Spelling Meaning - encyclopedia - 2023

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What is Spelling:

What orthography refers to the set of rules and conventions that govern the writing of a language. In this sense, it is part of normative grammar.

The word comes from Latin orthographĭa, which in turn comes from the Greek ὀρθογραφία. As such, it is composed of the words ὀρθος (orthos), which means ‘correct’, and γράφος (graphos), ‘writing’.

Hence, the term is also used orthography to refer to the correct way to write a language, without spelling mistakes and respecting its rules. For example: "Fabian's spelling is impeccable."

As such, la function of spelling is to maintain linguistic unity in the language shared by a community of speakers. In this sense, the orthographic rules do not intend but to homogenize the principles that govern the writing of the linguistic code, in order that it can be deciphered and understood by all its speakers, including those who are in the process of acquiring this language as a second language. tongue.

In the Spanish language, the institution that has been attributed the work of creating an orthographic treatise on the language has been, initially, the Royal Spanish Academy of the Language, in Spain. This, together with the academies of the Spanish-American countries, including the United States, the Philippines in Asia, and Equatorial Guinea in Africa (shortly incorporated), together make up the Association of the Academies of the Spanish Language, which has been in charge of reviewing and approving the most recent version of the Spelling of the Spanish Language, in 2010, in line with pan-Hispanic linguistic unity policies.

If you wish you can also see our article on Grammar.

Specialized spelling

The specialized spelling, for its part, is a branch of spelling that is responsible for ensuring the correct use of all those spelling signs that are not letters but symbols, such as the period (.), the comma (,), the semicolon ( ;), the colon (:), the exclamation marks (!), the question marks (?), the quotation marks («…», “…”, '...'), the dash (-), the hyphen (-), forward slash (/), etc.

Orthotypography

On the other hand, there is also the typographic spelling, more commonly known as orthotypography, responsible for defining the way in which the different typographic elements of a language are used and combined in printed texts, such as round, bold, italic, small caps, etc. They are, above all, style regulations for texts in printed format, hence they are, to a certain extent, more flexible, and adapt to the editorial criteria adopted.