ABSTRACT
An orthography is a notational system for a language. The word system in this context indicates that there is a finite number of elements (e.g., letters) with a distinct form and meaning that can be copied and identified; these elements are combined according to specific rules to produce an interpretable notation (Goodman, 1976; Harris, 1995; Tolchinsky, 2003). The word notation indicates that orthographies enable oral languages to be encoded, recorded, transported and reproduced in a systematic way. Orthographies are powerful tools: with a limited set of letters, we can write all the existing words in a language, and even new ones, invented much later than the orthography. Just think of words like computer, rocket and software, and you will see how these are so much younger than English orthography.
