Rishon Rishon

Phonetically vs socially optimal orthographies

Amritas makes an interesting point:

'Suboptimally' phonetic orthographies in which not all sound distinctions are indicated are fine as long as (a) there are speakers who already know those distinctions and (b) context can resolve ambiguities. They are not fine for learners who don't already know the words and who need 'optimally' phonetic orthographic training wheels until they can read without everything spelled out for their benefit.

Unpointed Hebrew is socially optimal in this sense. (Fully pointed Hebrew is phonetically optimal, though accent – which is phonemic – isn’t usually indicated even when pointed, except when writing the Bible.) Although y and v can be added to indicate i, o, and u, they are usually added only when necessary to differentiate between patterns.