ABSTRACT
The orthographic structure of languages varies widely. In languages with a transparent orthography, such as Greek and Spanish, the mappings between letters and sounds are highly consistent: given the rules, all words can be read successfully. However, in languages with a deep orthography, such as English and Danish, the letter-to-sound correspondence in words is less consistent: many words have irregular spellings (e.g., yacht) and learning their unusual pronunciations is the only way to read them correctly. Empirical evidence from cross-linguistic studies suggests that the variation in the orthographic structure of languages may significantly affect the development of word recognition skills and of reading in general (e.g., Frith, Wimmer, & Landerl, 1998; Patel, Snowling, & de Jong, 2004; Seymour, Aro, & Erskine, 2003; see also Ziegler & Goswami, 2005, for a review). Orthographic structure may also influence the initial stages of written word recognition in which letter identity and position are encoded.
