Which principle describes the relationship between letters and sounds in written language?

The alphabetic principle is fundamental to understanding how letters and sounds correspond in written language. It asserts that letters represent individual sounds (phonemes) and that these sounds can be blended to form words. This principle is crucial for developing literacy skills, as it helps learners decode unfamiliar words by recognizing the relationship between the alphabetical characters and their corresponding sounds.

This systematic connection allows readers to apply their knowledge of letter-sound associations to read new words and understand the structure of language. Mastering the alphabetic principle is an essential step in learning to read, as it lays the foundation for further reading and spelling skills.

Looking at the context of the other principles, while the phonetic principle also relates to sounds, it does not specifically focus on the relationship between the written letters and their corresponding sounds as the alphabetic principle does. The semantic principle pertains to meaning and how words convey concepts, and the syntactic principle involves the structure of sentences and how words are arranged grammatically. In contrast, the alphabetic principle directly addresses the foundational aspect of literacy concerning the mapping of letters to sounds.