The Stirrings of an English Dictionary
The Stirrings of an English Dictionary
Johnathan Swift, born in Dublin, Ireland, was considered one of the finest authors of the 17th century. Most famous for Gulliver’s Travels.
Proposed in 1712 a way to prevent English from being corrupted by vogue words and phrases that would become unintelligible. The title of this polemic was “A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue.” Like many English writers, Swift relied on the examples of classical languages as examples of models of immutability.
How then shall any Man who hath a Genius for History, equal to the best of the Antients, be able to undertake such a Work with Spirit and Chearfulness, when he considers, that he will be read with Pleasure but a very few Years, and in an age or two shall hardly be understood without an Interpreter? This is like employing an excellent Statuary to work upon mouldering Stone.
This attitude led to his railing against the innovations of “…illiterate Court Fops, half-witted Poets, and University Boys.” He recommended the creation of an English Academy, an idea that was never adopted.
However, the gap between spoken English and written English had become ever wider.
Now was the time for a dictionary-
In 1604, Robert Cawdry had published a small 120 page dictionary under the title of “A Table Alphabeticall” of ”hard vsuall English wordes” which he described as being compiled for “Ladies… or any other unskilfull persons.” But this kind of book was mainly full of scholarly words.
June 1746 Dr. Samuel Johnson signed a contract with a bookseller for €1,575 in installments for the Dictionary.
Dr. Johnson essentially did this by himself. Over the next nine years, Johnson defined over 40,000 words using over 114,000 quotations from English writing on every subject.
Johnson treated English as a living language. After its publication in 1755, no dictionary rivaled it for over a century.
Lexicographer- A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.
Oats- A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.
The American Language
In 1782, citizens of the new Republic were proudly christened Americans, and in 1802 the United States Congress recorded the first use of the phrase “the American language.”
In 1768, Benjamin Franklin published a paper entitled A Scheme for a New Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling, which later influenced America’s great lexicographer, Noah Webster.
The leaders of the American Revolution viewed American English as the proud badge of independence. However, there were some who suggested new languages unlike the language of the British oppressors- Hebrew, French, or even Greek. However, none of the suggestions rallied a people.
By 1790, when the first census was taken, 90 percent of Americans were descendants of British colonists.
At this point, John Adams came up with a familiar suggestion: an American Academy to sustain the purity of the language.
Into this swirling genesis of a country came Noah Webster. In 1789 he wrote Dissertations on the English Language and in 1828 he finished his great monument, An American Dictionary of the English Language.
In 1806, Webster wrote, “Our honor, requires us to have a system or our own, in language as well as government.” Over the next 20 years, Webster published various Spellers.
His influence on American spelling was enormous-
British became American
Colour Color
Waggon Wagon
Fibre Fiber
Defence Defense
And pronunciation differences were acknowledged-
Forrid became Forehead
Secret’ry Sec-re-tary