Nonsense Words

Nonsense Words

This page was accessible only to spiders and to the appropriate personnel at the University of Oregon, specifically Roland H. Good III and Ruth A. Kaminski. For over two years no links have been made to this page from any other page in this or any other website. As neither Good nor Kaminski have responded to my analysis nor changed their Benchmark Assessments, we are now opening it to all researchers for their commentaries. Words in bold green and highlighted mean correct "nonsense" spellings. The following is an analysis of the Benchmark Assessment pages 4 and 5 that is on the Dibels website. Your Nonsense Word Could be changed to: Your Nonsense Word Could be changed to: Your Nonsense Word Could be changed to: Your Nonsense Word Could be changed to: Your Nonsense Word Could be changed to: wub doj - *1 codge/dadge ik ick vus nuk nuck / kun ul ull zel zell feb wuj wudge hiz * bizz min ros* coss kub* kun / ruck jaf jaff duz zud / kuzz faj * fap ad* aff / da ked ig el ell loj jom/modge et yat ol * lo* / oll* tov* vot uf* uff ral ep kab* hab vif viff tic* gick / cug dev* ved / dop zac zack/cazz doc* dob coss tik* zick / vit sij sidge/jiss zoj zodge/jozz mig zut foj fodge/joff ib jud zek zeck/kezz vov* vot ruz* ruzz/zur huf hud sib ak jack/ka jec jeck/cedge foj* fodge/joff hon* han tum len aj adge/jad suv vuss kam* kim res ress kic kib/bick fav vaff id ib wod* wib nej nedge sok koss/seck wif wiff bis biss wem av va jaj jadge ac ack luj ludge/jull wan* wen uc uck bas sab/dass id (repeat) ig bef beff/feb zij zidge/jizz ven wil* wib vep lod os oss hic* zick vos voss sov viss ril* riss ves vess jos joss sej sedge jeb pac pab ec eck dok bock vut feg vib kov vock huv vud seb jit While I agree 100% with the concept of using nonsense words for diagnostic testing, I do believe that either the words chosen should follow the patterns used in English spelling or they should follow the patterns used in producing dictionary diacritical type spellings. And certainly 28% correctly spelled is unacceptable, especially since they are nonsense words! For example, in our language the /k/ sound in words of a one syllable base is spelled ick as in pick and nick, picking, and nicking. However, the /ik/ sound when it occurs in words of a polysyllabic base is /ic/ as in picnic, panic, and scenic. No single syllable based word ends -ac, ec, ic, oc, or uc. Polysyllabic words such as maniac, Toltec, panic, and manioc can The ending /j/ sound in monosyllabic base words using short vowels is dge as in badge, edge, ridge, dodge, and fudge. To my knowledge the only word ending aj are haj and Taj but then the ending j is pronounced /zh/. As you probably are gearing this to the teaching only of single phonemes that are not represented by digraphs or trigraphs with the possible except of the ending ck, I made more changes in the corrected version below. The ending /s/ sound in monosyllabic base words using short vowels is -ss as in grass, dress, kiss, toss, and cuss. The ending /v/ is practically nonexistent in English spelling. Perhaps, the monks had problems with their script and felt they just had to add the silent e to make the word look pretty. Who knows? Who cares? So /hav/ is spelled have and to avoid misspelling /sav/ as save, we stick in a silent l to spell /sav/ salve. The ending /l/ sound is almost always ll in monosyllabic base words having the letter vowels e, i, o, and u as in will and willingness. In polysyllabic base words we have the single l as in peril, compel, numeral, Errol, and mogul. The same is true with the ending /f/ and /z/ sounds. Only al as in pal and gal has the single l. The "awl" words have the double l as in all, ball, etc. It is my opinion that in any assessments using nonsense words, misspellings of real words should not occur as does hiz for his, kub for cub, huf for huff, dok for dock, sok for sock, kab for cab, wil for will, duz for does, and pac for pack. Nor should real words appear as nonsense words as do tic ad et doc id "hon" el wan. It is crucial, I believe, that no errors in phonics should occur as it does in the choice of the word wan. That cannot rhyme with any other -an words such as tan, man, ran, etc. The w- control prevents that. In English spelling the letter a when it follows the consonant w (or its twin u as in squander) changes the pronunciation to "ah" as in wan, wand, wander, squander, etc. For a more complete discussion, see "The Mechanics of English Spelling," in The Teaching of Reading and Spelling: a Continuum from Kindergarten through College as well as The W- and -R Controlled Clans, Volume 4 of The Patterns of English Spelling. My corrections would make your test of nonsense words of two or three phonemes (with no digraphs except the ck and the double letter digraphs ss, ll, and zz.) look something like this: wub jod ick vuss kun ull zell feb jum bizz min coss ruck jaff zuzz fap aff ked ig vel jom em yat lom vot uff ral ep hab viff cug ved dop zack dod vit jiss jozz mig im joff ib jud zeck vob zur hud sib ack jeck joff han tum len jad vuss kim ress kib vaff vad wib jen koss wiff biss wem vub jad ack jull wen uck sab ip beff jizz ven wib vep lod oss zick voss voss riss vess joss jess jeb pab eck bock vut feg vib vock vud seb jit All donations are greatly appreciated. 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