[Andrew Dunbar ([Wiktionary-l] Re: English orthographies) writes:]

...

I don't agree with the "authority" concept. Or maybe it's just the chosen name for the concept I find unsettling.

Maybe the latter. While it can happily mean "the verifiable source that the xxxx spelling exists", it can also be taken to mean some sanctioning body.

...

I would have chosen "orthography" before reading Jim's comments on orthography vs. spelling. For instance I would've thought in the case of German that "the pre-1998 German orthography" would be a valid concept. If I substituted the word "spelling" in this phrase it sounds like it refers to a specific word rather than the whole language. Maybe "spelling standard" works better for Jim?

It does. When I think of German orthography the image of pre-war Gothic scripts vs modern Carolignian uncials (or whatever they are) comees to mind, but I agree that things like o_umlaut/oe are probably more orthography than spelling because they are operating across the board at a language level rather than at a word variance level.

Cheers

Jim