Application Questions Chapter 5

PILL “The word pill ultimately comes from the Latin pila “ball,” or more specifically from the Medieval Latin pilula “little ball.” So a pill is a small ball or pellet of medicine. This is the earliest sense of the word in English, dating to before 1400, appearing in the English translation of Lanfranc’s Science of Cirurgie in Bodleian Ashmole MS 1396”

ALE/BEER “Ale and beer are both words that go back to Old English. Today, we distinguish the two as different beverages, but this distinction did not exist in Old English.”

BACHELOR “The English word bachelor comes from the Old French bacheler, meaning a “young man.” The word ultimately comes from Latin *baccalaris (the asterisk designated a root that has been reconstructed but is not found in extant literature).”

BIKINI “test of an atomic weapon at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Bikini was the site for numerous nuclear weapons tests through 1958. Four days after this first test, fashion designer Jacques Heim exhibited a two-piece swimsuit which he dubbed the bikini in an attempt to ride the publicity wave created by the well-publicized detonation.”

CHOW “This term for food is a clipping of the older chow-chow, a Chinese-English pidgin word of unknown origin meaning food or, in particular, a mixture or medley of foodstuffs.”

CURFEW “The word curfew originates in the medieval practice of ringing a bell at a fixed time in the evening as an order to bank the hearths and prepare for sleep. It comes from the Anglo-Norman coeverfu, the equivalent of the Old French cuevre-fe, or cover fire.”

EUREKA “This exclamation is from the Greek heureka, meaning I have found it.”

GOLF “Despite the claims of some that the name of this game is an acronym, its origin is unknown. The place of origin, however, is known and it should come as no surprise that the game comes from Scotland.  The earliest known reference to golf is from 1457 in the Acts of James II of Scotland, where it is banned.”

HELL “Hell is another Old English word. It is attested to in the early ninth century, but the word and the concept is undoubtedly older, dating back to pre-Christian Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, Hel was the goddess of the underworld”

HOOLIGAN “Hooligan is a variant of the Irish name Houlihan or O hUallachain, and somewhere along the line some street tough of that name left it for posterity. But the specific person whom the term originally referred to has been lost to the ages.”

Wilton, Dave.  (2011, Oct 9) Retrieved from http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php

Phonetic	Semantic	Etymological
Bat	Align/alignment	Boutique (French)
fed	Forgive/forgiven	Edifice(Latin)
go	Corrupt/corruption	Animal (Latin)
kit	Design/designer	Angst (German)
Send	Origin/original	Demagogue (Greek)

8.  Words that end in ch and tch

-ch		-tch
Reach		catch
rich		match
beach		watch
speech		Switch
search		stretch
lurch		pitch
march		fetch
leech	scratch
Beseech	patch
teach	stitch
much	hatch
torch	clutch

It appears that the –ch­ follows a long vowel sound such as the sound made by the –ea­ and ­–ee.  It is likely that the transfer from a long vowel to a fricative –ch is easier than transfer to a –tch because the t will be lost following a longer vowel.  Whereas the short vowel sound made by the a  in catch and the e in stretch allows the mouth to form the fricative –tch­ more easily, thus the reason why these words are spelled with a –tch.

-ge	-dge
age	fridge
allege	fledge
anchorage	ridge
beige	badge
plunge	judge
engage	Fudge

 I believe that the –ge ­and ­­–dge­ distinctions are much more difficult to figure out.  After analysis of the words, I was unable to discern a reasonable pattern that distinguishes between the two.  At first it appeared that the –dge­ ending only appeared with words that had a first letter that required a stop, or a restriction of airflow.  However, the word beige which ends in a –ge ruined that generalization.  Overll, I found that my pronunciation in normal speech blended the d  in the -dge endings and made them sound exactly the same as those that ended in just a ­–ge­.  This makes me hesitant to apply a single spelling rule to these two endings.

Application Questions

Allophones are variations on a phoneme.  We were asked to consider the phoneme /p/ and try to find variations of /p/ in the English language in order to determine its allophones.  The primary allophones for /p/ are [p] and  [p^h].  This variation can be seen is words such as pit and spit. Pit uses the [p] phoneme and spit uses the [p^h]  phoneme but they are allophones because they are treated the same in the English language.  However, not all languages have the same allophones.  The fact that allophones are distinct to individual languages is what can cause confusion for learners.  Learners may not have the same allophones in their language and therefore might ignore important differences in physical appearance or sound variation (Freeman et al., 2004, p. 93).  For example, in the Chinese language [p] and  [p^h] are not allophones, which means that when native speakers of Chinese attempt to learn English they may struggle with understanding why the words like pit and spit sound different but are treated the same^. 

Freeman's stated that many people are fascinated by the study of dialect and it is easy to see why. Dialects represent "variations in language marked by certain ways of pronouncing words" and they can vary based on region or social class.  Therefore, two people can be speaking an identical language but have entirely different means of pronouncing words.  English is an excellent example of a language that has many dialects.  “Proper English” is a dialect of English spoken in England, which is different from the English that is spoken in Australia and an even different still is the English spoken in America.  In fact variations exist within America regionally.  In the northern United States, the word “vacuum” is used to describe the device that vacuums your floor whereas in the southern United States the word referring to the same object is “sweeper”.  In western Pennsylvania people use the expression “yinz” to refer to a group of people instead of “you all” (Example:“yinz going to the diner with us?” ).   Many people argue that some dialects sound more distinguished than others.  In the example of English, many believe that “proper” English sounds more refined than the dialect of English spoken in the northern United States.  To go one step further, many also argue that the dialect of English spoken in the northern United States sounds more sophisticated than that spoken in the southern US.

I hate to say that I agree with dialect reduction but to answer truthfully, I do believe that in some instances dialect reduction is necessary.  The primary reason that I support dialect reduction is that in some instances, the dialect has strayed so far from the standard speech that it is nearly impossible to understand .  The “cork” dialect in Ireland is an example of a dialect that is nearly impossible to understand even by other English speakers.  In this instance, I believe that dialect reduction is necessary because the language has essentially become incommunicable.   The second circumstance where I believe that dialect reduction is necessary is when a dialect has developed in such a way that a large majority of people in society deem it socially unacceptable.  Pinker points out in his text that the “Black English Vernacular” has become a popular form of speech in the United States in major cities and some rural areas (Pinker et al.,1994, p. 17).  This is a hot topic amongst linguists and columnists across the country because the dialect is far astray from Standard English.  I believe that this dialect poses several problems, but I support dialect reduction in this instance because BEV makes frequent use of slang and curse words.  I don’t believe that curse words are socially acceptable in a professional setting nor is the usage of improper grammatical structure.  My personal opinion is that this dialect also makes the speaker sound uneducated and therefore could affect their odds of acquiring a job during the interview process.  I especially don’t believe that this dialect should be taught in schools because it teaches poor grammatical structure.  I support the idea that standard forms of language should be taught to new language learners.

Minimal Pairs Worksheet

Minimal Pairs

What is a minimal pair?

                Minimal pairs are words that sound exactly alike except for one sound.

Why are minimal pairs important?

Minimal pairs are important because they can be confusing.  The words sound almost exactly alike but they mean totally different things.

Let’s Practice:

Directions: Say the word on the left side out loud to yourself.  With your partner say the words on the right side out loud.  Try to determine which word on the right side sounds just like the word on the left, only with ONE sound that is different. When you think you have found the correct answer, write it on the line. Cross off the answers that you have used as you go.

1.        Ferry                    ________very______________               veal

2.       Feel                       ______________________                    rake

3.       Fast                       ______________________                    vast

4.      Lake                     ______________________                    rice

5.       Lice                       ______________________                    right

6.       Light                    ______________________                    very

1.        Rifle                      ______________________                    let

2.       Late                      ______________________                    shout

3.       Gate                     ______________________                    gas

4.      Laid                      ______________________                    led

5.       Shot                      ______________________                    get

6.       Guess                   ______________________                    rival

Minimal Pairs Activity

Minimal Pairs Activity

Learning Objective: SWBAT Identify minimal pairs and explain why they are important to know.

Activity: Duration (5-7 mins)
Teacher will distribute Minimal Pairs worksheets and explain the definition of minimal pairs and why they are important to know.

Teacher will explain the directions for the assignment.

Teacher will assign students partners. Teacher should assign partners that are closely matched in both grade level and proficiency level.

Teacher will do first 3 questions in the first set as examples. Students will participate by saying the words aloud with the teacher and raising their hand when they think that they can identify the correct answer.

Students will break into pairs and complete the activity.

Teacher will go over the answers with the students and check for understanding.