Handbook of Orthography and Literacy

R. Malatesha Joshi, P.G. Aaron

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136781346
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Until about two decades ago, the study of writing systems and their relationship to literacy acquisition was sparse and generally modeled after studies of English language learners. This situation is now changing. As the worldwide demand for literacy continues to grow, researchers from different countries with different language backgrounds have begun examining the connection between their writing systems and literacy acquisition. This text, which derives from a NATO sponsored conference on orthography and literacy, brings together the research of 70 scholars from across the world--the largest assemblage of such experts to date. Their findings are grouped into three parts, as follows: Part I, Literacy Acquisition in Different Writing Systems, describes the relationship between orthography and literacy in twenty-five orthographic systems. This section serves as a handy reference source for understanding the orthographies of languages as diverse as Arabic, Chinese, English, Icelandic, Kannada, and Kishwahili. Part II, Literacy Acquisition From a Cross-Linguistic Perspective, makes direct comparisons of literacy acquisition in English and other orthographic systems. The overall conclusion that emerges from these eight chapters is that the depth of an orthographic system does influence literacy acquisition primarily by slowing down the acquisition of reading skills. Even so, studies show that dyslexic readers can be found across all orthographic systems whether shallow or deep, which shows that dyslexia also has internal cognitive and biological components. Part III, Literacy Acquisition: Instructional Perspectives, explores literacy acquisition from developmental and instructional perspectives and ends with a look into the future of literacy research.This Handbook is appropriate for scholars, researchers, and graduate students in such diverse fields as cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, literacy education, English as a second language, and communication disorders.

I
Literacy Acquisition in Different
Writing Systems

1
Evolution of an Alphabetic Writing
System: The Case of Icelandic

Jörgen Pind
University of Iceland

Iceland has a literary tradition reaching back for almost a millennium, with the earliest written Icelandic documents dating from the 11th century. During the 13th and 14th centuries numerous important literary works—sagas, poetry, histories—were produced. In the 12th century an alphabet was created for Icelandic in an important treatise, commonly termed the First Grammatical Treatise, written by an unknown author. The treatise elaborates on the letters needed for showing the phonemic distinctions of the language; it also shows a realization of the fact that numerous other considerations apply in writing than purely phonemic ones. The current Icelandic orthography has been gradually shaped over the past centuries, with the latest changes being introduced in 1973–1974. Establishing the current Icelandic system of writing has involved a struggle between two opposing viewpoints, one viewpoint arguing for the necessity of being true to the origins of words and the long tradition of writing, the other wanting to move the writing closer to pronunciation. The most recent changes introduced were, though, primarily motivated by educational concerns. The current Icelandic orthography is a compromise between these different viewpoints. The result is a writing system that is relatively transparent for the reader but rather difficult for the speller.

Introduction

In this chapter I give an outline of the history of the Icelandic writing system and briefly discuss some aspects of literacy in Iceland. Two factors make the Icelandic case somewhat unique. First, the Icelandic language is quite conservative and has remained relatively stable in its morphology and syntax, though the phonology has undergone considerable changes. Because of this conservatism, Icelanders can still read the literature of the earlier centuries. Second, of considerable interest is the fact that there exists an important document from the earliest period of Icelandic writing called the First Grammatical Treatise (FGT). In this work the author, who remains unknown, describes in great detail his considerations when applying the Latin alphabet to the Icelandic vernacular. No other comparable description exists from such an early period for what must have been a quite common undertaking. Indeed, it is only in the 20th century that similar considerations have been explicitly given to the principles for reducing speech to writing. The Icelandic orthography has undergone considerable changes from medieval times, and intense debates about spelling reforms have characterized this evolutionary process. The final reforms were undertaken as late as 1974. It is clear that the current orthography reflects numerous, partly irreconcilable, views about the optimal way to write a living language with a long literary past.

The Origins of Icelandic Writing

Writing in Iceland has a history spanning almost a millennium. The country was settled about 870 C.E., mainly by Norse Vikings. The country was converted to Christianity in the year 1000 and presumably writing was introduced at that time, at least in Latin.

Writing in the vernacular in Icelandic is commonly considered to have originated in the first decades of the 12th century. The Book of Icelanders, written by Ari Thorgilsson the Learned in the years 1122–1133, describes how, at the session of the parliament in the summer of 1117, a resolution was passed

...that our law should be written in a book at

Másson's during the following winter according to his dictation and council, and that of Bergþórr [the Law-Speaker], and of other wise men who were selected for the task. They were to make new provisions in the law whenever they considered such to be better than the old ones. The laws were to be recited the next summer in the legislature, and all those to be kept that were not opposed by the majority (Benediktsson, 1965, p. 13).

The resulting work—

scroll, now unfortunately lost—is generally thought to mark the beginning of writing in the Icelandic vernacular. The earliest extant manuscripts are considerably younger, most dating from after 1250 (Benediktsson, 1965). The previously mentioned Book of Icelanders by Ari Thorgilsson is preserved in manuscripts from the 13th and 14th centuries.

One of the earliest of Icelandic documents is the FGT, written by an unknown author, probably in the period 1125–1175 (Benediktsson, 1972; Haugen, 1972; Holtsmark, 1936). The treatise derives its name from the fact that it is the first of four grammatical works in the 14th-century manuscript Codex Wormianus, which is kept in the Arnamagnæan collection in the University of Copenhagen (AM 242 fol.). This is one of the principal manuscripts of the Edda of Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241), a handbook of poetics and Norse mythology. Although numerous manuscripts of the Edda exist, this is the only extant copy of the FGT.

The unknown author of the FGT is commonly called the First Grammarian (FG), a custom that is followed here. (I also follow custom in referring to the FG in the masculine.)

The FGT is a classic work of linguistics because it describes in great detail the considerations that need to be taken into account when an already existing alphabet is applied to a new language. In the case of the FG this involved adapting the Latin alphabet for the Icelandic language. In doing this the FG describes the main features of phonemic analysis in terms strikingly similar to those used by the Prague linguistic circle and others in the 20th century (Anderson, 1985). In particular, the FG shows a deep understanding of the importance of establishing those speech sounds that have a distinctive function in the language, as these need to be depicted with their own letters.

The treatise starts out as follows (all quotations are from the translation by Haugen, 1972):

In most countries men put into books either the great events that have come to pass within their country, or whatever seems most memorable that has occurred abroad, or men put their laws into books, each people in its own language. But because languages are all unlike one another, ever since they parted and branched off from one and the same language, it is now needful to use different letters in writing them, and not the same for all.

Whatever language one has to write with the letters of another language, some letters will be lacking, because there are sounds in the language for which the other language has no letters, and some letters may be taken out.... And yet Englishmen write English with Latin letters, as many as can be rightly pronounced in English, but where these no longer suffice, they add other letters, as many and of such a nature as are needed, taking out those that cannot be rightly pronounced in their language.

Now according to their example, since we are of the same tongue, although there has been much change in one of them or some in both, I have written an alphabet for us Icelanders also, in order that it might become easier to write and read, as is now customary in this country as well, laws, genealogies, or sacred writings, and also that historical lore which Ari Thorgilsson has recorded in his books with such understanding and wit. I have used all the Latin letters that seemed to fit our language well and could be rightly pronounced, as well as some other letters that seemed needful to me, while those were taken out that did not suit the sounds of our language. Some of the consonants of the Latin alphabet were rejected, and some new ones added. No vowels were rejected, but a good many were added, since our language has the greatest number of vowel sounds (p. 13).

The FG then discusses in turn the vowels and consonants needed for writing in Icelandic, starting his discussion with the vowels. To the five vowels of Latin, a, e, i, o, and u, “I have added these four that are here written:

, ę, ø, y.” He then explains the shapes of the vowels by referring to their pronunciation, saying of the letter ę, for example, that it “is written with the loop of a but with the full shape of e, since it is a blending of the two, spoken with the mouth less open than for a, but more open than for e” (p. 15) and similarly for the other vowel symbols.

In the treatise the FG introduces an imaginary opponent, in good scholastic fashion, to argue with him the merits or otherwise of his suggestions:

Now it may well happen that some one will respond in this way. “I can read the...language perfectly well, even though it be written with the regular Latin letters. I can make out how to pronounce it, even when some of the letters in what I read are not correctly pronounced.... To that I say: It is not the virtue of the letters that enables you to read and to make out the pronunciation where the letters are unclear. That is rather your virtue, and it is not to be expected that I also... shall be able to read well and to make out which path to take where more than one course is possible because it is written one way, but not clearly determined, and one then has to guess, as you claim you can do so well. But even though every one could make something out of it, it is practically certain that everyone will not arrive at the same result when the meaning is thereby changed, particularly in the laws (p. 15).

To further drive home the necessity of having nine vowel symbols in the orthography, the FG also sets up minimal pairs for eight of them (excepting the vowel i), illustrating them with made-up sentences:

Now I shall take these eight [vowel] letters and place each of them in turn between the same two consonants, and I shall show by examples how each of them...makes a different sense, and in this way give examples throughout this little book of the most delicate distinctions that are made between the letters: sar,

; ser, sęr; sor, sør; sur, syr.

A man inflicted a wound (sar) on me; I inflicted many wounds

on him. The priest swore (sor) the fair (sør) oaths only. (p. 17)

After having thus established the necessity of the nine vowel symbols in this manner, the FG also argues for the necessity of adding two more distinctions to the set of vowels, again illustrating the need for this by an analysis of minimal pairs. These are, first, the feature of nasality in which “each one of these nine letters will bring forth a new one if it is spoken in the nose (p. 17).” This the FG marks by putti...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• Introduction to the Volume
• I: LITERACY ACQUISITION IN DIFFERENT WRITING SYSTEMS
• II: LITERACY ACQUISITION FROM CROSS-LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVES
• III: LITERACY ACQUISITION: INSTRUCTIONAL PERSPECTIVES
• Author Index
• Subject Index