PHONICS WITH LATIN AND GREEK

Europe was under the control of the Roman Empire 2000 years ago. The empire spread out to England, France, Italy, Spain and Romania. The Romans introduced into affairs of empire the language of the village of Latium south of Rome. Please click:

Romanian Language

romaniatourism.com/romanian-language.html

Romanian is actually easier for English speakers to understand than it is assumed. 

If you've studied other Romance language, such as Italian, Spanish, French ...

The language of Latium later known as Latin became the basis of the Romance languages of the empire. The colonies of empire used Latin as the basis of their own vernacular language. Over the centuries hundreds of English words were derived from the Latin.

In times gone past, English students had to learn to speak Latin which may have made the study unpopular. But there was another use of Latin too in study of the origins of English words. 

This died out 40 years ago except for many church schools that maintained the standard. The International Education Agency in Papua New Guinea included Latin and Greek derivation in their curriculum. Please click:

LATIN FOR PNG STUDENTS

Study of Latin and Greek in English words will simplify understanding for students. Most Latin words consist of a prefix, root and suffix that simplifies spelling for young students. How could they spell and know nothing of the derivation of the words?

From a phonics standpoint, the derivation of Latin based words becomes simplified. Most words consisting of prefix, latin root and suffix are weak-strong-weak in stress. The strong stress is usually on the root but not always:

tran script ion        scribo ( scriptus) I write
intro duct ion         duco (ductus) I lead
pro cess ion            cedo (cessus) I go
trans port ation     porto (portus) I carry
re volv er               volvo ( volvus) I roll
e ject ion                jacio (jectus) I throw
de pend ent           pendeo (pendus) I hang

Phonics dies a natural death in early primary school and there is nothing to replace it. Most teachers have no idea of Latin and Greek. With this study being killed in the 1960s and 1970s, a key tool for meaning, spelling and phonics was lost.

If the phonics experts in the higher grade studies are writing text books and ignoring prefixes, roots and suffixes they are reinventing the wheel with something less historically valid. 

I learned Latin and Greek roots in the 1960s as a primary and secondary student. But some fool teachers decided that it was all too academic. It was blocked in world curricula. The standard of English dropped accordingly. Teachers thought we are not supposed to know the roots of our language. Fools.

The study of Greek brings the derivation of many later English words that were coined often in the name of science - 

biology,                     bios life, logos a study
zoology,                    zoon an animal , logos a study
barometer,               baros weight, metron a measure
thermometer,          therme heat, metron a measure
phosphorus,            phos light
democracy,             demos the people
police,                      polis a city
politician,                polis a city
telescope,                tele afar, skopeo I view
Micronesia,            micros small, nesia an island
Polynesia,               poly many, nesia an island
Indonesia               Indo an Indian, nesia an island
microscope,            micros small, skopeo I view
telephone,               tele afar, phonos sound
telegraph                tele afar, grapho I write

In all the years I have spent as a teacher of English in Australia and Papua New Guinea, I have introduced students mainly grades 8-12 to hundreds of Latin based words. Please click:

test knowledge of latin-based english words - family positive living ...

familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/2014/06/test-your-knowledge-of-latin-based.html

Jun 6, 2014 - TEST KNOWLEDGE OF LATIN-BASED ENGLISH WORDS. What is the word that means.....? a place with houses (villa - a house villa, village).