Building a Better Vocabulary

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Lecture 31

1. Children in the alphabetic layer have a tacit logic underlying their
   spelling; they operate under the principle that every letter makes a sound
   and that we read and spell in a left-to-right, linear fashion; they have the
   same basic spelling logic as the Anglo-Saxons.


2. Children in the pattern layer know that every letter does not make a
   sound in English, that silent letters provide important information, and
   that the “one letter at a time” strategy won’t work for all words.


3. Many of the classical roots in the meaning layer came into our spelling
   system during the Renaissance, when an explosion of new knowledge
   and ideas created a demand for new vocabulary.

Lecture 32

1. tendentious/equivocal


2. truculent/truckle


3. trenchant/nascent


4. venal


5. pernicious


6. tintinnabulation (ringing), susurration (whispering), and harrumph
   (throat-clearing)

Lecture 33

1. shy spy, straighter traitor, monk’s bunk, quieter rioter