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Book: The Linguistics Delusion

Chapter: 8. From Phonemic Spelling to Distinctive Spelling

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.32138

Blurb:

Writing systems are a domain where it is possible to identify consistent historical tendencies, but (like trends in other aspects of society) these are responses to social pressures rather than laws enforced by innate mental mechanisms. Contrary to the common assumption that the ideal type of script is a phonemic script, the trend among mature writing systems is to maximize a quite different property, for identifiable social reasons.

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