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

} affixes 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 Susan Ebbers 2005

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

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 Susan Ebbers 2005

We work and eat and laugh and weep, Sing and play and rise and sleep, 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Look Inside—Look Outside pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis Look inside the word for known word parts: prefixes, roots or combining forms, suffixes. 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.” Look outside the word at context clues, visuals The coal miners, coughing and wheezing, suffered from pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Susan Ebbers 2005

SO MANY SYNONYMS Anglo-Saxon French Latin or Greek 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

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