Foundations of reading part three

Recall that n generally represents // when followed by g or k. rewrite the following words, indicating the pronunciation of the consonants. Use ng ( but underline it) to represent the consonant digraph. Work carefully. This takes a keen ear. sing pink blank finger ginger sink triangle link

/ng/ siNG piNGk blaNGk fiNGGer jinjer, siNGk triaNGGle liNGk

in our study of consonants we identified_______ consonant ________ (the smallest units of sounds that distinguish one _______ from another).

25 phonemes word

We have been relating each of the consonant phonemes to its respective letter. There are ________ letters in the alphabet. Five are _______, so there are ________ consonant letters. __________ of these have no distinctive phonemes of their own. This leaves _________ single letter consonant graphemes, each of which has been assigned a key symbol and phoneme.

26 vowels 21 3 18

Eighteen symbols but 25 consonant sounds! Where do we find the __________ remaining symbols? We gain seven additional phonemes through the use of the two-letter ________________.

7 grapheme

A consonant cluster is composed of two or more consonants that blend together when sounded to form a consonant blend. The letters do not form a consonant digraph. The phonemes in the blend retain their individual identities. Pronounce the words below. For each, fill in the blank with the letters that form the consonant clusters. black______ clown________ flying________ draft______ desk_______ fry________ spray________ splash_______ Why did you omit the sh in spalsh?________ The ck in black represents the single consonant ____________, not a blend.

b l, cl, fl, dr, sk, fr, spr, spl Sh is a consonant digraph k

Say the words below aloud. Rewrite the words to show pronunciation of the consonants. (copy the vowels omitting silent e). Bang ranger stung hinge hungry jungle Does each contain the letters ng?________ Does each contain the diagraphs ng?_______

bang ranjer stung hinj hunggry junggle yes no

The consonants w and y are found _________ the vowel in a word. Is the consonant y often a silent letter? _____

before no

Blends that occur at the _______ of a syllable may include a consonant digraph and a consonant blend, such as in shr (shrimp) and thr (throw)

beginning

The wh like the consonant w appears at the _________ of a word or syllable and is followed by a vowel.

beginning

The phoneme /ng/ is different from the others represented by consonant digraphs in that it is never heard at the____________ of a syllable, or, to put it another way, it always__________ the vowel. Some dictionaries use the symbol n, to indicate the pronunciation. We will use ng in our study. You may use n, if you chose.

beginning follows

l blends

bl black cl class fl flower gl glad pl plan

We distinguish a ____________ from a consonant digraph by the fact that it represents two or more phonemes blended together. The ___________ represents a single sound. Check those combinations in the following list that do not represent consonant blends. bl cr qu tr scr cl dr tw sh spr gl sk ch sm spl sl pr th mp str

blend digraph sh ch th

r blends

br bright cr crayon dr dress fr free gr green pr pretty tr train

A digraph is a two letter combination that represents a single phoneme. The consonant digraph ch does not represent the sound of the ___________ or the sound of the __________ with which it is spelled.

c h

The key symbols that represent the seven missing phonemes are listed. Fill in the missing items in the table: consonant digraphs (1) and key words (3). Select the key words from these: Ship, whale, king, thumb, chair, treasure. Pronounce aloud the word and phoneme each represents. Notice that each is a distinctive consonant sound not represented by any single letter in our alphabet. 1 2 3 ___ ch ____ sh th th that wh zh ng

ch chair sh ship th thumb th wh whale treasure ng king

We have no single letter in the alphabet to represent the first phoneme we hear in the key word chair. We will use the logical two-letter combination, the ____________, to identify this phoneme. Study the consonant digraphs in these sets of words: 1 2 3 Chair Character Chiffon Chalk chord Machine Churn chaos chute Each word contains the grapheme ch. Does each grapheme represent he phoneme we associate with the key symbol ch?__________ try pronouncing each one using the first phoneme in chair for each consonant digraph. Is the digraph ch reliable?

ch, no, no

You have learned that the th digraph represents two phonemes. One phoneme is the voiced th/ (that) the other phoneme is the voiceless th (thumb). A voiced phoneme is produced when the vocal cords vibrate. A voiceless phoneme is produced when the vocal cords do not vibrate. Pronounce the words below. Write the words in which the th is voiced in column 1 below. Write the words in which the th is voiceless in column 2. think there thick these those thing this thank column 1 column 2

column 1 there those this these column 2 think thick thing thank

a____________ is a cluster or group of two or more consonants that blend together when pronounced (CLown, SPRay). Each consonant letter represents a sound. Some teachers manuals and guides use the term cluster. Other manuals and guides use the term blend. When manuals and guides use consonant blend, the term blend refers to both letters (the st in stop) and sounds (/st/ in /stop/). We will use the more common term blend in this study guide. You sounds (/st/ in /stop/). We will use the more common term, blend, in this study guide. You may wish to substitute cluster if this term is used in your teachers manual or curriculum guide.

consonant blends (clusters)

we have identified the seven _______________ that represent distinct phonemes not represented by the single letters in the alphabet. They are as follows: 1. ch as in__________ (chair, choir) 2. ________________ as in ship 3. ___________ sounded like the s in treasure 4. _____________ as in thumb 5. th/ as in __________ (that, thrill) 6.wh as in_________ (whale, whole) 7. __________ as in king

consonant digraphs 1. chair 2. sh 3. zh 4. th 5. that 6. whale 7. ng

Check the words below in which the underlined graphemes represent the /zh/. If you identify all of the words in which the /zh/ phoneme occurs, you are really thinking! DECisON SEizURE BEIge COLLAgE PERsON MEAsURE

decision seizure beige collage measure

The letters n and g together in a word are most commonly a _____________, that is, a two letter combination representing a single phoneme as in ___________ (gingham , orange)

digraph gingham

There are other consonant digraphs, such as ph and gh. However they are not listed in frame 6 because they are already represented. The key symbol _________ indicates the sounds of ph and the gh .

f

A phoneme may be represented by more than one grapheme .Write the phoneme that is represented in each set of words. Then rewrite the words, using the key symbols for the consonants. // as in Face____________ lauGH ________ PHone______ // paGe____________, Joke __________ fuDGe__________, graDual___________ // anCHor_________ antiQue_________ Cue______ // uSe___________, froZen__________ Xylophone____________

f fase lauf fone j paje joke fuje grajual k ankor antkue kue z uze frozen zylophone

The digraphs ph, dg, and gh may represent single phonemes. These consonant digraphs are not among the seven digraphs in frame 6 because they represent sounds that already have key symbols. The ph represents // as in graph. The dg represents // as in dodge. The gh represents // in cough or may be silent as in _________. (light laughter)

f j f light

In which words from the preceding frame do you hear hard g, /g/, as well as /ng/? sing pink blank finger ginger sink triangle link

finger triangle

Many people do not realize that th is a grapheme that represents two sounds that are just as different as the sounds represented by p and b or s and z. They automatically use the correct sound for the words they have heard before. Check the words below in which the th represents the voiceless phoneme. You will not be able to tell the difference if you do not say them out loud! fourth the though thought them they thin through length both

fourth thought thin through length both

Repeat the generalization regarding the hard and soft sounds of c and g. Check each of the following words that do not follow the generalization. epic gem ghost girl cake gate cycle give

girl give

The digraph ch ________. Ch may represent // (chair) the // (character) or the // (Machine)

is not reliable /ch/ /k/ /sh/

The key symbol for q is?

k

Which set of symbols below indicates the pronunciation of kangaroo? of single? kan ga roo kang ga roo ___________ sing gle sing le ____________

kang ga roo sing gle

Many consonant blends occur in the final position of an english syllable. Some of the more common final blends include these:

ld old nd end st most mp amp it salt lk milk nt went sk desk ft lift

Many consonant clusters represent phonemes that are blended together in the final position in english words or syllables. read the words below. Underline the consonant blends ( clusters) that occur at the end of the words. field dish lamp bent task fast hand church belt draft

ld, mp, nt, sk, st, nd, lt, ft

The s and g are two other graphemes that occasionally represent the /zh/ as in _________(leisure,base) and_____________( regime, age) The s in the key word_____________(treasure, sun) represents the /zh/ phoneme. We _________(do, do not) have a grapheme to represent the /zh/ phoneme.

leisure regime treasure do not

We have identified each of the 25 consonant phonemes of the American-English language: 18 of these are represented by single__________; 7 are represented by_________. Now let us turn our attention to consonants that are blended together when pronounced. Pronounce the word blue. How many consonant phonemes does blue contain? ______________ What are they? ____________

letters consonant digraph 2 b l

Zh_____________(never, seldom) appears in a word, so it is not appropriate to make a statement regarding reliability.

never

Some dictionaries use key symbols other than those shown in column 2 of the previous frame to indicate pronunciation. Some join each set of letters to show one sound, as (ch( sh ng) some use ^c to represent the initial phoneme heard in chair. The symbol n, is often used to represent ________ as heard in king. Look up chair, ship, and king in your dictionary to see how the pronunciations are indicated.

ng

The digraph // is never heard at the _________ of a syllable and always ______ a vowel. The letters ng may represent // (sing, among). The letter n may also represent /ng/ when it is followed by the letter // ( finger-fing-ger) or the letter // ( pink pingk).

ng beginning follows ng g k

Now listen for the middle consonant sound as you say treasure. Is there a letter in the alphabet that represent this sound?

no

Is the consonant digraph ch reliable as to the phoneme it represents? ___________ if we do not know the word, we cannot tell which key symbol to identify with it. It might be _________ or ________ or ___________. (however if you are an expert on langugage derivation, you will have clues.)

no ch k sh

Listen to the first phoneme while you pronounce that aloud. compare it with the first phoneme in thumb. Do you hear the /t/ in either phoneme? _____________The /h/________?

no no

The ch is one of the two letter consonant digraphs we will study. Pronounce chair as though EACH consonant was sounded. You would say either /s-hair/ or /k-hair/. Now pronounce chair as it should be pronounced. Note that you hear neither the sound represented by the c nor the one represented by h. The combination ch represents a _____________ represented by a single consonant letter. It functions like another letter of the alphabet.

not

A consonant digraph is a two-letter grapheme that represents _____________ speech sound. The word blue does not contain a consonant digraph. Neither the b nor the l loses its identity. Both are sounded, but they are blended together. We call such combinations of consonant letters consonant clusters and the sounds they represent consonant_____________. We need to study the consonant blends because, in many ways they act as one phoneme.

one blends

When s and h appear together in this order in a syllable, we expect them to represent_____________(how many) phonemes. Can you hear the separate phonemes represented by s and h in shut?____________ if you could you would hear the word hut in shut.

one no

We have studied the single-consonant phonemes (part two) the consonant digraphs, and the consonant clusters that are blended together when pronounced. We include the clusters because in many ways one blend when pronounced acts as though it were one__________.

phoneme

Although consonants are fairly reliable (there is a high relationship between grapheme and_______), there are irregularities. A letter (or grapheme) may represent more than one______. For example: the c represents // in a camp and // in ace the d represents // in date and // in jumped the g represents // in age and // in go the n represents // in ran and // in rank the s represents // in soap // in surely, // in runs, and // in measure the z represents // in waltz // in quiz and // in azure

phoneme phoneme k s d t j g n ng s sh z zh s z zh

When we see an unknown word in our reading that contains the digraph th, we have no way of knowing which __________ it represents. We can use the dictionary. Some dictionaries may use the slash to indicate that the th/ represents the______ phonemes as in _______. (their, worth) Dictionaries may also underline the voiced ___th___ or print the voiced th in italics. Check your dictionary to see how it indicates the voiced th/.

phoneme voiced their

_____ is a consonant blend when it represents /kw/ as in ____ and _____.

qu quick and quiet

The most common blends that occur at the beginning of a word or syllable include one of the letters _, _ , or _.

r l s

Pronounce the words in each set below. Each set has one of the common 'blenders". Write the letter common to each consonant cluster in the set. 1 2 3 brown flame skate street claim snow great split street _________ ________ _______

r, l, s

The common blenders are represented by the letters______,____, and______. However, there are clusters that do not contain these letters.

r,l,s

What letter represents the sound we associate with zh in measure? __________ in rouge? _____________

s g

The sh in splash and the sh in she cannot be blends because the sounds represented by the ______ and the _____ are not heard.

s h

s blends

sc scout sk sky sl slip sm small sn snow sp spot st stop sw swim scr scrap spl splash spr spring squ square str string

Sh is very reliable in that when we see sh, we can be sure we will hear //. However the phoneme we represent by sh has a variety of graphemes; that is, it is spelled in a variety of ways. Examine the words below. Look at the underlined parts. Rewrite the words, using sh to represent the underlined graphemes. sURE________ shOE_______ MOtiON________ sUGAR_______ MAchINE_______ SPEciAL__________

sh Shure Shoe moshon Shugar mashine speshal

The // is a common sound in english language. The // (ship) is very reliable.

sh sh

The sound heard at the beginning of ship is very common, but there is no letter in the alphabet to represent it. We shall use the key symbol sh to represent the phoneme, as heard in the key word ___________.

ship

Some teachers manuals and curriculum, guides use the term cluster to describe these consonant combinations; Other manuals and guides use the term blend. When consonant blend is used, blend refers to both letters and sounds. In the word spalsh, for example the letters___________,_____________, and___________ as well as /sp/ are called_______________. Recognizing that blend is common term for consonant clusters, you may use either term in your answers. Consistent with the trend to use blend when the intention is to refer to the consonant clusters that are blended when pronounced, we will use these terms.

spl, blends

All consonant clusters (written) represent blends(spoken). Write the consonants that represent blends in these words: squash strap strength blast small thrift

squ, str ngth, bl st, sm, thr ft,

Which word in frame 16 has a cluster composed of two digraphs? ______________ The two digraphs that blend together are // and //.

strength /ng/ /th/

To know exactly to which sound we are referring, we assigned each phoneme a key_________ and a key word. As you go through the alphabet write the 18 consonant letters that symbolize specific phonemes: __________________. But we need 25 symbols. We use _______ to complete our representation of the consonant phonemes: ___ __ __ __ __ __ __.

symbol bdfghjklmnprstvwyz digraphs ch, sh, ng, th, th /, zh , wh

There are many words in which a consonant digraph is a part of a consonant blend. Examine the word throw. The first three letters, _______,_______, and______, compose a cluster. Within the cluster is the consonant digraph________. All blend together. /thr/.

t h r th

The th us not a reliable consonant diagraph. It may represent the voiced sound heard in ___________(the, third) the voiceless sound heard in__________(bath, bathe) or in rare instances the // as in Thomas.

the bath /t/

As you have seen, consonant blends may appear at the beginning of a word or syllable, as in train, or at the end of a word or syllable, as in task. Underline the appropriate blend (cluster) in each of these examples: train, task.

tr, sk

The ____ in (twin) and the ____(dwell) blends are less common in english than the blends that include one of the letters r, l, or s.

tw dw

Voiceless th. The th represents ____ distinct phonemes, one ______ and one ______. The /th/ in the key word thumb is a whispered sound, which we call the ________ (thorn, thick)

two voiceless voiced

However, the n and g may represent two separate phonemes, as in ____________ (ungrateful, among). The n and g represent__________(how many?) phonemes when they are in separate syllables ( un grate ful)

ungrateful 2

The /th/ heard in thumb is a whispered sound, a voiceless sound. However, we use our voice cords when we say the first phoneme in that. We call it a _________Phoneme.

voiced

voiced th/ We use our vocal cords to pronounce the /th/ phoneme in the key word that, which we refer to as the ________ th/ (there, father). Dictionaries may use a slash, a line, an underline, or italics to indicate the voiced diagraph.

voiced

It may seem strange to classify qu as a consonant blend (or cluster) when u is a vowel. The uin this case, however, takes the sound of the consonant_____________ so this combination is actually a /kw/ blend. Select the words with the /kw/ blend from the following: equal quart unique queen opaque quick

w equal quart queen quick

The phoneme /wh/ may give you some trouble because it is rapidly disappearing from our language. If you pronounce weather and whether exactly the same, you are following the trend in the United States. Many people make the phoneme represented by the key symbol wh sound like that represented by the single letter_______. What do you do? Pronounce whistle and white. Do they sound like wistle and wite? __________

w yes

The digraph ___ represents // (why, white). Wh occurs in the _____ of syllables and is _______ by a vowel.

wh /hw/ beginning followed

Another phoneme represented by two letters is__________ as heard in whale. It is also heard in ___________(who, what)

wh what

Most dictionaries note this trend but continue to indicate the pronunciations of words beginning with wh as hw. We will use the key symbol________ to represent the sound of the digraph, although it actually is better represented by hw. Wh represents the phoneme heard in _________(whom, while)

wh while

We shall use the consonant digraph zh as the key symbol to represent the phoneme heard in the key word treasure, although it is never represented in a word with a grapheme________.

zh

While // occurs in english words (measure, vision), it is never represented in a word with the grapheme //. The // may be represented by the // (pleasure, vision) , the // (collage) or //(seizure)

zh zh s g z

The z occasionally stands for the /zh/ as in ______________. Pronounce seizure and dozen aloud. Which has the phoneme you hear in zipper?

Seizure dozen

Draw a single line under the consonant digraph and another line under the entire cluster in each of these words: through shrimp chrome phrase Which of the consonant digraphs in the above words are not among the seven key symbols needed to complete the phonemes of our language? __________ ___________

THR, SHR, CHR, PhR, CH PH

Underline the consonant blends (clusters) in these words: tree twin great splash chair quit please she street slow pretty grasp

TR, TW, GR, sp, , qu, pl, str, pr, gr sp, not sh or ch!

You must say the words in frame 3 aloud or you will not hear the voiced quality. Note that the voiceless phoneme has a whispered sound even when you say it aloud. The th in _________ (this, thorn) has a whispered or voiceless sound. Our vocal cords do not vibrate.

Thorn

Now arrange the words below in two columns: Those containing clusters that represent blends and those containing digraphs. Some of those words, too, may be used in both columns, so underline to indicate the part of each word that places it in a column. toast shelter grapheme three clanging strike altogether father

Blends Digraphs toast Shelter grapheme grapheme three three clanging clanging strike altogether father

Arrange the words below in two columns: those with clusters representing phonemes that are blended in pronunciation and those with digraphs. Some words may be used in both columns. Underline to indicate the part in each word that qualifies it to be in the particular column. Speech rest church digraph shield

Blends Digraphs sp ch st ch ch gr ph ld sh

The word try is not a key word for the y phoneme because the y is not at the beginning of the syllable; it is, therefore not a ____________ letter.

Consonant

Note the spelling of digraph: di for two graph referring o writing. We will use consonant digraph to identify the two consonant letters that represent a single phoneme. The two letter combination sh, as in shoe is called _____________. The consonant digraphs stand for the seven phonemes not represented by single letter graphemes.

Consonant digraph

What do the consonants w and y have in common?

Each grapheme functions as a consonant and as a vowel. W and y as consonants appear at the beginning of a word or syllable.