Etymology Study

[Tracy]

My 10yo told me that for language arts, she wants to do an etymology study.  So I suggested maybe doing a Latin/Greek roots curriculum.  She responded that what she really wants is to study ALL of the roots.  She doesn't want to leave out the Germanic or Scandinavian roots, or any others that might be overlooked.   :confused1:

 

This child has a huge tendency to bite off much more than she can chew academically (and otherwise) and then feel overwhelmed and give up.  So I need to help her to delve into this interest in a way that keeps it light and interesting.  From an academic standpoint, I don't really care whether she completes this.  But from a character standpoint, I want to help her to make reasonable goals and then stick with them to the end.  

 

Also, she is 2e and really struggles with the physical act of writing.  So I naturally want to avoid anything with worksheets. But I am having a hard time coming up with ways to approach this without actually looking things up and writing them down.  

 

She has already devoured all five parts of the BBC's English: Birth of a Language series.  Actually, I think that series is was got her wanting to study this.  I think it left her feeling like she wants more.  

 

Any suggestions for resources or how to go about this?

[Dmmetler]

You might want to look at the National Classical Etymology Exam-she might enjoy preparing for it, and it's got a lot of room to learn (the top 25% or so of scores often are only 50-60% correct-perfect scores are extremely rare.

 

Athena's Academy has an Etymology class that my DD loved last year. It's fall only, though.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

For Greek and Latin roots we've used the card games called Rummy Roots and More Rummy Roots. This is an option for a non-writing activity.

 

We've also loved the videos called Word Up - The Vocab Show. These are about Greek and Latin roots and are very entertaining. The presenter is Dwane Thomas (of Visual Latin) and we got it through Compass Classroom. I think there may be free sample lessons online.

Each section then has a range of free online games for consolidation.

 

We haven't delved into anything other than Greek or Latin roots yet, so I'll be interested to see what others recommend.

[daijobu]

I once accidentally stumbled on a wikipedia page similar to this one that she might enjoy perusing.  

 

ETA:  also German expressions in English.

Edited December 8, 2015 by daijobu

[Dmmetler]

Here are some books DD has enjoyed-be aware-authors writing on etymology seem to love diving into the origins of "inappropriate" words :).

 

http://smile.amazon.com/Etymologicon-Circular-Through-Connections-Language/dp/0425260798/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449539616&sr=8-1&keywords=Etymology

 

http://smile.amazon.com/Why-Do-We-Say-It/dp/1555210104/ref=cm_wl_huc_item

 

http://smile.amazon.com/Unexpected-Evolution-Language-Surprising-Etymology-ebook/dp/B008SD4IFE/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1449539836&sr=8-19&keywords=Etymology

 

 

This is the book Athena's uses in their etymology class.

http://smile.amazon.com/Say-What-Mysterious-Journey-Language/dp/0887768784/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1449539902&sr=8-5&keywords=Say+what

[Kerileanne99]

Absolutely NO idea if it is a fantastic game or not, but I just ordered this game for Alex for Christmas. We get the daily email from Word a Day, which we love. The same folks made this game, so we are hoping for success:)

http://mootgame.com

[tm919]

I don't think this would cover everything she needs since it's not spot on despite discussing the origin of most of the "major" words in it, but my daughter enjoyed "Building a Better Vocabulary." I think it is 1 credit on audible and there are other great courses that are similar. Regarding the writing, this one has a coursebook with some review questions, but the actual definitions and everything are written in the PDF coursebook so she would not have to write much.

[Tanaqui]

This is not the answer you're looking for, but as a child of about that age I got into the study of etymology through two things: First, a baby name book (you have no idea how amazing it was to read that "Elizabeth" means "consecrated to God" and "Israel" means "wrestling with God' and to then work out that "Gabriel" and "Michael" probably had something to do with God as well), and second, a birthday gift of a dictionary of etymology. (And for the record, the Online Etymology Dictionary is an excellent resource, especially when you consider that it's a one-man job.) I simply read a page or two a day of my dictionary, as well as looking up any words that seemed interesting to me.

 

This wasn't a formal study, which is why it's not the answer you're looking for, but it surely was light and interesting, and sparked a lifelong interest in the subject, one which my own darlings rather regret. (And many of my other interests tie back into that early interest in word origins. For example, linguistics and folklore - with the latter, specifically how stories and rhymes and songs change from place to place and time to time.)

[SanDiegoMom]

Ellen Mchenry has a unit called Excavating English.  We haven't tried it but we have enjoyed many of her other units. Here is the description:

 

Summary of curriculum:  An introduction to the nature of the English language (its flexibility and willingness to take in new words), reasons to study the history of English, places where English is spoken, basic principles of phonetics (including topics such as palatalization), how and why languages change, language family groups, the Indo-European languages and where they came from, the oldest words in the English language, cognates, the Germanic family of languages, Grimm’s Law, King Arthur, the Anglo-Saxons, Alfred the Great, Old English, the Danes and Old Norse, the Norman Conquest and its linguistic consequences, the centuries of silence, Chaucer and his “Canterbury Tales,†the Renaissance and the introduction of Latin and Greek words, the “Great Vowel Shift,†the English dictionary, English crosses the Atlantic, immigrants to America and the words they brought with them, international English.

Activities include: a group game about nouns and verbs, a map activity about countries where English is spoken, some word puzzles about obsolete words, food words and acronyms, experiments with phonetics in your own mouth, identifying phonetic sounds in a variety of words, Indo-European numbers, a map study, activities about cognates, a word search puzzle about our oldest words, another map study, reading and listening to Old English, Anglo-Saxon names and words, Norse word puzzles, read and listen to the prologue from The Canterbury Tales, Norman French words in English, Renaissance word puzzles, common Latin and Greek roots, a group game about dictionary definitions, and several review quizzes and crossword puzzles.  Also included are suggestions for more reading (via websites).