Orthography Flashcards
Orthography paragraph
Are archaic ligatures used? e.g. long s, ampersands (&)
❑ Are there letter substitutions? e.g. u for v, j for i, y for i
❑ Are capitals used to emphasis nouns of importance?
❑ Are there archaic consonant clusters e.g. publick, comming
❑ Are terminal-e endings still present? Or have they been lost due to
changes in pronunciation (no longer sounding Old English inflectional
endings – e)
❑ What printing conventions do you notice? Have letters been added to or
removed from words? Is this to make the text fit the column? Is spelling
consistent?
❑ Consider when the text was created. Is this pre- or post-standardisation
(C18th)?
❑ Is spelling left to the discretion of the writer, or do they need to appear
appropriately formal / well-educated to their reader? Who is the intended
reader of the text?
