Noah Webster
Noah Webster, familiar to most Americans as the writer of the first American dictionary, worked as a schoolteacher in the late eighteenth century. As he taught, he came to realize that there were some major problems with the way English was taught in the American schools. The United States of America had recently declared its independence from England, and was struggling to form its own identity. The schools were still using textbooks from England, and these books varied in consistency when it came to spelling, pronunciation and grammar (Short Summary Website). As a teacher, and as a patriot, Webster felt a need for an American textbook. He wanted consistency and he wanted it to reflect that there was an American dialect of English that was distinctive from that of England (Bett Website). He had also noted that the social classes of England were often distinguished by differences in dialect, and he wished the United States to have a single, distinctive dialect that would rise above differences in class (Bett Website).
As a result of these goals, in 1783 he published A Grammatical Institute of the English Language. This textbook, later republished in 1788 as The American Spelling Book, standardized spelling and grammar for the American dialect. The preface to the speller states his objective for the speller as
"To diffuse a uniformity and purity of language in America, to
destroy the provincial differences that originate in the trifling differences of
dialect and produce reciprocal ridicule, to promote the interests of
literature and the harmony of the United States…" (Blue-Backed Speller
Website).
The new speller, nicknamed the "blue-backed speller" for the blue paper that lined the...
... middle of paper ...
...ax, rather than trying to dictate how the language should be spoken. Finally, it served to standardize spelling throughout the new nation with a distinctive American twist. Without the contributions of Noah Webster, the American language might look very different than it does today.
Bibliography:
Bett, Dr. Steve T. Home page. Noah Webster - a short biography. .
Millward, C. M. A Biography of the English Language. 2nd ed. Boston: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston, 1996.
Noah Webster Gets a Web Site. 23 Sept. 1997. .
Noah Webster's "Blue-Backed Speller". Blackwell Museum. 1995.
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Noah Webster's Original American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828.
Common Law by LEXREX. 1998. .
A Short Summary of Noah Webster's Life. Noah Webster House. Feb. 1996.
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"Webster, Noah." Encarta Online Encyclopedia. Microsoft.
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000
In “Do You Speak American?” by Robert MacNeil, MacNeil uses outside sources, personal anecdotes, and familiar diction in attempts to prove that the transformation of American English is a positive outcome and should be accepted.
Noah Webster made many contributions to public education. One of these was suggesting that all British school books be removed from America after the Revolutionary War. Along with this, he created the “Blue-Black Speller,” which was used to teach many children a new version of English. This new English excluded many terms that the British used and so, it was the basis on which American English was born.
Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. Print.
Baron, Dennis. The. The English Language Amendment: Backgrounds And Prospects. 1988. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secon ERIC. Web.
While the progression of education was ever-spreading across states and within the new nation, the need for a uniform and consistent language developed. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Noah Webster created dictionaries, spellers, and other texts to teach the correct rules of grammar and pronunciation in order to bind Americans together and break further away from European culture. Textbooks were created that showed America in the brightest light. Education continued into the nineteenth century, and with it, Americanism was instilled among the educated
...h Language in America," Annals of American History. Ed. A Diary in America, London, 1839, Vol. II, pp. 217–247.
This book was the study of war and how people wrote about it. But also the book makes it apparently clear that this was the start of a new American identity. Throughout the writings, stories, and all of the religious battles that were fought one true thing remained the colonist’s Englishness was gone. This was not New England any more this was something new. This was a “New” New England.
Murray, J. A., & Burchfield, R. W. (1933). The Oxford English Dictionary (Vol. 1): Clarendon Press Oxford.
In this passage Webster displays the use of ethos which demonstrates to the audience the pride he has for his country and for the sacrifices patriots made during the Revolutionary war. “We are Americans. We live in what may be called the early age of this great continent; and we know that our prosperity, through all time are here to enjoy and suffer the allotments of humanity.” Webster is proud to be an American, and wants the fledgling republic to realize the
Read, D. (2005). New World, Known World : Shaping Knowledge in Early Anglo-American Writing. Columbia: University of Missouri Press
Americans during my grandparent’s generation faced a climate of global instability and fear of internal collapse experienced by other nations. After witnessing the collapse of governments and how anarchy bred tyrannies in countries such as Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, Americans did not want to lose the freedoms and glory they had. Changes in government came about due to unrest in the populace. Americans wanted to avoid unrest out of fear of becoming a fascist or socialist nation. Fears of the unknown provided a need for stability and played a part in the susceptibility of Americans to the witch hunts during McCarthy’s campaign against American Communists. Americans in my grandparent’s generation would not want to interpret a text differently than the majority and risk being branded as a traitor. Conformity was mislabeled as harmony and “standard editions” of texts were seen as sig...
In Johnson’s preface to A Dictionary of the English Language, Johnson argues the importance of preserving language. Other dialects had a produced their own dictionaries, such as the French and Italians. Various writers of the eighteenth century were alarmed at the fact that there was no standard for the English language, since there was no standard it could easily become extinct. Johnson explored many points, such as how and why languages change as well as how many words are formed.
This descriptive dictionaries characterize the language ,they have words that are commonly used if they are nonstandard , also they have nonstandard spellings .On the other hand , Prescriptive dictionaries resort to be anxious about standard English or correct ,they determine suitable usage and spellings of words .All today English dictionaries is descriptive .The dictionaries today are mixture of descriptive and prescriptive .Authors of sixteenth century such as John Hart select to characterize the pronunciation of educated speakers in and all London ,and also at this stage there was no try to force a standard pronunciation. In the late 18th century, the codification of pronunciation star, when Thomas Sheridan and John Walker produced obvious guides to correct pronunciation in the shape of pronouncing dictionaries. Walker was efficacious in setting standards for correct pronunciation. Many authors show the view that unity of language would raise the unity of the nation, English become a national language in Great Britain .The nineteenth century saw the beginning of descriptive linguistics but also brought a
2.Guralnik, David B. Webster’s New World Dictionary. The United States of America.World Publishing Company. 1980