The orthography of a language is the set of rules of how to write correctly in the writing system of a language. The term is derived from Greek ορθο ortho- ("correct") and γραφος graphos ("that writes") and, in today's sense, includes spelling and punctuation. Orthography is distinct from typography.

An example of an orthographic rule for English is:

A vowel that is not preceded immediately by another vowel, and that is followed immediately by an "E" at the end of the word, may represent the "long" sound of the vowel. (This is the pronunciation rule "final E makes the vowel long" restated as a spelling rule.)

• Writing systems:
  • Logogram
  • Syllabary
  • Alphabet
    • Abjad
    • Abugida
• Writing rules and components:
  • Spelling
  • Punctuation
  • Collation
  • Letter case and capitalization
    • Majuscule
    • Minuscule
  • Diacritic
  • Stroke order
  • Eight Principles of Yong
  • Radical (Chinese character)

See also

• Prescription and description
• Penmanship
• Cursive
• Calligraphy
• Graphology
• Writing
• List of writing systems
• phonemic awareness

Reference

• Smalley, W.A. (ed.) 1964. Orthography studies: articles on new writing systems, United Bible Society, London.