Grammar Concepts and Definition

Syllable – A unit of pronunciation containing a single vowel sound

Syllabication – The process of analyzing the patterns of vowels and consonants in a word to determine where the word breaks into syllables.  This enables the reader to identify syllable types and their vowel sounds, and arrive at an approximate pronunciation of the word.

Schwa – The vowel sound sometimes heard in an unstressed syllable

Blends – Consonant blends are 2 or 3 single consonants that work together to create specific sounds. Each consonant within the blend can be heard

Digraphs – A pair of letters representing a single speech sound, such as ph in pheasant or ea  in beat

Dipthongs – A complex speech sound or glide that begins with one vowel and gradually changes to another vowel within the same syllable, as o  in boil

Morpheme – The smallest meaningful spoken units of language. There are two types of morphemes: free and bound. A free morpheme has meaning all on its own and does not need to be attached to another morpheme to make a word (i.e. or root words like happy). Bound morphemes must be attached to another morpheme to make a word (i.e. root words and affixes like vis, un, ly). They have meaning but are not words unless attached to one or more morphemes.

Morphemic Analysis – Isolating and identifying word parts such as base words, affixes, and roots in words and analyzing the way these morphemes combine to contribute to the meaning of words.