Edo Literature and the Challenges of Orthographic Rendition

Abstract

The correct use of the standard alphabet aids readers in understanding what the writer is trying to 
convey, and a language's orthography enables its users to accurately express speech in writing for 
communication reasons. One of the fundamental challenges in ?do language literacy has been that of 
inconsistency in the spelling forms which create difficulty for readers especially from a pedagogic 
perspective. The goal of the study is to address and provide suitable literary tactics for resolving issues 
that arise while implementing the correct orthography for the language being studied. The study used 
Jacob Egharevba’ novel Itan ?dagb?nmw?n to explore orthographic disparities that have been found in 
written texts. The study takes lexical elements with noted spelling mistakes, groups them, and applies 
Pitt Corder's model of error analysis to them. The study found out that there are four types of 
orthographic errors in the text –orthographic errors of addition, selection, ordering and omission. The 
analysis also reveals that each of these errors has one of two resultant effects on the words in terms of 
how they affect the meaning of the words in which they occur. The findings and recommendations of the 
present study will be useful to the publisher of the text in revising its orthography for ease of reading by 
students and teachers.