Alphabetic Principle

Written language is an enciphered form of spoken language and much of what can be spoken or uttered can be encoded in a visual form using arbitrary symbols. The beginning reader must have an appreciation of the fact that spoken words can be divided into separate speech sounds called phonemes and that the sound of language are represented by arbitrary symbols called letters.

The alphabetic principle is the understanding that letters are used to represent speech sounds and that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken words.