A new fundamental tool of analysis, the morphophone, is presented in this monograph, and some implications of this discovery for the problems involved in the teaching of literacy are considered. The relation of written to spoken English is explored first, for experience has shown that the basic problem in becoming literate is gaining the ability of going from written or printed symbol back to oral symbol. The concep t of the morphophone--a linguistic unit whose sound varies among dialects but which occurs in the same word for all speakers of English--is then introduced. The rest of the volume is devoted to explaining and illustrating the function of this morphophonic concept and its implications for the teaching of read"ng (i.e., that beginning reading material should concentrate on introducing words that are consistently and regularly spelled; that a gradual progression should be made from the short vocalics to the long vocalics; and that a child, while being made aware of the worth of his own dialect, should be encouraged to recognize and adopt standard English forms.) (LH)