English Words

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English Words from Latin, Greek, and
Anglo-Saxon Increase spelling, vocabulary, and
reading comprehension Adapted from Susan Ebbers
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Basic Terms root form inspector, thermal base
word unlikely prefix re-, un-, dis- suffix
-able, -ive, -ly derivation-a word formed from
an existing word, root, or affix electric,
electricity
affixes
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Three Periods of the English Language

• Old English A.D. 450-1100
• Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, (some) Latin
• Middle English A.D. 1100-1500
• French-Norman, Latin, Greek
• Modern English A.D. 1500-present
• Greek, Latin, Adopted English

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Anglo-Saxon Indo-European Origins
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Basic Old English Words Down-to-earth and
true-blue, the first learned and the last
forgotten. We work and eat and laugh and
weep, Sing and play and rise and sleep, Hope and
pray with all our might, Shun the wrong and love
the right.
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Latin Some Common Roots
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20 Most Frequent Prefixes in School Texts
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Prefixes Meaning and Connotation
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Derivational Suffixes

• Derivational suffixes change the part of speech
• words ending with tion are often nouns
• words ending with ive are often adjectives
• words ending with ish are often adjectives
• words ending with ity are often nouns
• What about -ment, -ous, -ness?

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English Language Learners
PROFICIENCY LEVELS

• Intermediate Level
• Understands roots and affixes
• Decodes multi-syllabic words
• Advanced Level
• Uses word parts to determine word meanings

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Cognates Connect English and Spanish through
Latin Origins

• Romance Languages (e.g., Spanish, Portuguese,
  French, Italian, etc.) share the same Latin roots
• Morta Roman goddess of death
• Example The Latin root for the word death is
  mort. The French spell it morte and the Spanish,
  muerte. In English, we have a whole network of
  related words mortal, immortal, mortality,
  mortician, mortuary, postmortem, etc.
• Ebbers, 2004

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Greek Combining Forms
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Counting in Greek and Latin
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Developing content-specific, academic vocabulary
depends on a basic understanding of Greek and
Latin
Sixty percent of the words in English texts are
of Latin and Greek origin Bear et al., 1996
Henry, 1997
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Content-Specific Greek Terms Anatomy and Medical
Terms esophagus, thyroid, diagnosis, psoriasis,
dyslexia Studies and Sciences biology,
seismology, morphology, geochronometry Animals
and Plants arachnid, amphibian, chlorophyll,
dinosaur, nectar Theatre and the Arts charisma,
drama, chorus, muse, symphony, acoustics
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• Look InsideLook Outside
• pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
• Look inside the word for known word parts
  prefixes, roots or combining forms, suffixes.
• Use the analogy strategyI dont know this word,
  but I know pneumonia and I know volcano, so by
  analogy, this word might have something to do
  with lungs and heat.
• Look outside the word at context clues, visuals
• The coal miners, coughing and wheezing, suffered
  from pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
  .

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SO MANY SYNONYMS ANGLO-SAXON, FRENCH, LATIN, and
GREEK
See also Bryson, 1990 Lederer, 1991 King, 2000
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ENGLISH A RICH VOCABULARY SO MANY SHADES OF
MEANING
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THANK YOU