Antropologicheskij forum, 2015, no. 27

A Review of MARK SEBBA, ALEXANDRA JAFFE, JANNIS ANDROUTSOPOULOS, SALLY JOHNSON (eds.), ORTHOGRAPHY AS SOCIAL ACTION: SCRIPTS, SPELLING, IDENTITY AND POWER. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012, 392 pp.

Elena Lubiankina

European University at St Petersburg
3 Gagarinskaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
lubyankina()gmail.com

Abstract: This review of Orthography as Social Action: Scripts, Spelling, Identity and Power explores the sociolinguistic implications of different aspects of writing systems. The volume was edited by Mark Sebba, Alexandra Jaffe, Jannis Androutsopoulos and Sally Johnson, and contains fourteen chapters with wide range of examples of how writing systems become an index of social relations and identities. For a long time, orthography and written language were not included in the system of linguistic beliefs, and were neglected from a social point of view. The authors convincingly demonstrate that orthography is another level of identity representation. Based on the concept of linguistic ideology, this book shows a new focus of sociolinguistic research. The book argues that spelling contains as many social meanings as speech, and some spelling reflects the ideology, identities and stance of society or the individual language user.

Keywords: orthography, language ideology, language attitudes, spelling, graphic aspects of writing.

To cite: Lubiankina E., 'A Review of Mark Sebba, Alexandra Jaffe, Jannis Androutsopoulos, Sally Johnson (eds.), Orthography as Social Action: Scripts, Spelling, Identity and Power. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012, 392 pp.', Antropologicheskij forum, 2015, no. 27, pp. 222–236.

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/027/lubyankina.pdf