Susan Ebbers 2005 1

English Words

from Latin, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon

Increase spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension

Adapted from Susan Ebbers

Susan Ebbers 2005 2

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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wh-what, sh-ship, th-thumb, ch-church,

ng-king, nk-thank

vowel teams: teeth, footr-controlled: farm, star,

storm, shirt

compound words: mankind, blackbird

common words: love, child, house, heart(often one syllable)

prepositions, articles, conjunctions: with, to,

for, and, the, but…

words with silent letters: knee, night, comb,

wrinkle, could, thought

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

trans port able

dis rupt ion

pre script ion

re tract or

inter cept ion

pro ject ile

de struct ion

con duct or

dis 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

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20 Most Frequent Prefixes in School Texts

1. unable 2. reviewinedible (impotent, illegal,

irresponsible)

distrustenlighten

(empower)nonsense

inside, implant

overcome

misguided submarine prefix interrupt forewarn

derail transfer supersonic semicircle antitrust

midterm underfedAnalysis: White, Sowell,

and Yanagihara 1989

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Prefixes: Meaning and Connotation

Somewhat Positive

pro- co- bene-

super- com- be-

en-, em-

ad-

Often Negative

dis-, de-

non- sub-

in- un- mis-

mal-anti,

contraa-

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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 LearnersPROFICIENCY 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

hydro graph geo

pyro polis neuro

ortho scope photo

therm crat psych

chron phobe pseud

onym crypt helio

logy sphere the, theo

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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

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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 Plantsarachnid, amphibian, chlorophyll, dinosaur, nectar

Theatre and the Artscharisma, drama, chorus, muse, symphony, acoustics

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photographpolygraphmimeographphonographtelegraphparagraph

telegrammammogramhistogramanagramcryptogrammonogramelectrocardiogram

photographercartographergeographercryptographerautobiographerxylographerpaleographerbiographer

graphitegraphemegraphologistgraphicgraphically

grammar schoolgrammar booksrules of grammargrammaticalgrammaticallyungrammaticalungrammaticallygrammatology

graph

grammar

gram, graphto write, written

Greek

gram

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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.

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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

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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

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Danke

Merci

Gratias ευχαριστώ /efharisto/

THANK YOU