ABSTRACT
The English writing system presents a layer of common prefixes and suffixes used in word formation. Prefixes and suffixes are morphemes: partial codes that are the smallest mappings between sound, spelling, and meaning. The English orthographic system is morphophonemic because it incorporates morphological information as well as phonemic information. Knowing how English morphology affects pronunciation and spelling is essential to presenting English spelling as a learnable system. After an examination of English morphology, pronunciation, and spelling, this chapter looks briefly at morphology in other languages, the possibility that different languages require different morphological processing strategies, and some suggestions for instruction.
