Dyslexia - Effect of Language Orthography

Effect of Language Orthography

The complexity of a language's orthography (i.e. its conventional spelling system, see orthographic depth ) has a direct impact upon how difficult it is to learn to read that language. English has a comparatively deep orthography within the Latin alphabet writing system, with a complex orthographic structure that employs spelling patterns at several levels: principally, letter-sound correspondences, syllables, and morphemes. Other languages, such as Spanish, have mostly alphabetic orthographies that employ letter-sound correspondences, so-called shallow orthographies. It is relatively easy to learn to read languages like Spanish; it is much more difficult to learn to read languages with more complex orthographies such as English. Logographic writing systems, notably Japanese and Chinese characters, have graphemes that are not linked directly to their pronunciation, which pose a different type of dyslexic difficulty.

From a neurological perspective, different types of writing systems (e.g. alphabetic as compared to logographic writing systems) require different neurological pathways in order to read, write, and spell. Because different writing systems require different parts of the brain to process the visual notation of speech, children with reading problems in one language might not have a reading problem in a language with a different orthography. The neurological skills required to perform the tasks of reading, writing, and spelling can vary between different writing systems. As a result, different neurological deficits can cause dyslexic problems in relation to different orthographies.