<\/p>\n
Most of my listeners have heard about America’s first spelling book, the work of Noah Webster, who also produced the first American dictionary. Last fall there came into my hands a copy of the old spelling book — not, indeed, a first edition, which would be almost priceless, but a later version, yet early enough to bear the original name.<\/p>\n
Noah Webster published in 1783 his “Grammatical Institute of the English Language”, the first part of which was a list of words which later in the same year Webster published as a speller, giving it the name “American Spelling Book”. It ran through numerous editions that sold a total of more than 65 million copies and was printed in several different places. It was still being sold as late as 1890. The original was printed in Hartford; the copy that I examined was brought out in Brattleboro, Vermont. In 1829 Webster changed the name to “Elementary Spelling Book”.<\/p>\n
Although the copy that I saw bore no date, we know it was published earlier than 1829, because it bears the original title, and I assume it was printed about 1813, because of a note attached to the preface. The preface itself is dated 1803, but the note refers to sales of the book up to 1813.<\/p>\n
The American Spelling Book was a controversial publication. In the 1803 preface Webster wrote: “This book, when first published, encountered opposition. It, however, maintained its ground, and its reputation has been gradually extended and established until it has become the principal elementary book in the U.S.”<\/p>\n
What was the controversy about? It was over Webster’s attempt to simplify English spelling in America, even if it broke away from accepted standards in Britain. We know that he was partly successful. It was Webster who convinced American writers that the “our” ending in many English words was unnecessary. Today, while Britons continue to write labour and colour and favour, we write labor, color and favor. In neither England nor the U.S. do we any longer write publick or picknick. We are still somewhat confused between theater and theatre, between center and centre, but Webster insisted both ought to be spelled “er”, not “re”. But he was not successful in getting us to make American spelling in general more phonetic. He wanted us to write “tung” for tongue, “wimmen” for women, “aker” for acre. He did get us to write jail instead of gaol, but he only confused us between plough and plow.<\/p>\n
Of course Noah Webster is better known for compiling the first American dictionary, which appeared in 1806, 23 years after he published his spelling book. But it was the spelling book that established many American words not used at all in England, such as canoe and druggist. Although Webster could never establish his proposed llings of “il and”, “steddy” and “thum”, and plenty of others, he did live to see many of his reforms adopted. The influence of the American Spelling Book was stupendous. In the preface of 1803 he made the point that activated all his changes. He wrote: “In the progress of society, some gradual changes must be expected in a living language. Perfect uniformity in the form and meaning of words can never be expected. The rule of reason and common sense must prevail over arbitrary rules and customs.”<\/p>\n
The title page of the copy that I recently examined carried these words: “The American Spelling Book, containing the rudiments of the English Language for the use of schools in the United States, by Noah Webster, Esq. The revised impressions with the latest corrections. Stereotyped by A. White, New York: Brattleborough, Vt. Published by Holbrook and Fessenden.”<\/p>\n
Webster’s Spelling Book was not a mere list of words in alphabetical order; nor was it a series of lists arranged according to difficulty. After three pages devoted to an analysis of sounds, followed by the alphabet, both capital and lower case, in Roman and Italic, together with the specially printed double letters “ae, oe, fi, ff and fl”, and the digits from 0 to 9, there follow lists of words in groups that Webster called “Tables”. Table One simply gives combinations of one consonant and one vowel, such as “ba, bi, be, bo, bu, by” and so on through all the consonants. Table II presents words of one syllable, like “big, dig, man”.<\/p>\n
Not until Table IV does the pupil confront words OT two syllables, and they are cleverly presented by combining the two letters of the first table with others, as “baker, dial, fuel”. The next table has only words of two syllables that are accented on the last syllable, as “before, declare, control”. Then gradually, table by table, longer words are systematically introduced.<\/p>\n
Webster’s Spelling Book was by no means simply a speller. Before Page 50 is reached one finds this heading: “Lessons of easy words to teach children to read and to know their duty”. The first such lesson consists of short maxims like these: “A bad man is a foe to the law. My son, do as you are bid. Help such as want help and be kind. A good boy will do all that is just; he will flee from vice and will do good.” Notice that in these maxims every word consist of a single syllable. Webster’s book has more than 200 such maxims.<\/p>\n
Then come pages of useful information stated in words for young children to read: “Time is measured by clocks and watches, dials and glasses. The light of the sun makes the day and shade of the earth makes the night. Day is for labor and night for sleep. Children should go to bed early. In January frost binds the earth in chains and spreads an icy bridge over rivers and lakes; the snow, with her white mantle, enwraps the earth; men crowd around the fire-side, or, wrapped in wool and fur, prepare to meet the chilling blast.”<\/p>\n
In Noah Webster’s day old units of measure were still in use. Listen to these questions and answers from Page 68 of his Spelling Book: “How many barley corns make an inch? Three. How many yards in a perch? Five and a half. How many rods in a furlong? Forty. How many miles in a league? Three. What is a dubit? The length of the arm from elbow to the end of the longest finger. What is a fathom? The distance between the ends of a man’s fingers when the arms are extended, about six feet. How many gallons in a hogshead? 63. How many gallons in a puncheon? 110. How many gallons in a pipe? 120.”<\/p>\n
Remember the United States was a new country when Webster’s Spelling Book first became popular. That explains what he says about money: “Dimes and dollars are silver coins; cents are copper coins. These are new species of coin. The ancient manner of reckoning is pounds, shillings, pence and farthings. Four farthings make a penny, 12 pence a shilling, and 20 shillings a pound.” The book has a number of simple poems, all of the moralistic, religious type that had been common from the days of the New England Primer in the 17th century.<\/p>\n
There are two pages called “Precepts for the Social Relations”. Among them is this advice to young women: “Be cautious in listening to the addresses of man. A man often smiles most when he would betray thee. Listen to no soft passion till a long acquaintance. From all thought you must banish the gambler, the tippler, the spendthrift, the haunter of taverns. Reject such a man from thy presence. His heart is false, and he would lead thee to ruin.”<\/p>\n
Of course no schoolbook of the early 19th century would be complete without its fables and their attached morals. Some of them are straight out of Aesop, but others are of Anglo-Saxon or even New England colonial origin, like “The Boy that Stole Apples”, or “The Two Dogs”.<\/p>\n
One page deals with population in the United States according to the census of 1810. It showed a total of 7,240,000 people. New York was the largest state, with 959,000. Second was Pennsylvania with 810,000. Surprisingly North Carolina, not Massachusetts, was third. The number of states was 16. Among the territories were Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana. It is amazing to note that of the 7,240,000 people in the whole country, 1,191,000 were Negro slaves.<\/p>\n
On one page are listed the 87 chief rivers of America. We would expect to find, as we do, the Amazon, the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. Of course in the list are the Hudson, the Connecticut and the Susquehanna, and it is gratifying to us in Maine to learn that among the 87 chief rivers in this hemisphere in 1810 were the Androscoggin, the Saco, the Kennebec, the Penobscot and the St. John. We look in vain for the Platte, the Red, the Rio Grande, the Feather and the Sacramento.<\/p>\n
Webster was much concerned with teaching correct pronunciation as well as spelling. Hence, in giving the names of places in the United States, he divides them into four lists, in an arrangement no one would dream of making today: names with accent on the first syllable, such as Andover, Barnstable, Portland and Providence; names accented on the second syllable, like Acadia, Arundel, Havana and Machias. That list reveals how the names of certain places were once pronounced, for Webster gives us Billerica, Brookhaven and Greenbush. A shorter list, Webster says, should be accented on the third syllable, as Alabama, Appomatox. Indiana. Interestingly enough he gives in this list names we no longer accent on the third syllable. for he would have us say Carib~~. rather than C~ribou. Cheroke~ rather than Cherokee, and Frontinec instead of Frontinec. Webster even gives a few names to be accented on the fourth syllable: Cobbosseecontee, Damariscotta, Passamaquoddy, and Sagadahoc — all places in Maine.<\/p>\n
Listing the islands of the West Indies, Webster says nothing about Haiti and San Domingo, because in his day it was the one place called Hispaniola.<\/p>\n
Long after Webster’s time the makers of spelling books delighted in calling attention to homonyms, words of the same sound, but of different spelling and meaning. In Webster’s long list of homonyms we find ail and ale, ball and bawl, bear and bare, base and bass, blue and blew, mail and male, vale and veil, wood and would, and several hundred other pairs.<\/p>\n
Webster’s list of abbreviations contains a number quite unfamiliar to us today: cant for canticles; G.R. for George the King; Km for kingdom; O.S. for old style of calendar date.<\/p>\n
Because reading in school usually meant reading aloud, Webster gave instructions about heeding punctuation marks when reading: “A comma ;s a pause of one syllable; a semicolon two; a colon four; a period six. An apostrophe shows that a letter is omitted.”<\/p>\n
It is an amazingly interesting volume, that American Spelling Book, devised by Noah Webster and used by American school children 150 years ago.<\/p>\n
Year: 1964<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #614, Broadcast on May 10, 1964<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42956,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8398"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}