Textualist: A textualist is an originalist who gives primary weight to the text and structure of the Constitution. The text means what it would have been understood to mean by an ordinary person at the time it was written. Textualists often are skeptical of the ability of judges to determine collective intent..
Noun. 1. phonetic alphabet-an alphabet of characters intended to represent specific sounds of speech. sound alphabet. alphabet-a character set that includes letters and is used to write a language. visible speech-a phonetic alphabet invented by Melville Bell in the 19th century. phonetic symbol-a written character used in phonetic transcription of represent a particular speech sound.
1. of or pertaining to speech sounds, their production, or their transcription in written symbols. 2. representing speech sounds: phonetic transcription. 3. agreeing with pronunciation: a phonetic spelling. 4. pertaining to or involving the discrimination of nondistinctive speech elements of a language: In English, the features of length and aspiration are phonetic rather than phonemic.