As a representation of the sounds of spoken language, orthography has always been of interest to linguists. In this book, Sebba critiques approaches that disregard the concerns of language users in treating orthography solely as a means of phonemic transcription, and proposes a focus on the social symbolic meaning of orthography. In the first chapter, Sebba presents an account of orthography as an aspect of literacy, necessarily situated in social practice. According to a sociocultural model of orthography, the literacy practices of the community influence the type of orthography that emerges, in contrast to a traditional autonomous model that defines orthography as an ideologically neutral technology. The second chapter illustrates orthography as social practice through the examination of variant spellings in graffiti, advertising, and electronic media, less regulated spaces where orthographic choices are used to construct identity, mark boundaries, and display opposition to the mainstream. Sebba describes how recognizable deviations from local spelling conventions convey social meaning, as in the frequent substitution of <k> for standard <c> and <qu> in Spanish graffiti to symbolize otherness and politics of difference as related to the orthographic preference for <k> in Basque.
To make the case for orthography as social practice beyond the subcultural context, Sebba next examines the role of social factors in the development and use of orthographic systems. In chapter 3, he discusses how new writing practices are introduced to previously unwritten languages by bilinguals modeling another culture with a written tradition. With case studies of Manx and Sranan, Sebba shows how expert intervention tends to shape orthographies on the existing standard, often with lamentable consequences for the survival of the indigenous language. Chapter 4 includes case studies of Haitian, Sranan, and Malay/Indonesian in a discussion of “postcolonial” orthographies that use particular orthographic practices to symbolize political allegiances and reject unwanted ideologies, such as the reassignment of <u> for uniquely Dutch <oe> in Sranan. Chapter 5 deals with problems of representation, transcription, invariance, and dialect differentiation in developing orthographies for nonstandard language varieties, demonstrating how conflicting orthographic choices can be highly personal, as in the practice of Jamaican Creole writers, and political, as in Galician debates about language.
Sebba turns in chapter 6 to the subject of orthographic reform and discourses of reform movements in languages with established writing systems. In cases of disputes ranging from German to Portuguese-Brazilian and Tatar, suggested revisions to existing orthography evoke tremendous outcry because of the symbolic associations of script and spelling. While lobbyists for reform advance a modernizing discourse of technological advancement, opponents use a competing historical discourse of cultural continuity, and as Sebba notes, successful orthographic reform is rare. The concluding chapter links central themes of identity, iconicity, interlinguality, and authority to show how orthography reflects and creates social meaning. With clear organization and use of sample writings and language case studies, Sebba succeeds in elaborating the complex issues surrounding orthography and makes a strong argument for a sociocultural approach to its study.
