English Words from Latin Greek and Anglo-Saxon Increase

English Words from Latin, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon Increase spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension Adapted from Susan Ebbers 2005 1

Basic Terms root form: inspector, thermal base word: unlikely prefix: re-, un-, dissuffix: -able, -ive, -ly derivation-a word formed from an existing word, root, or affix: electric, electricity Susan Ebbers 2005 2

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 Susan Ebbers 2005 3

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Anglo-Saxon: Indo-European Origins common words: love, child, house, heart (often one syllable) vowel teams: teeth, foot r-controlled: farm, star, storm, shirt wh-what, sh-ship, th-thumb, ch-church, ng-king, nk-thank prepositions, articles, conjunctions: with, to, for, and, the, but… compound words: mankind, blackbird words with silent letters: knee, night, comb, wrinkle, could, thought 5 Susan Ebbers 2005

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. Susan Ebbers 2005 6

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Latin: Some Common Roots trans port able to carry dis rupt ion to break pre script ion to write re tract or to pull inter cept ion to take pro ject ile to throw de struct ion to build con duct or to lead dis miss al to send sub vers ive to turn e dict. Ebbers 2005 to speak Susan 8

20 Most Frequent Prefixes in School Texts 1. unable 2. inedible (impotent, illegal, irresponsible) review distrust enlighten (empower) nonsense inside, implant overcome misguided submarine prefix interrupt forewarn derail transfer supersonic semicircle antitrust midterm underfed Ebbers 2005 Susan Analysis: White, Sowell, and Yanagihara 1989 9

Prefixes: Meaning and Connotation Often Negative Somewhat Positive dis-, de- non- sub- pro- co- bene- in- un- mis- super- com- be- mal- anti, contra a- en-, em - ad- Susan Ebbers 2005 10

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? Susan Ebbers 2005 11

English Language Learners PROFICIENCY LEVELS Intermediate Level: • Understands roots and affixes • Decodes multi-syllabic words Advanced Level: • Uses word parts to determine word meanings Susan Ebbers 2005 12

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 Susan Ebbers 2005 13

Greek Combining Forms hydro graph geo pyro polis neuro ortho scope photo therm crat psych chron phobe pseud onym crypt helio logy sphere the, theo Susan Ebbers 2005 14

Counting in Greek and Latin mono uni di bi du, duo tri tetra quadri penta hexa sept oct nove deca deci cent milli poly multi semi hemi Susan Ebbers 2005 15

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 Susan Ebbers 2005 16

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 Susan Ebbers 2005 17

grammar school grammar books rules of grammar grammatically ungrammatically grammatology grammar photograph polygraph mimeograph phonograph telegraph paragraph gram, graph to write, written Greek graph telegram mammogram histogram anagram cryptogram monogram electrocardiogram graphite grapheme graphologist graphically Susan Ebbers 2005 photographer cartographer geographer cryptographer autobiographer xylographer paleographer biographer 18

Look Inside—Look Outside pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis 1. Look inside the word for known word parts: prefixes, roots or combining forms, suffixes. 2. Use the analogy strategy—“I don’t 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. ” 3. Look outside the word at context clues, visuals The coal miners, coughing and wheezing, suffered from pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Susan Ebbers 2005 19

SO MANY SYNONYMS ANGLO-SAXON, FRENCH, LATIN, and GREEK Anglo. Saxon French Latin or Greek cook sauté concoct holy sacred consecrated kingly royal regal wreck sabotage subvert hearten encourage inspire show cinema theater See also Bryson, 1990; Lederer, 1991; King, 2000 Susan Ebbers 2005 20

ENGLISH: A RICH VOCABULARY SO MANY SHADES OF MEANING “A Positive Emotion” GLAD PLEASED DELIGHTED OVERJOYED HAPPY CAREFREE LIGHTHEARTED MERRY JOYOUS JOYFUL CHEERY CHEERFUL CONTENT BLITHE BLISSFUL SATISFIED BOUYANT BEATIFIC ECSTATIC EUPHORIC EUPEPSIC Susan Ebbers 2005 21