Dyslexia in different languages

It becomes more and more evident that dyslexia, being the same to its core all over the world, also depends on how difficult the language is to learn and to read. Between languages, there are differences in the orthographic, phonological, morphemic and inflectional structure, but what makes them harder or easier to learn is also the “opaqueness”: how possible it is to break the words up into sounds and how well those sounds match the letters and letter combinations. For example, French, Danish and even English can be hard for dyslexics students while Spanish, German and Italian may be easier.

Different languages, dyslexia and spelling transparency

Danish speakers are sometimes said to swallow their consonants, making it a bit of a challenge for learners to hear which words they are using. Looking at a danish word on paper you won’t necessarily know how to say it out loud. The same goes for French with it’s je peux (I can), il peut (he can) and un peu (a little), pronounced in the same way (x and t silent) but with different meanings. Dyslexics students, as well as English students, often struggle with the irregular spelling of the language. They often feel the need for an extensive repertoire of strategies to overcome the challenge.

Studies are being done on dyslexia in different languages but there is still much left to discover. Such as how dyslexia looks like in languages that are written in another direction, like Arabic, or in a language that doesn’t have an alphabet, such as Mandarin. Learning Chinese you must match the meaning and sound to a specific character, which in fact results in a perhaps more complicated and severe disorder than that of English dyslexics.

Continue reading here https://cpen.com/insights/dyslexia-in-different-languages/