Medieval Phonics
The tendency throughout the Middle Ages is to see words in the first instance as single letters variously combined in syllables.
Ibid.
The tendency throughout the Middle Ages is to see words in the first instance as single letters variously combined in syllables, rather than to "comprehend" them at once as semantic units (the way I think most moderns are taught to). Words are thus understood to be constructions made up out of syllables, not simplexes of meaning. The manner in which ancient texts were written out, without word divisions, reinforces this mental habit, for a reader had to analyze the syllables first before they could be "glued" together in semantic units. There is a well-known poem by the fifth-century Christian poet Optatianus Porfirius (much admired by some Carolingian writers), which plays upon this ability, for if its syllables are analyzed in one way it makes a poem in Latin, but if analyzed differently it makes a poem in Greek!
