noun
- a system of printing or writing that represents speech sounds by phonetic symbols rather than conventional letters or characters
Usage: technical; historical; linguistics
Examples
- Phonotypy was proposed as a method to make English spelling more consistent with pronunciation.
- Early advocates of phonotypy believed it would simplify literacy instruction.
- The phonotypy system used special symbols to represent each distinct sound in speech.
- Phonotypy never gained widespread adoption despite its theoretical advantages.
- Scholars of writing systems sometimes study phonotypy as an alternative approach to orthography.