Week 2 - Linguistic Terms

Question 1

What is a Vowel?

Answer 1

• Sounds that are made without closing/restricting the breathing channel
• Sounds that cause the vocal chords to vibrate
• Represented by the letters - A, E, I, O, U, W, Y

Question 2

What is a Consonant?

Answer 2

• Sounds that made by closing/restricting the breath channel
• Represented by any letters apart from A, E, I, O, U, W, Y

Question 3

When do ‘W’ and ‘Y’ make consonant or vowel sounds?

Answer 3

• W at beginning of word is consonant (e.g. Way)
• W in middle of word is vowel (e.g. Owl)
• Y at beginning of word is consonant (e.g. Yep)
• Y at end of word is vowel (e.g Literacy)

Question 4

What is a Syllable?

Answer 4

• A sound unit of pronunciation
• A vowel alone
• A vowel with one or more consonants

NOTE: Counting syllables = counting vowels

Question 5

What is a Diphthong?

Answer 5

• When two vowels appear together they make one sound

- e.g. in Sea, Coat, Friend

Question 6

What is a Trithong?

Answer 6

• When 3 letters make one vowel sound

- e.g. in Right ‘igh’ makes one sound

Question 7

What is the Rime?

Answer 7

• The part of the syllable that includes the vowel sound and any consonants that come after it
• e.g. ‘at’ in Cat

Question 8

What is the Onset?

Answer 8

• The consonant sounds of the syllable that come before the vowel
• e.g. ‘c’ in Cat

Question 9

What is a Phoneme?

Answer 9

• The smallest sound unit in a language
• Distinguishes one word from another
• All phonemes are shown in the IPA
• e.g. /b/ in bug

Question 10

What is a Consonant Blend?

Answer 10

• Two or more consonant sounds that are blended together
• Without a vowel in the middle
• e.g. ‘SK’ in Skin, ‘ST’ in Stop

Question 11

What is a Schwa Sound?

Answer 11

• Unstressed sound commonly in unstressed syllables
• Closely resembles short sound for ‘u’
• e.g. Pencil (i), Taken (e ), Memory (o)

Question 12

What is a Rhyme?

Answer 12

• Words that have the same end sound

- e.g. Stuff - Enough, Face - Race

Question 13

How many Letters and Phonemes are in the English Language?

Answer 13

• 26 Letters
  BUT
• 42 - 44 Phonemes

Question 14

What are the 5 Big Elements that are used to teach children to read/write?

Answer 14

1. Phonemic awareness
   - Understanding sounds
2. Phonics
   - Mapping sounds into letters
3. Fluency
   - Very quickly access and recognise words/sounds
4. Vocabulary
   - Sounds and meanings of words
5. Text comprehension

Question 15

What is a Morpheme?

Answer 15

• Smallest unit of sound with meaning

- e.g. ‘read’ and ‘ing’ in “reading”

Question 16

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Answer 16

• Awareness of speech sounds

- Can be taught without the awareness of letters