Contents inroduction chapter I. American english as a variant of english

part first and then move on to the next part. Webster believed that children 
under the age of five should not be taught to read. He taught spelling by starting 
with learning the alphabet, moving systematically through vowel and consonant 
sounds, then learning syllables, then simple words, followed by compound 
words and sentences. 
His first spelling dictionary was soon renamed "The first part of the 
Grammatical Institute of the English language. "For the next hundred years 
Webster's book taught children to read, write and pronounce words. It was the 
most popular American book of the time. By 1861 its circulation was about one 

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million copies a year. Slowly it changed the pronunciation of words, and they 
became Americanized. 
In 1806 Webster published his first dictionary, "A Compendious 
Dictionary of the English Language. "The following year, at the age of 43, Noah 
began writing a more extensive dictionary, "An American Dictionary of the 
English Language. "Writing the dictionary took Noah twenty-seven years. To 
supplement the dictionary with etymology of words, Webster learned twenty-six 
languages, including Anglo-Saxon, German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, 
French, Arabic, Hebrew, and Sanskrit. Noah hoped to standardize American 
speech because people in different parts of the country pronounced and wrote 
words differently. 
While Noah was working on his book, the family moved to Amherst, 
Massachusetts in 1812, where Webster later helped found a college. In 1822 the 
family returned to New Haven, where Webster was awarded an honorary 
degree. In 1825 he completed his dictionary while in France. The dictionary 
contained 70,000 words, 12,000 of which had not previously appeared in 
published books. Webster thought that the rules of English spelling were too 
complicated, so he introduced the American way of English spelling, changing 
"color" for "color," "center" for "center," etc. He also added American words 
such as "skunk" and "squash," which were not in any British dictionary. In 1828 
he published this dictionary at the age of seventy.
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Although the dictionary now holds a place of honor in the history of 
American English, at that time it had a circulation of only two and a half 
thousand copies. In order to finish the second edition, Webster was forced to 
mortgage his house, and from then on his whole life was tied up in debt. 
In 1840 a second edition in two volumes was published. But on May 28, 
1843, having barely finished checking the appendix to the second edition, 
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N. Webster., An American Dictionary of English Language, 1828

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Webster died. People considered Noah Webster an American hero for what he 
did for the country in his day and they do not stop to do so now. 
Noah Webster saw the need for better teaching and textbooks for 
teachers, as the small number of textbooks that were available for teaching were 
British originals. In 1783 Noah began publishing his grammar and spelling 
textbooks. Webster's textbooks increased Americans' sense of identity and 
thereby set their own standard of American English as their own, separating 
English from British English. Since then, the pronunciation, spelling, and 
grammar of English has become exclusively American in the country, and 
Webster's textbooks have been taught in schools for about a hundred years. 
Webster's interests were not limited solely to the American style of using 
the English language. He argued very strongly for the national constitution and 
in 1784 began to publish his arguments and argument. In 1789 Noah practiced 
jurisdiction, but his chief interest remained writing. In New York City he 
created a newspaper called the Minerva. Webster published numerous 
pamphlets on a variety of topics. His writings covered a wide range of topics, 
from the history of infectious diseases to his thoughts on banks and insurance. 
Webster was indeed a very talented writer. 
But Webster's greatest achievement, which made him so famous, is the 
American Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1828 with a 
circulation of two and a half thousand copies. It took Webster years to complete 
it. Noah sought out the original origins of words. He traveled throughout 
Europe, studying other languages to make sure the spelling, pronunciation, and 
usage were correct. The original work included 12,000 unique words and 
40,000 definitions. The dictionary created a new standard and distinguished 
Webster as an outstanding American lexicographer. His dictionary has been 
revised, expanded, and updated many times. Therefore, the 1967 reissued 
version is a fine work that is still widely hailed by historians. Even after 
Webster's death, his dictionary continued to be published in various versions. In 

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1843, two Massachusetts printers, George and Charles Merriam, purchased the 
rights that allowed them to revise Webster's 1841 edition and were given the 
rights to create revised editions. Noah Webster died on May 28, 1843, but his 
legacy continues with the modern version of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. 
Webster traveled the United States from Maine to Georgia, selling his 
textbooks and convincing everyone that America must be independent in 
literature as well as in politics and be as famous in art as in arms. To achieve 
this, America must copyright the works of American writers. During his travels 
Webster illegally sold his 1785 book Sketches of American Policy. The book 
described the interests and proposals of the Federalists, who later became very 
popular and believed in a strong state. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Webster 
published a politically productive work, An Examination into the Leading 
Principles of the Federal Constitution (1787). 
In New York City Webster created American Magazine (1787-1788), 
which he believed would become a national periodical. In this magazine he 
advocated American intellectual independence, education for women, and 
supported the ideas of the Federalists. Although this journal lasted only twelve 
months, it is remembered as a very vivid and determined publication. Webster 
continued as a political journalist and published such pamphlets as The Effects 
of Slavery on Morals and Industry (1793), The Revolution in France (1794), 
The Rights of Neutral Nations (1802). 
But Webster's main interest remained the idea of changing and improving 
language. He described his ideas in his Dissertation on the English Language 
(1789). He replaced the following words: theatre by theater, machine by 
masheen, plough by plow. This variant of spelling and pronunciation of words 
he suggested to his readers. 
After Webster married in 1789, he practiced law in Hartford for about 
four years. Afterward, Noah returned to New York City and became editor of 
the first weekly newspaper, the American Minerva (1793-1798). Later Noah 

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returned to New Haven, where he wrote A Brief History of Epidemic and 
Pestilential Diseases (1899). From that time Webster focused more on 
publishing school textbooks, including A Philosophical and Practical Grammar 
of the English Language (1807). 
In 1806 Webster first introduced such terms as "Americanize," "census," 
"checkers," "electrician," "presidential" (referring to the president), "publicity," 
"slang," "whiskey" (liquor made from grain by distillation) and so on. 
One of the most productive ways of enriching the vocabulary of the English 
language in America was conversion. The group of verbs formed in this period 
by conversion from nouns is quite numerous. For example, Webster's 1806 
dictionary A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language notes the verb 
deed in the sense of transmit by act. 
He introduced many colloquialisms into the dictionary, explaining that if 
all the people use the word, then it has a right to enter the language. Webster 
was criticized by many for vulgarizing the language. 
A number of lexical features of American colloquial speech developed in 
the early 19th century. For example, in American speech various stable 
combinations with the adverb right (for example, right along - always, 
continuously, constantly, right up,right off, right away - immediately, right 
smart - a lot and others) became widespread. 
The intensive growth of American industry, transportation, and 
agriculture all created the need for specialized terminology. New technical 
terms were developed by private companies. That is why, for example, a 19-th 
century railroad terminology differed so much from the English terminology 
(American railroad and English railway; American engineer and English 
engine-driver) It was Webster who included many technical terms in his 
dictionaries that had not been done before him. 
Among the words and phrases that entered into use in the 19th century 
and are outside the literary language, a large part is the share of the so-called 

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"slang". Here belong, particularly, a number of expressively colored words and 
phrases reflecting many dark sides of "American way of life": slush money - 
money for bribing officials, floater - voter-"gastroller" voting for bribes, bum - 
vagabond, holdup - armed robbery, extortion, corner - ruin by stock-raising and 
others. From many of them a number of stable word combinations and new 
words were formed (e.g., holdup man - raider, bandit; go on the bum - to 
vagabond, bum factory - night shelter). A characteristic feature of this 
vocabulary is the expansion of meaning. 
Webster was a linguistic democrat and populist. He changed the spelling 
of many words to simplify them, spelling them as one hears them. For example, 
in the word "music," the English spelled "ck," but Webster spelled only "s. In 
many words - "color", "honor", "favor" - he removed the combination of letters 
"ou" at the end of the word, replacing them with a simple "o", which is heard 
there: "color", "honor", "favor". 
A few nouns that ended in -ce should be singled out in a special group. 
Webster later replaced -ce with a simple -s: defence - defense; offense - offense; 
licence - license; practice - practise; pretence - pretense. 
English orthography is characterized by the doubling of the final -l before 
the word-formation and word-formation suffixes -ed, -ing, -er, -ery, -or, -ist, 
and others. Noah Webster left only one -l in these words: apparelled - 
appareled; councillor - councilor; levelled - leveled; woollen - woolen; 
travelling - traveling. 
Where there was variation in the spelling of the verb suffix -ize (-ise), Noah 
Webster preferred -ize: apologize, capitalize, criticize, civilize, dramatize, 
naturalize, tantalize, visualize, and others. 
There were also differences regarding the spelling of the prefixes em-, en- 
and im-, in-. The English preferred to spell with an e, while Webster preferred 
to spell with an i: empanel - impanel; encase - incase; encrust - incrust; enfold -
infold. 

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Of note is the group of words in which Noah replaced the ending -re with 
-er: center - center; fibre - fiber; luster - luster; metre - meter; sabre - saber. 
Also, in American English there are no -me and -ue endings: catalogue - 
catalog; cheque - check; gramme - gram; pragramme - program. 
In several words borrowed from Greek and Latin, Webster used 
monograph -e- instead of digraphs -ae- and -oe-: anaemic - anemic; anaesthesia 
- anesthesia; foetus - fetus; aesthete - esthete. 
Noah Webster Americanized the spelling of many words and generally 
contributed to the situation characterized by the now winged expression 
“Americans and Englishmen are one people separated by a common language”. 

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