Get to the Heart of Spelling
If we’re relying on sounding out, it will be difficult to get to the heart of spelling. There are only a few words with <ea> representing /ar/.
What meanings do you associate with “heart”? The beating of your heart, the organ of the cardiovascular system or shapes on a Valentine. In February, the stores are full of heart-shaped, heart-decorated candy, cards, jewelry, and even dog biscuits for your furry valentines. Besides being a playing card suit, we universally think of our emotions, our love, our character.
Expressions like “at the heart of the matter,” or “take it to heart,” or “listen to your heart” are common. They refer to an idea of heart being the essence of an issue or the inner voice we reason with when making decisions. Here are 70 more.
Our heart-shaped valentines don’t seem to resemble the physical heart we rely on to pump blood through our veins. How did we get this shape? I don’t know if this is the final word on it, but… I read that Aristotle had proposed the structure of a heart had three chambers (instead of four) with a dent in the middle. There’s a picture from The Romance of Alexander from 1344, which reportedly made the shape popular in France. It’s a G-rated image, no worries.
So what about the spelling and pronunciation? When a question about spelling comes up, my heartiest recommendation is to go to Etymonline.com. See what clues you’ll discover.
I love learning about the spelling and pronunciation from this sentence in Etymonline.com. “Spelling with -ea- is c. 1500, reflecting what then was a long vowel, and the spelling remained when the pronunciation shifted.” The pronunciation shifted, but the spelling remained. Follow the < – ea – > link, and you’ll learn:
As you’re looking at Etymonline’s entry and talking with your students about spelling heart and <ea>, share that at one time the digraph spelled /eɪ/ (IPA for long-A). Then take a minute to let them try some words from this matrix with the 16th century pronunciation. The <ea> spelling helped distinguish words with /eɪ/ that were spelled with <e> or <ee>. I’m not sure what words there were in the 1500s with <e> or <ee> spelling the /eɪ/ phoneme. Today, we have protege, divorcee, and fiancee. After 1700, some <ea> words were pronounced with /iː/ (long-E) and /ɛ/ (short-E).
It’s heartwarming to learn that <ea> spelling /eɪ/ (great, steak, break, yea) is not wacky, but historical, and that heart’s pronunciation evolved after it’s spelling became consistent.
Enjoy this printable heart matrix and get to the heart of spelling.