ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a review of empirical research about the role of phonological and cognitive factors in reading and spelling Greek orthography. Although spoken Greek has changed considerably during historical times, written Greek has remained essentially unchanged throughout its long history. As a result, a number of inconsistencies exist between its spoken and written forms. Because of the differences between the oral and the written forms of the language, Greek language is now written, not as it is pronounced, but as it was probably pronounced almost 25 centuries ago. Greek, like English, is a morphophonemic script but is much more transparent than English in the representation of phonology. On the basis of the existing data derived from empirical research and in view of the nature of the Greek spelling system, it could be argued that Greek children tend to find learning to read easier than learning to spell. However, this does not mean that all children acquire reading and spelling skills easily. This is reflected in the reading performance of dyslexic readers, which, unlike as happens in the English language, is relatively accurate but slow. The most important index of the reading performance of Greek children seems to be their reading speed rather than their reading accuracy.
