phonemic orthography

In a phonetic, phonemic and phonemic orthography a character clearly represents only one phoneme. It is thus the ideal case, the orthography, which aims at a possible simple, clear in both directions relation between sound sequence and typeface in general. In contrast, there are other criteria in the foreground (Figure historic speech states, morphological relationships ) at a etymological orthography.

Features

The goal of a phonemic orthography is, writing as precisely as possible to map the phonemes of the language, these are the sounds used, which cause differences in meaning, so that each phoneme corresponds to a single letter, digraph, or trigraph. Unlike in the International phonetic alphabet that is not to be described, it is like an "r " to speak (rolling [r ] or as a suppository -R [ ʁ ] ), because these variants do not change the meaning of the word.

Some alphabets have basic phoneme - grapheme correspondences. For example, the sounds [b ] with a b, or [d ] are realized with a d in languages ​​with Latin script almost always. In the phoneme / k /, there are three variants, namely c, k and q (u).

However, if the basic letters suffice them must be included for a phonemic orthography, among other diacritical mark to modify them. For example, it is for [ ʃ ] has no direct equivalent in the Latin alphabet. Some Slavic languages, such as the Czech and Slovak use this one s with caron ( š ). The Hungarian language in turn used for this sound the unmodified letter s, the voiceless [s ] is realized by the digraphs sz, the voiced variant by means of eg In German, on the other hand is used for [ ʃ ] Take Shelter, in a Polish sz.

The same applies to the Cyrillic script. Among other things, especially the ў was created for the Belarusian According to [ ŭ ] from the у. Turkic languages ​​with this font contain relatively many new creations since their phoneme inventory is very different from the Slavic.

Languages ​​that use a font other than the above, have for a possible phonemic notation special graphemes and diacritics, such as Devanagari.

The realization of the phonemes is additionally varied in many cases. In most languages ​​other subtleties of pronunciation are distinctive (for the meaning important):

• The emphasis here may seem meaningless distinctive. For example, does the Russian word стоит either he / she / it will cost (purchase price) ( first syllable stressed ), or he / she / it is (second syllable stressed ). In this case, there is a lack of clarity of the writing because the stressed vowel is not labeled. In textbooks for the Russian language, this is solved with accents: стоит or стоит
• Furthermore, there are languages ​​that distinguish between different lengths pronunciation of the vowels (usually two or three ), for example, characterizes the long talk with an accent or macron. A minimal pair is for example Hungarian AGY [a ː ɟ ] ( bed) with agy [ ɒɟ ] (brain). Also consonants can in some idioms have different lengths.
• In tone languages ​​, such as the Sino Tibetan or the Na - Dene languages, change the pitch, with a spoken sound, the meaning. The former language family used no alphabet in the true sense, but logograms for individual syllables. For the Na - Dene language Navajo the Latin alphabet was introduced. High tones are marked with an accent, while low notes do not contain diacritics.

Application

A phonemic orthography often comes into use when a country's government decides to take on a new script for their language. Since the writing rules should be planned before its introduction, a simple and phonetically accurate spelling is preferred ideally.

This applies for example to the Vietnamese language for which one of the colonizing Europeans easy to learn Latin orthography has been developed. It replaced eventually the Chinese characters.

The Turkish language has in relatively recent past, 1928, the Arabic script replaced by the so-called New Turkish alphabet. Other Turkic languages ​​, such as Azerbaijani, use similar alphabets. Even today, they are working on a unified and loud true alphabet for all Turkic languages ​​.

However absolutely phonetic orthographies are so good as not to be found. Even languages ​​such as the above rely on changing according to letters. The Turkish has this included ğ the letter that either [ j] is spoken or the preceding vowel stretches. In the Vietnamese pronunciation of some letters varies depending on the position in the word; especially at the end of a syllable. One phonetic spelling comes quite close to the Georgian language with the corresponding Georgian alphabet.

The spelling of the Hungarian language is, except in proper names, an example of an approximately phonemic spelling, which has developed only in the course of time. The emphasis is always on the first syllable, long vowels are marked pitches are not distinctive. In addition, digraphs and trigraphs are applied one, which always represent how each letter a unique pronunciation. This is the result of several reforms. The oldest surviving document, the " funeral oration " (See " Web Links " in Hungarian), the massive differences to the current implementation can be viewed.

Planned languages ​​like Esperanto use a phonemic orthography, as they should be easy to learn. It is even possible to do without digraphs (except for alternate spellings, such as cx, sx for ĉ, ŝ ). An exception is a variant of Esperanto, which Arcaicam Esperantom, which has a different and thus " outdated " acting spelling specially for literary purposes.

Some phonemic features are lack Distinktivität even by native speakers, if at all, only subliminally perceived. They are therefore ( in planned languages ​​) rarely noted and missed at a quick talk sometimes. An example in English is the glottal stop (or " glottal stop " ) [ ʔ ]. He has in the German alphabet not own grapheme and nowhere affects the meaning of a word, but is pronounced with vowels at the beginning of a syllable, for example, note [ bəʔaχtən ]. Particularly noticeable is the poor (also not been written by ) aspiration, a small aspiration of a sound after voiceless plosives at the beginning of a syllable. Even native speakers sometimes it falls only after significant debate and may vary dialect. Opportunities to try out are the words cold [k ʰ old ] and pass [ p ʰ as]. Also, the difference between unvoiced [s ] and voiced [z ] is ( word-initially ), but need not be realized. Example: nut [ nʊs ] but cream [za ː nə ].