Which option best characterizes transparent orthographies?

• A. They have a nearly one-to-one mapping between letters and sounds
• B. They have irregular spellings and many exceptions
• C. They rely on logograms
• D. They include silent letters

Answer: (A)

Transparent orthographies map spellings to sounds in a predictable way, with each letter (or letter group) generally representing a single sound. This near one-to-one correspondence makes decoding straightforward, which is exactly what the description of a transparent orthography conveys. In contrast, spelling systems with irregular spellings and many exceptions break that predictability, and writing that relies on logograms uses symbols for words or morphemes rather than sounds. Silent letters can appear in various languages but don’t define transparency. So the best match is the idea of a nearly one-to-one mapping between letters and sounds.