When Skilled Spellers Err: Phonetic and Semiphonetic Errors Persisting in Arabic Spelling
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33193/JEAHS.53.2026.811الكلمات المفتاحية:
Skilled Spelling; Arabic Orthography; Phonetic Errors; Semiphonetic Errors; Morphological Analysisالملخص
Although studies of spelling error analysis have gained increasing attention, they still largely neglect the errors that could persist in skilled spelling. An assumption equating skilled performance with error-free performance could partly prompt this neglect, although this oversimplification is not grounded in theory or practice. This study investigated errors skilled spellers make in Arabic, a complex orthography whose characteristics have been shown to slow the development of spelling automaticity. Fifty-four skilled sixth-grade spellers (≥90% performance) participated in the study. As expected, the results revealed that errors were relatively infrequent, but when they occurred, they were mostly phonological, aligning with previous studies. However, a further morphological analysis revealed a rather unexpected result: errors in root morphemes, which are fairly transparent, were more frequent than errors in word-pattern morphemes, which have lower transparency. In addition, each morpheme was targeted by distinct error types. Errors in roots were mostly phonetic, while errors in word patterns were more semiphonetic. These results are interpreted within the linguistic and orthographic characteristics of Arabic morphemes, their distributional properties, and their role in spelling development.
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