Most reading teachers know that CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) words are very reliable. Most reading systems use these words to teach beginning readers by "selecting out" those few words which do not have a short vowel and teaching only those words which have a short vowel sound. For instance, they do not teach the words "WAN" , "SON, or "TON".
This method of teaching can be expanded if a compilation is made of other words which conform precisely to a given set of spelling and pronunciation rules.
For instance, here is a comprehensive list of all the English words which contain the spelling "ine" which we designate as being the speech-sound /ine/, a triphthong. All the vowels in these words except those in the "ine" are short. The consonants are all regular.These words also conform to few other rules: (1) all the ending letter "y's" are pronounced as a long /e/, (2) "ay" is pronounced as a long /a/, (3) "oo" is a long /u/, (4) "ee" is a long /e/, (5) "er, ir and ur" are pronounced /ur/, (6) "ea" is a long /e/. These 6 rules are part of all the 3,400 words we have compiled.
aline / alinement / alkaline / alpine / asinine / brine / coastline / columbine / combine / confine / crystaline / dine / divine / decline / declined / define /diner / enshrine / equine / fifty-nine / fine / finely / finer / finest / florentine / forty-nine / Incline / inclined / interline / intertwine / intertwined / libertine / line / liner / Madeline / mine / mined / minelayer / miner / minesweeper / moonshine / nine / nine-ninety-nine / niner / nineteen / ninety / ninety-nine / ninety-seven / ninety-six / ninety-three / online / opaline / opine / outline / outlined / outshine / pine / pined / pines / quinine / recline / reclined /recliner / redline / redlined / Rhine / saturnine / seventy-nine / shine / shined / shiner / shines / shrine / shriner / shrines / sine / sixty-nine / starshine / streamline / spline / sunshine / supine / swine / thine / thirty-nine / tine / turpentine / twenty-nine / twine / underline / undermine / valentine / vine / whine / wine / winery / wines .
The words we have compiled allow phonetic headlines such as the following to be presented to beginners. These were all taken from the NY Times on-line headlines of 6/14/06
Tropical Storm Weakens Before Hitting Florida
Unexpected Victory for New Baptist Leader
Canada Conservative Gets Aggressive With Big Oil
THE ROAD BACK
HEAT 98, MAVERICKS 96
Too Soon to Cheer in Baghdad
Detainees in Despair
The Mark of the Bust
Any beginner who knows the alphabet and the 36 rules should be able to read these headlines. There are no ambiguities.
I look forward to correspondence with others who would like to collaborate on a compilation as outlined above.
Martirc 04:38, 15 June 2006 (UTC)