Glossary

Accent: The emphasis, by stress or pitch, on a word or syllable. For example, in the word garden, the accent falls on the first syllable, gar.

Base word: A word in its basic form, without a prefix or suffix. For example, in the word unhappiness, un- is the prefix, -ness is the suffix, and happy is the base word.

Blend: A combination of two or three consonants in which you hear the sound of each consonant. For example, the two letters st can each be heard in the word stop, and the three letters str can each be heard in the word string.

Compound word: A word made up of two smaller words—for example, baseball.

Decode: The ability to translate written forms into their corresponding speech sounds—for example, recognizing that d represents /d/, o represents /ŏ/, g represents /g/, and therefore that combination of letters (d-o-g) is the word dog.

Digraph: Two letters together that make one sound. For example, the two letters sh in the word fish make one sound.

Onset: The part of a syllable before the first vowel sound. For example, in the word dog, /d/ is the onset.

Phonemes: Smallest units of sound. Phonemes are combined together to make words.

Phonological awareness: The ability to recognize and distinguish sounds of speech in language. For example, the ability to identify similar sounds in words, create rhyming words, and count syllables are all signs of phonological awareness.

Rime: The part of a syllable containing the first vowel sound and remaining consonants. For example, in the word dog, /og/ is the rime.

Schwa: An unstressed vowel indistinct in pronunciation, often similar to short u. In the word garden, the unstressed syllable -den contains the schwa sound. In the word alone, the unstressed syllable a- is the schwa sound. The schwa sound is represented by the symbol ǝ.

Trigraph: Three letters together that make one sound. For example, the three letters tch in the word match make one sound.