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Word Recognition
Your own literacy training has a big impact on how easily you learn new writing systems. To get a feel for what it might be like to learn to map symbols onto alternative linguistic units, work with a partner to design and then learn a new system of writing. In this activity, each of you will work independently to first create three separate writing systems to capture the list of words below.
Your first system should involve a set of symbols that capture syllabic units, your second should be an alphabetic system (symbols map roughly onto phonemes), and your third, a featural system (symbols capture the features of sounds). Create a key showing the mapping of symbols to sound elements. Make sure that your writing system captures the sounds involved in the English words below, and not their standard English orthography!
Now transcribe the words below in each of your writing systems on separate pieces of paper. Do not identify the type of writing system that you have used on any of the sheets of paper. Exchange all three sets of transcriptions with your partner. Each of you should attempt to recreate the symbol mapping key for each of the writing systems. Which type of system did you find it easiest/hardest to work with? What challenges did you run into when creating or decoding the writing systems? What advantages/disadvantages did you become aware of?
- cat
- catacomb
- cot
- pot
- got
- pots
- play
- playpen
- plane
- bray
- stray
- spray
- combing
- brainy
- blessing
- milk
- poplar
- days
- dome
- tome
- foam
- foamy