Noah Webster

“ Any man who will read Sheridan, Walker and Jones, will be satisfied not only that there is no uniformity in what is called the best pronunciation, but that such attempts as have hitherto been made to ascertain and establish a standard, render it impossible there ever should be one; and that every succeeding compiler only multiplies the obstacles to the accomplishment of his own wishes. Every compiler has some peculiarities in his scheme ”

“ The correct principle respecting changes in orthography seems to lie between these extremes of opinion. No great changes should ever be made at once, nor should any change be made which violates established principles, creates great inconvenience, or obliterates the radicals of the language. But gradual changes to accommodate the written to the spoken language, when they occasion none of these evils, and especially when they purify words from corruptions, improve the regular analogies of a language and illustrate etymology, are not only proper, but indispensable. ”

“ PRONUNCIATION. The pronunciation of words is a subject which presents even greater difficulties than the orthography; and difficulties which multiply in proportion to the efforts made to surmount them. The friends of refinement have entertained sanguine expectations, that men of letters might agree upon some standard by which pronunciation might be regulated, and reduced to a good degree of uniformity. ”

“ To men who have been accustomed to repose almost implicit confidence in the authors of our principal dictionaries and grammars, it may appear at first incredible, that such writers as Johnson and Lowth, should have mistaken many of the fundamental principles of the language. But that such is the fact, will appear certain to any man who will read a few pages in a Saxon author. For example, those distinguished scholars, following the opinion of Wallis, suppose own, to be a participle of the verb to owe ”

“ Such are the mischiefs of innovation! Fortunately, the corrupt pronunciation of sceptic, has made little progress in this country; and in this, as in many other words, if we can be permitted to think and reason for ourselves, we may still preserve the purity of our language.
We have some classes of words received from the Latin through the French, to which a final e was anciently affixed, either for the purpose of forming a syllable or to soften a preceding vowel, in conformity with the established pronunciation of the French. ”

“ There are some classes of words of which this true; but let it be noted that no small part of the anomalies in the spelling of words, are egregious corruptions of the primitive orthography. Thus the present orthography of leather, feather, weather, stead, wealth, mould, son, ton, wonder, worship, thirst, &c. is corrupt; having been vitiated during the dark ages of English literature, under the Norman princes. The true orthography from the first Saxon writings to the 12th century, was lether, fether, wether, sted or stede, welga, mold, suna, tunna, wundor, wurthscipe, thurst. ”

“ The Saxons had probably no knowledge of letters, till they settled in England; and in that country, no letters were known, but those of the Roman alphabet, a knowledge of which had been left there by the Romans. The Saxons therefore adopted the Roman characters, with a few variations, which were required by particular sounds in their language. Hence, till after the conquest, c was used to express the power of k, as in the Latin language; and insted of not terminating any English word, as Johnson alleges, it terminated every word, where the power of k occurred ”

“ What is still stranger, this doctrin is pertinaciously maintained by the men who make pretenses to exquisit taste and refinement in polite literature. And if any thing can add to the contradictions which such a principle involves, it is that the same men, who object to the minutest alterations of orthography, are the most active in effecting changes of pronunciation; thus aiding to destroy the use of letters, by creating new differences between the written and spoken language. ”

“ It is a little strange that so excellent a classical scholar as Dr. Lowth should have made this mistake. The Saxons, like the Greeks, used nouns of time without preceding prepositions. Thus they used, dæges, and nihtes, day and night, in the genitive, like the Greeks—and continuance of time was marked by the accusative, as in the latin language—thry dages, three days. This construction is of the highest antiquity; the Greek, Latin and Saxon languages all having a common origin, the idiom in question is to be considered as primitive ”

“ If any thing can add to the impropriety, it is that k is always omitted in the derivatives, musical, publication, republican. Uniformity is a prime excellence in the rules of language, and surely no person will contend for the propriety of musickal, publickation and republickan. Fortunately, most modern writers have rejected the k from words in which it is useless; and it is desirable that dictionaries should add their authority to the practice.
We have a few words of another class which remain as outlaws in orthography. ”

“ That a complete standard, to which all the polite and learned of a nation will conform, is, in its own nature, impracticable, may be satisfactorily proved from the structure of the human mind; from the various modes in which different men view the same subject ”

“ Indeed a man, well versed in etymology, will at once see that the improbability, not to say, impossibility, that two words of such distinct significations, as to be indebted and to possess, can have sprung from a common root. Own, in Saxon agen, agenen, agenne, is derived from the verb agan, to possess [1] ; the g being in Saxon a mere guttural aspirate, suppressed in the progress of civilization, as in nagel, nail, flagen, finy, agen, own. "Each, says Johnson, denotes, 1st. ”

“ The smallest acquaintance with our mother tongue, would show that these writers have inverted the true state of the fact, and that instead of usurping the province of who and which, that, is the primitive relative whose place is usurped by who and which. ”

“ This is the true original import of the word; it has no appropriate reference to two, more than to ten thousand. "Thyder man ne mihte geseglian on anum monthe, gyf man on nyht wicode and ælce dæge hæfde amberne wind." "Thither a man could not sail in a month, if he should watch at night and each day should have a fair wind." Alfred's Orosius, Ch. 1. See also page 61, 63, 79, 219. Lond. 1773. and Sax. Ch. by Gibson, page 185, 186. The second definition of Johnson is therefore the only true one; but not well expressed.
"'Either, says Lowth, is often used improperly for each ”