Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-05-18
The Two American Diclionnrie..

Rev. Henry A. Boardman, of PhilAdelphis, has
addressed letter to the Board of EduaAtion in
that city. which calls attention renewedly to the
dictionary question. He remarks that Webster's
Dictionary seems to represent, in the minds OF
many, the idea of u correct standard Of our
language, and he asks the attention OF the Board
to the revolutions and innovations which Webster
attempted, and which his editors have only
partially reeeded FROM His perversion of ortho'
grsphy says Mr.. B., g WAS redressed only upon
moderate SCALE" and even this is ANAL mat
ter compared with his novelties in pronunciation.
What DR.. Boardmsn, the Board OF Education,
and other literary and educational mAgnate may
decide to do in Philsdelphia We cannot yet say,
hut it is certain that the country generally is
awakened by the spelling bees to perception
OF the fact that no one dictionary-And IL any
one, certainly not Websters-is final, oonolu-
siye standard Of our language. In fact, we have
been surprised to find. how moderate = degree
OF respect the authority OF Webster Is accorded
amongst those whose literary culture Is admit
ted and respected especially in New En-
gland. Yankee though he WAS, his book is not
authority in Yankeedom. We find our accurate
contemporary the Boston Daily Advertiser
and Oliver Wendell holmes make the
distinction that "Worcester's Diction-
sry has constantly been on my table
for daily use, and websters reposed on
my shelves for occasional consultation" Will
ham Cullen Bryant, however, testiies yet more
vigorously that: 80 far is websters Dictionary
from meeting with the general acceptance OF
scholars and the community, that OF those who
in different parts OF the country and Of the
world employ our common language with = mod.
crate degree OF attention to its purity, there are
not ten in hundred who accept webster's
Dictionary as a standard OF language
In fact, large part OF Neah webster's lAbors
were directed wrongly. He aimed to reconstruct
the English langusse-not merely to classify and
define the words in sood usage, but to
fix the usage itself, abolishing spellinss that
were familiar and establishing others that were
new and arbitrary. sample sentence, given
rerAn:im ss lie wrote it from volume OF his
essays published in l7eo, provokss comparison
with the orthosraphy Of josh Bilhnss 1t reads
thus But II you Aar none Of Aeis nesr con-
necuons. sar You no female trends ,rho.s repu-
tstion i. issr' 10 you? ?" This WAS 8 fair spe,i-
men Of the phonetic style which he meant to
introiuce, stii when his Dictionaries appeared
the hrst in lSt@-he tried the experiment OF
placing III them many words IS luicrous as
those IN the sentence quoted Thus he had
skeF fether, .and, lether soc, (tor sew, steddy,
tuns. wimnlen, Ac This Was possibly Sod or
thosrsphy-thAs is sood way OF spelling these
wonis-hat it was not soSi English. The usage
OF cultivated persons nowhere sanctioned such
spelling sni WAS nowhere ready to adopt il. II
WAS therefore, ~ successive editions Of Web
sieF, sai especially in those edited since his
death ey Frofs Goodrich and For.
Ter, more and more modified. His
pssalisr.hes, Or. Judged ey the usage Of ssoi
English writer's his hsrhAsiaes, have eeen drop
pei, yeAr by ysss, antl small number remain,
Ani II the woris II az accomplished professor Of
English lAiers;ars il one ., eur well known in
situations Of learning. person may follow the
Hs~' Webster in spelling without soinS tss .strsy
fron the established orthosr,phy Of liserxiurs>
The Spelling Bees, almost invariably. have
sdep'ed the iaicaeus cSuse Of appealing to both
Worcester and Webster. rs>,asni-ins the weigh,
% both Authorities ~ entitled 10 Consideration
As sl>d detionA-y that OF Webster has its
plsee but IS definite, sole standard by which
al eorrrc:ness and g., sEror in the use Of the
Ens-sh language is Eo ee measured It e~nno.
he setepssi Tor moment Senator sumner in
one OF his lssess speeches, ,lSisl when explain
ing eersSan question, said ~ will not - 10
law h>ak, or 10 any work on the lAs OF nations,
eut take whA; think Is the eess authority.
WoressseEs large AtHonAry." and ii rs. fair
sas!ec; u remark sAss majority Of on. hest
writers sYre&- - agree with his chace.