Linguistics - Orthography and Typography

Here you will learn some English words related to orthography and typography such as "spelling", "cursive", and "italic".

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Linguistics
spelling [noun]

the act or the ability of putting letters in the correct order to form a word

Ex: The teacher praised her student for perfect spelling in the essay .

the practice of using uppercase letters to signify the beginning of a sentence, proper nouns, and certain other grammatical elements for clarity and emphasis

the use of marks such as a period, comma, etc. in writing to divide sentences and phrases to better convey meaning

Ex: The teacher emphasized the importance of punctuation in conveying the intended meaning of a sentence .

a set of symbols or characters used to represent language in a visual or tangible form, allowing communication and the recording of information

a writing system that represents the sounds of a language using consistent and predictable symbols or characters, allowing for a direct correspondence between written and spoken forms

cursive [noun]

a style of handwriting in which the letters are joined together in a flowing manner, often written with continuous strokes and without lifting the pen or pencil from the paper

the art and technique of organizing written text in a visually appealing and readable manner

Ex: A master of typography , the calligrapher infused each letter with personality , blending tradition with innovation to produce stunning works of art .

a self-contained part of discourse that consists of one or more sentences dealing with a particular topic, indicated by indentation

the degree of consistency between the spelling and pronunciation of words in a writing system, with shallow orthographies having a high degree of consistency such as in Spanish and deep orthographies having a lower consistency such as in English

the small letters in a writing system, contrasting with uppercase, and commonly used in regular text

Ex: The book 's title was printed in lowercase to give it a modern look .

the set of capital or large letters in the Latin alphabet or other writing systems, typically used at the beginning of a sentence, for proper nouns, and for emphasis

a linguistic or writing technique that uses pictures, symbols, or combinations of letters to represent words or sounds, often based on their phonetic similarity or association, creating visual puns or wordplay

alphabet [noun]

a set of basic written symbols, representing the sounds of a language, which if put into correct orders form the words

Ex:
logogram [noun]

a written character or symbol that represents an entire word or concept, rather than representing individual sounds or phonetic elements, as seen in some writing systems such as Chinese characters or Egyptian hieroglyphs

serif [noun]

the small decorative strokes or flourishes that extend from the ends of the main strokes of letters in a typeface, giving them a more traditional or formal appearance

typeface [noun]

a particular design or style of lettering, including the shape, size, and characteristics of the characters, that make up a complete set of fonts within a specific font family

a different physical or visual representation of the same grapheme or character in a writing system

grapheme [noun]

the smallest unit of a writing system that represents a distinct sound or phoneme in a language, such as a single letter, combination of letters, or symbol

bold [noun]

a font style characterized by thick, heavy lines for emphasis or visibility

Ex: The designer selected a bold for the poster title .
italic [noun]

a cursive script with slanted letters that are connected and flowing in appearance

a typeface or font that does not have small decorative strokes or serifs at the ends of the main letterforms, giving it a clean and modern appearance

the typographic variation of the digit "0" in which a diagonal slash is added across the zero to distinguish it from the letter "O" and indicate that it represents the numerical zero

ligature [noun]

a typographic term that refers to the combination of two or more letters or characters into a single interconnected glyph, often used to enhance readability or aesthetic appeal in certain typefaces or scripts

(linguistics) a mark that is written below or above a letter indicating a difference in pronunciation

a diacritic used in various languages and writing systems to indicate different linguistic features such as stress, pitch, or vowel quality

accent [noun]

a mark that indicates the emphatic syllable in a word, which is stressed

tilde [noun]

the symbol ~ put over the letter n in Spanish, or a and o in Portuguese to indicate nasalization

cedilla [noun]

the mark that appears as a small hook put under the letter 'c' indicating that it has a /s/ sound, rather than a /k/ sound

the mark ^, placed over a vowel in some languages indicating contraction, length, etc.

grave [noun]

the diacritic mark ` placed above a vowel in some languages indicating an altered pronunciation in case of quality, quantity or pitch

Ex: The linguist explained how the grave changes the meaning and pronunciation of certain words .
umlaut [noun]

the mark ¨, put over a vowel indicating an articulation with rounding or fronting

thorn [noun]

a historical Germanic letter of runic origin

Ex:

a graphic symbol that signifies a word, phrase, physical object, etc.

ideogram [noun]

a symbol or graphic representation that directly represents a concept or idea, often without relying on specific sounds or language, commonly used in pictographic or logographic writing systems

a letter in a word that is not pronounced when the word is spoken, although it may still affect the pronunciation or meaning of the word

eth [noun]

a letter used in some languages, such as Old English and Icelandic, to represent the voiced "th" sound, and is derived from the runic letter "d"

virama [noun]

a diacritic mark used in some writing systems, such as Devanagari and Indic scripts, to indicate the absence of a vowel sound following a consonant, effectively suppressing the inherent vowel

the art of producing beautiful handwriting using special writing instruments such as a dip or brush pen

Ex: She received compliments on her wedding invitations , which featured elegant calligraphy in gold ink .

a style of Chinese calligraphy that emerged during the Han Dynasty and was commonly used for official documents and bureaucratic purposes, characterized by its simplified and standardized form with square-shaped characters and clear strokes

an ancient style of writing used in China during the late Zhou Dynasty and the Qin Dynasty, characterized by its pictographic and abstract forms, with characters often featuring intricate and flowing lines

a standardized style of Chinese calligraphy characterized by its balanced and uniform strokes, widely used for its readability and simplicity

a semi-cursive style of Chinese calligraphy that exhibits a fluid and connected writing with simplified strokes, striking a balance between the cursive and regular scripts

kanji [noun]

the logographic characters adopted from Chinese characters and used in the Japanese writing system

hiragana [noun]

a fundamental component of the Japanese writing system, comprising 46 characters that represent syllables and are utilized for native Japanese words, grammatical purposes, and verb endings

katakana [noun]

a component in the Japanese writing system, consisting of 46 characters that represent syllables and are primarily used for borrowed words, foreign names, onomatopoeia, and emphasis

hanja [noun]

the Chinese characters that are used in the Korean writing system, representing both meaning and sound and used in conjunction with the Korean alphabet, Hangul, to write words of Chinese origin or to clarify the meaning of Korean words

rune [noun]

a letter or character from the runic alphabet, used in various Germanic languages during the early Middle Ages

stroke [noun]

a single mark, line, or brush movement used to form characters in writing systems such as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean

Ex: Japanese kanji requires correct stroke order for legibility .