Orthography
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
Orthography, or spelling, is the correct order and combination of letters put together to form words.
Spelling changes over time. At about the time of the Renaissance, words in English didn't have a fixed spelling. Over time, however, different combinations of letters became more common, resulting in the more standard spellings of words we see today.
Differences in American English and British English prove that spelling is not set in stone. In the early nineteenth century, Noah Webster set out to change American English forever. He wished to distinguish American English spelling from British English spelling. In Noah Webster's dictionary, "practise" became "practice", "colour" became "color", and "centre" became "center". In doing this, Webster created a new identity for American English.
Some people argue which language is the easiest to spell. No language is hard or easy, but people who learn a second language think that their first (native) language is the easiest.
Languages which are phonetic can be easier to learn to spell than others. Phonetic languages are pronounced exactly as they are spelled and are spelled exactly as they are pronounced. The Italian word "orologio" for instance is pronounced oh-ro-LO-jo ("gi" always making a "j" sound.) In English, one comes across the word "knife". In "knife", the "k" is not spoken, even though in English it's more common to pronounce "K"s when they are in words. The spelling of the English language can be difficult because English is made up of many different languages, like Anglo-Saxon (a Germanic language) and French (a romantic language.) English, Spanish, French, German, and other languages use the Roman alphabet. Other languages, like Greek, Russian, and Arabic, use other alphabets.
