An American Dictionary of the English Language

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An American Dictionary of the English Language

• Noah Websters Gift to America

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The Man, The Myth, The Legend

• written by Noah Webster
• lived in Connecticut and was educated at Yale
• outspoken Antifederalist extremely patriotic
• very religious dictionary contains greatest
  number of Biblical definitions given in any
  reference volume
• began to see need for an American dictionary
  while reading modern books of science which had
  many new terms from recent discoveries in science
• published in its first edition in 1828
• took him 27 years to complete
• first dictionary sold only 2,500 copies so he
  was forced to mortgage his home in order to
  publish a 2nd edition

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Websters Goals for Dictionary

• His preface to his original dictionary stated
  his wish to exhibit
• I. The origin, affinities, and primary
  signification of English words, as far as they
  have been ascertained.
• II. The genuine orthography and pronunciation
  of words, according to general usage or to just
  principles of analogy.
• III. Accurate and discriminating definitions,
  with numerous authorities and illustrations.
• Originally he only wanted to correct a few
  errors in existing English dictionaries and to
  supply words in which they are deficient, but
  after writing through 2 letters of alphabet, he
  decided to change his purpose to determining the
  origin of words, the relationship between English
  and other languages, and to bring about some
  agreement or coincidence of opinions in regard to
  unsettled points in pronunciation and grammatical
  construction.

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Underlying Patriotism

• Preface states goal of dictionary to, furnish a
  standard of our vernacular tongue, which we shall
  not be ashamed to bequeath to three-hundred
  millions of people, who are destined to occupy,
  and I hope to adorn, the vast territory within
  our jurisdiction.
• American English was developing differently from
  English of Europe and Webster wanted to create a
  standard form of American English
  (prescriptivist)
• Americans in different parts of the country were
  spelling, pronouncing, and using words
  differently, and Webster hoped to correct this
• strived to rescue American English from the
  mischievous influence of that dabbling spirit of
  innovation which is perpetually disturbing its
  settled usages and filling it with anomalies.

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American English vs. European English

• believed that the main difference between the 2
  was due to different forms of government and
  different laws, institutions, and customs
• new, peculiar American institutions of the time
  gave rise to words which wouldnt be found in
  Englands dictionaries, unless copied from
  ours.
• words such as congress, senate, and court express
  different ideas in America than they would in
  England
• the English dictionaries inform us that a
  Justice is one deputed by the king to do right by
  way of judgment he is a Lord by his office
  Justices of the peace are appointed by the Kings
  commission language which is inaccurate in
  respect to this officer in the U.S.
• language, then, is both place and time specific

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Structure of the Dictionary

• -a preface outlining his goals for the text
• -a very long introduction containing features
  such as the definition of language, profiles of
  26 other languages, and an immense section on the
  origin of language
• - the historical narrative of facts in the
  book of Genesis
• (The Tower of Babel, Noahs flood)
• -a philosophical and practical grammar of the
  English language
• -contains features on the English alphabet,
  division of syllables, rules for spelling, and
  sections on the in-depth proper usage of the
  various parts of speech
• -directions for the pronunciation of words
• -main text
• -arranged alphabetically with a brief history of
  each of the letters, listing of the word followed
  by its origin, various definitions, and usage by
  both English and American writers

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An American Flavour

• 70,000 total words 12,000 had never appeared in
  any earlier printed dictionaries
• introduced some distinctly American vocabulary
  such as hickory, skunk, squash, and
  chowder.
• introduced American English spellings such as
  color instead of colour, music instead of
  musick, wagon rather than waggon, center
  instead of centre, and honor vs. honour
• attempted to modify the spellings of tongue to
  tung and women to wimmen, but neither of
  these caught on

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Extreme MakeoverWebsters Edition

• Websters dictionary has appeared in numerous
  updated editions and is now available on-line
• many abridged versions are out there that contain
  lexicon of words most commonly used at home, in
  school, and in the office while words of low or
  infrequent usage are often excluded
• in order for a new word to appear, must have
  proof that it is used frequently by all sorts of
  English writers
• now less prescriptivist and more descriptivist in
  tone
• All words were pronounced differently at some
  time in the past. There is simply no scholarly
  basis for preferring one pronunciation over
  another, and the term "correct" pronunciation
  doesn't mean anything objectively.
• the majority of homes and schools contain at
  least one dictionary

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Words of the Year

• new feature of Websters online dictionary allows
  you to see a list of the top 10 most frequently
  looked up words of a given year
• 2005
• 1) integrity
• 2) refugee
• 6) tsaunmai
• 2004
• 1) blog
• 2) hurricane
• 3) cicada
• 2003
• 1) democracy
• 2) quagmire
• (-soft, miry land that yields under the foot
• Or
• a difficult, precarious, or entrapping position)

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A Unified American English?

• numerous variations in terms of vocabulary and
  pronunciation still exist across the nation
• Examples
• 1) How do you pronounce the word aunt?
• 2) How do you pronounce the second syllable in
  pajamas?
• 3) What do you call a long sandwich with a lot of
  cold-cuts/toppings?
• 4) What do you call shoes that you exercise in?
• 5) Where might you get water in a public
  building?
• 6) Whats that bubbly, carbonated drink called?

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Websters Dream

• I present it to my fellow citizens, not with
  frigid indifference, but with my ardent wishes
  for their improvement and their happiness and
  for the continued increase of the wealth, the
  learning, the moral and religious elevation of
  character and the glory of my country.