Identical words are read differently in different languages

It is hypothesized that written languages differ in the preferred grain siz e of units that emerge during reading acquisition. Smaller units (graphemes , phonemes) are thought to play a dominant role in relatively consistent or thographies (e.g., German), whereas larger units (bodies, rhymes) are thoug ht to be more important in relatively inconsistent orthographies (e.g., Eng lish). This hypothesis was tested by having native English and German speak ers read identical words arid nonwords in their respective languages (zoo-Z oo, sand-Sand, etc.). Although the English participants exhibited stronger body-rhyme effects, the German participants exhibited a stronger length eff ect for words and nonwords. Thus, identical items were processed differentl y in different orthographies. These results suggest that orthographic consi stency determines not only the relative contribution of orthographic versus phonological codes within a given orthography, but also the preferred grai n size of units that are likely to be functional during reading.