A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Henry, M. (1990). Words: Integrated decoding and spelling instruction based on word

origin and word structure. Austin: PRO-ED.

Facts

Over ___________ people speak English (half the population of the world)

When we learn English, we are actually learning _______ languages- each with its own phonology and structure

Germanic Influence

English is classified as a Germanic language However, less than __________ of the words

are Germanic The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes came from

northern Germany bringing their language with them (Anglo-Saxon)

Germanic Words

Relatively few in number Common, everyday words in the language Includes all words on the _____________ All words on any lists of the

“__________________” are Germanic

Features of Germanic Words

Short because over time, the endings dropped off Most of our one-syllable words are Germanic

Examples: _______________________ ____________ words in the language Least ___________________ Most _______________to spell

Examples: they, could, was, write, old, most, thought Silent letters, vowel pairs, and unfamiliar behavior of

vowels are characteristics of the Germanic strain of language

Anglo-Saxon Letter-Sound Correspondences

CONSONANTS

Single Blends Diagraphsb, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z

bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl

br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr

sc, sk, sl, sp, st, sw …

Final: ft, lk, lt, mp, nd…

ch, sh th wh

chat ship this when

thin

(-ck, -tch, -dge, -ng)

VOWELS

Single Letter(Short/Long)

-r & -l Controlled Diagraphs

cap - capepet - Petepinning - piningrob - robecutter – cuter(y)

er, ir, ur

ar, or

arr, err

all

al

1 sound:

ee; oy, oi; oa; ai, ay;

aw, au

2 sounds:

ea, ow, ou, ie, ei, ew

Latin Words

__________________ the words in the English language are based on Latin

A handful of Latin words entered during the language during the Roman era

Most of the Latin words came by way of French (a romance language) Ex. glamour

Latin

Scholars in England borrowed words directly from Latin itself

Christian Church (with its center in Rome) adopted Latin for its services)

As Christianity spread over western Europe, the people attending services learned Latin words

Latin was also the required language at ____________________ Ex. calculus

Characteristics of Latin Words

Consist of a __________________________ Examples: pre dic tion, in somni a

Seldom use __________________ Use consonant-vowel-e or vowel alone for long

sound Examples: invade, denote

Never uses sh for /sh/; instead, the sound is spelled ______________________ Examples: invention, social, permission, complexion

Latin Layer of Language

Students encounter these words in ______grade ______________ sound is the most notable

feature (unaccented vowel sound found in unaccented syllables) ~ Letter-sound correspondences are otherwise the same as Anglo-Saxon machine, soda, ahead, about, magazine

Latin Layer ________________: usually stressed & contain the

major meaning of the word spect, rupt, vis, aud, vent, flect, script, gress, dict, tract, lit,

duct, struct, pend, ped ______________: pre, re, bi, pro, mid, sub, dis, inter,

intro, intra, il, extra, per, ultra, trans Many have the schwa sound

aggressive, appearance, connect, collect, attach

Greek Words

________ of the English vocabulary is based on Greek

Greek words came into the language from 2 sources:

1. Latin (as every educated Roman knew Greek)

2. Borrowed by scientists

Greek Layer of Language Same letter-sound correspondences as those in Anglo-

Saxon words, Use ___ for /f/ (Example: physics) Use __ for /k/ (Example: chemistry) Use __ for /i/ (Example: gym, type) Often contain silent p (pneumonia, pseudonym) mn as in mnemonics

Usually specialized words in science, though some are common (television) Scientists use Greek when they want a new word for a discovery or

invention (Examples: neutron, electron, cardiogram Greek has become the language of science

Often consists of 2 elements joined by a connecting o (Example: hydrogen, photograph

Greek Combining Forms

Not called prefixes and suffixes but combining forms since there are usually 2 parts of equal stress and importance

Greek Combining FormsBEGINNING

auto = self phono = sound photo = light hydro = water tele = distance micro = small therm = heat

biblio, hyper, chron, chrom, arch, phys, pysch, peri, bi, semi, hemi, mono, meta, mega, metro, philo, soph, theo, techni

ENDING graph, gram =

written/drawn meter = measure ology = study scope = watch, see sphere, crat, cracy, polis

GREEK Specialized words used mostly in science, though some

(i.e., television) are common

ROMANCE

Technical, sophisticated words used primarily in more formal settings such as literature & textbooks

ANGLO-SAXON

Common, everyday, down-to-earth words used frequently in ordinary situations and found in school primers