Chapter 4, Orthography

Session 1: The Nature of the English Writing System

CHAPTER GOALS
• Understand the history of writing systems
• Identify and describe Anglo-Saxon, Latin, French, and Greek influences on
English orthography
• Identify and map the most common phoneme‒grapheme correspondences in
English
• Recognize patterns and constraints on letter sequences in English
orthography
• Classify syllable spellings by basic written syllable types
• Explain whether, and how, English spelling is a predictable correspondence
system
Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 1
• Outline components of a multilinguistic approach to phonics and spelling
 Four-Part Processing System for
Word Recognition

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 2
 Brain Systems That Support Word
Recognition
The brain’s word form
area (pink) stores
mental graphemic
representations. We
acquire these through
orthographic mapping
of sound to symbol and
symbol to sound.

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 3
Brain Activation Patterns Change as We
Learn to Read
• Novice readers seem to use the parieto-temporal region (the blue area on the
illustration) to dismantle words for step-by-step phonological analysis.
• More experienced readers apparently rely on the occipito-temporal region
(the Word Form Area) to recognize whole words instantly. [They have
acquired skill in orthographic mapping.]
(Shaywitz et al., 2002)

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 4
Types of Writing Systems

Meaning Based Sound Based

PICTOGRAPHIC
SYLLABIC ALPHABETIC
LOGOGRAPHIC (Cherokee)
(Chinese characters)

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 5
Alphabetic Writing: Perhaps the Most
Important Invention of Humans . . .
• Letters (graphemes) represent individual speech sounds, not syllables or
morphemes.
• Not invented until perhaps 5,000 years ago by Semitic traders in the Middle
East.
• The Greek alphabet, inspired by Phoenician cuneiform writing, assigned a
symbol for each consonant and vowel; the Romans adapted and refined the
Greek alphabet so that it would be a better fit for Latin.
• The first English scribes—heavily influenced by the Roman church—
retrofitted the Roman alphabet to English.

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 6
The Alphabet Is a Great Invention: It Allows
Us to Read Words We Have Never Seen Before
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
and the mome raths outgrabe.
—Lewis Carroll, “Jabberwocky” from Through The
Looking Glass And What Alice Found There

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 7
BUT, English Spelling Is
Morphophonemic
• Although alphabet symbols represent speech sounds (roughly, in English), the
spelling system often maintains spellings of meaningful parts of words
(morphemes) even when pronunciation departs from the appearance of the
letters
induce, induction, educate
anxious, anxiety
visa, vision, invisible
medic, medicinal, medicine
heal, health

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 8
English Spelling Is “Opaque” or “Deep”
Because It Represents Meaning as Well as
Sound
If wee did spel fonetiklee, wurdz miyt look liyk this, mayd uv preediktabul
sownd-speliŋ korispondensez.

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 9
What Is a Word Made of?
—“Commitment”
Aspect of Language Word Elements (Perhaps Unconscious) Knowledge
Syntax Noun The suffix -ment marks a noun.
Morphology Three morphemes: com-mit-ment Com is a Latin prefix meaning with; mit is a
Latin root meaning send. These morphemes
occur in many other English words.
Semantic A promise, obligation, responsibility. The word has several meanings depending on
context.
The act of restricting or confining a
person.
Orthographic Double m results from the juncture of The letter sequence ttm does not occur in
prefix and root; adding a suffix beginning English. Also, in contrast, the word committed
with a consonant does not require doubling does have a double t because the suffix –ed
of the final t in commit. begins with a vowel and the doubling rule
applies.
All three written syllables are closed
syllable types.
The phoneme /k/ is represented with letter
c before letter o.
Phonological Three spoken syllables, stress on the root Although there are two ms in spelling, there is
mit. only one spoken phoneme /m/ between the first
and second syllables.
9 phonemes, with first vowel spoken as
Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. schwa: 10
Five Angles for Understanding Why
Words Are Spelled the Way They Are
• Word origin and history
• Phoneme–grapheme correspondences
• Position constraints, or the effect of the position of a phoneme on its spelling
within a word
• Patterns and conventions of letter sequence and use, including syllable
spellings
• Morphology—the spelling of meaningful parts

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 11
Historical Layers of the English
Language
“When we teach English, we are not teaching one but at least four languages
… English is not ‘crazy,’ but it is multi-layered and complex, and English
words reflect their origins by having their own structure and phonology.”
Diana Hanbury King (2000)
Four languages? Anglo-Saxon, Latin, French, Greek—plus more and more
Spanish

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 12
The Richness of English
Anglo-Saxon-Based French-Based
Latin-Based Words Greek-Based Words
Words Words
fire, fireworks explosive, ignition pyrotechnics
reciprocate,
give philanthropy
generosity
think cogitate, reflect psychology
water aquatics hydrophobia
one unique uniform monochrome
embarrassment,
shame chagrin mortification,
ignominy
kind genre classification phylogeny
father patrician patriarch
Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 13
 Likely Language of Origin? How Do You
Know?
ball orbit sphere

inspect eye ophthalmology

prophylaxis protection guard

maternal mother matriarch

water hydrophobia aqueduct

elevation hyperbole high

tempestuous stormy catastrophic

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 14
The Evolution of the English Spelling
System
• Pronunciation of words underwent major changes between the 14th century
and the modern era.
• For example, “silent e” was used to represent a vocalized inflection up until
the 16th century, when many inflections were dropped from spoken words.
• In the 16th century, many spelling conventions were adopted—such as using
silent e to mark soft c and g, or to keep words from looking like plurals.
• Noah Webster’s dictionary, in 1828, standardized our modern English
spelling conventions.

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 15
In Summary . . .
• Word origin (etymology) is often reflected in spelling
• Anglo-Saxon-, French-, Spanish-, Latin-, and Greek-based words may contain
spellings that signify the language of origin (e.g., church [AS], chagrin [F],
chorus [GR])
• That’s why spelling bee champions often ask, “What language did the word
come from?”

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, Third Edition by Louisa Cook Moats. Copyright © 2020 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. 16