A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

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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.

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Facts

• Over ____ million people speak English
  (__________ the population of the world)
• When we learn English, we are actually learning
  ____ languages- each with its own phonology and
  structure.
• HERES WHY!?

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Germanic Influence

• English is classified as a ____________ language
• However, less than ___ of the words are Germanic
• The _______, _________, and _________ came from
  northern _________________ bringing their
  language with them
• Later, the ______________ (known as the Danes)
  invaded the land and spoke a northern branch of
  Germanic

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Germanic Words

• Relatively few in number
• Common, everyday words in the language
• Includes all words on the _______ list
• All words on any lists of the ___________________
  __ are Germanic

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Features of Germanic Words

• Short because over time, the endings dropped off
• Most of our _____________ words are Germanic
• Examples the, but, cold, sit
• ___________________ words in the language
• Least ____________________
• Most difficult to ____________
• Examples they, could, was, write, old, most,
  thought
• ___________, ___________, and ____________________
  _ of vowels are characteristics of the Germanic
  strain of language

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Latin Words

• Over ___________ the words in the English
  language are based on Latin
• A handful of Latin words entered during the
  language during the __________ era
• Most of the Latin words came by way of
  _____________ (a _______ language)
• Ex. glamour

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Vikings

• Some of the _________ had settled in Northern
  France (i.e., Normandy which means north men)
  and adopted the French language
• In ______, they invaded England
• For the next 300 years, no king of England (keep
  in mind every English king was also king of
  France at that time) spoke English but instead
  spoke ___________ (the language of the _________
  and ________________)

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Latin

• Later, __________ in England borrowed words
  directly from Latin itself
• _________________ (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 _________
  and _____________
• Ex. calculus

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Characteristics of Latin Words

• Consist of a _________, __________, and _______
• Examples pre dic tion, in somni a
• Seldom use vowel pairs
• Use ____________ or vowel ____________ for long
  sound
• Examples invade, denote
• Never uses sh for /sh/ instead, the sound is
  spelled ti, ci, si, or xi
• Examples invention, social, permission,
  complexion

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Greek Words

• _________ of the English vocabulary is based on
  Greek
• Greek words came into the language from 2
  sources
• _______ (as every educated Roman knew Greek)
• Borrowed by ____________

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Characteristics of Greek Words

• Recognized by their spelling and structure
• Use ___ for /f/ (Example physics)
• Use ____ for /k/ (Example chemistry)
• Use ___ for /i/ (Example gym, type)
• Often consists of 2 elements joined by a
  connecting ___ (Example hydrogen, photograph)
• Scientists use Greek when they want a new word
  for a __________ or _____________
• Examples neutron, electron, cardiogram
• Greek has become the language of _________

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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
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More Influences

• Crusaders and the trade with medieval __________
  brought words such as tea, sofa, and sherbet
• From ______ calico, bungalow, jungle
• From _________ dingo, outback, kangaroo
• From __________ safari

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Move to the New World

• Foreign words flooded into the language
• The Dutch were among the first _________ which is
  why we have so many Dutch words (Example cookie,
  landscape, coleslaw)
• French explorers who settled in ____________
  added chowder, pumpkin, prairie, levee, and
  others to the list
• ____________________ contributed banana, cola,
  goober, yam, gorilla, tote, and okra

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Influence of the Native Americans

• Place names of rivers, mountains, landmarks, and
  names of over half the states
• Can you think of some of these?
• Other native words include caribou, toboggan,
  papoose, raccoon, tobacco

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Other Changes Cause New Words to Enter

• Potato famine (1845) brought ____________
  immigrants
• 1848 revolution caused Germans to settle in
  ______________ and the __________________
• After the American Civil War came the Spanish,
  Italians, and Scandinavians
• Czechs, Slovaks, and Poles followed
• Chinese were hired to build the ____________ (and
  they remained)
• Japanese settled on the _____________________
• Refugees from all over Europe fled from World War
  II
• Also, there followed a huge influx from Puerto
  Rico, China,
• Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand

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Anglo-Saxon Layer of Language

• Beginning readers start out reading words from
  the Anglo-Saxon base of language
• _________________ used short words typical in
  early readers
• __________ are also of Anglo-Saxon origin
• In addition, prefixes and suffixes are added but
  many of the Anglo-Saxon prefixes are __________
  (forget, without, became, overlook, unhappy,
  understand, inside, befriend)
• Anglo-Saxon suffixes ed, er, ing, ly, s (es),
  able, hood, ful, less, ness, ship, ish)

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Anglo-Saxon Letter-Sound Correspondences
CONSONANTS CONSONANTS CONSONANTS
Single Blends Diagraphs
b, 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 VOWELS VOWELS
Single Letter (Short/Long) -r -l Controlled Diagraphs
cap - cape pet - Pete pinning - pining rob - robe cutter 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
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Latin Layer of Language

• Students encounter these words in ____rd grade
• Knowledge of consonants vowels transfers
  directly to these words
• None of the complex Anglo-Saxon digraphs are
  included
• _______________ 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

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Latin Layer

• Root words usually stressed contain the major
  meaning of the word
• spect, rupt, vis, aud, vent, flect, script,
  gress, dict, tract, lit, duct, struct, pend, ped
• Prefixes pre, re, bi, pro, mid, sub, dis, inter,
  intro, intra, il, extra, per, ultra, trans
• Many prefixes have the schwa sound
• aggressive, appearance, connect, collect, attach
• Vowel diagraphs in the suffixes are ALL
  pronounced as schwas (nation, precious, omission)
  initial consonants in the suffixes, followed by
  i, are pronounced as /sh/

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Common Latin Prefixes
de- (from, away) re- (back, again) bi- (two) tri- (three) pre- (before) pro- (before, forward) co- (together, with) dis- (separation, undo) im- (in, not) sub- (under) ex- (out) trans- (across) mis- (wrong, bad) con- (together, with) in- (in, not) non- (not)
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Latin Suffixes

• -t(ure)
• -tion
• -sion
• -cian
• -tious
• -tial
• -cial
• -cious

• -ist (noun, person)
• -ive
• -age
• -ant
• -or (noun)
• -ar (adjective)
• -ible
• -ary
• -ize
• -ance

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Latin Roots

• cred (to believe)
• duc, duce, duct (to lead)
• pel, puls (to drive, push)
• pend (to hang)
• fac, fact (to make, do)
• vert, vers (to turn)
• jac, jec, ject (to throw, lie)

• rupt (to break, to burst)
• port (to carry)
• form (to shape)
• tract (to pull)
• scrib, script (to write)
• spec, spect (to see, watch)
• stru, struct (to build)
• dic, dict (to say, tell)
• flect, flex (to bend)
• mit, miss (to send)

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Greek Layer of Language

• Same letter-sound correspondences as those in
  Anglo-Saxon words, but adds 3 important patterns
  ph for /f/, ch for /k/, and the use of y as a
  long vowel /i/ or short vowel /i/ (i.e., medial
  vowel)
• Usually specialized words in _________, though
  some are ________ (___________)
• Often contain silent _ (pneumonia, pseudonym)
• _______ as in mnemonics

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Greek Combining Forms

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

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Greek Combining Forms

• BEGINNING
• 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

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Syllable Division Rules

• Anglo-Saxon VC/CV V/CV, VC/V VC/CCV (consonant
  l-e) are common
• Latin Same as Anglo-Saxon but the prefixes and
  suffixes often consist of syllables based on
  these patterns (i ble,
• in tro)
• Greek Same as Anglo-Saxon (many v/cv such as
  hyper, vc/v such as hemi, also, v/cc such as
  hydro)

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Why Students Need This Information

• Students use their knowledge to decode unfamiliar
  words.
• Teach students this process
• See if you can identify the language origin.
• Look for the morpheme units Anglo-Saxon or Latin
  prefixes, roots, suffixes. Greek combining forms,
  or single words making up Anglo-Saxon compound
  words.
• If you cant find a morpheme, or if you find
  morphemes but still cant read the word, break
  the word into syllables using the common syllable
  division options.
• If syllable division doesnt work, or works for
  only part of the work, use letter-sound
  correspondences.