Evening star., 1925-11-25

interested in learning something about
Noah Webster.
The first number of this really diff
| ferent magazine devotes considerab BILE
| space to the maker Of the first Amer.
fcan dictionary. as, by right, 1t should
Noah Webster casts long shadow.
He was voice in the wilderness Of
early America, crying loud and long
for the country to wake to the coming
of the new language
He is mentioned in the leading arti-
Gle In the new magazine, "Conserva-
tism in American Speech by Prof.
George H. Mcknight of Ohio State
University, and considered at length
by Prof. Malone Of the Johns Hopkins
University, In an article properly en-
titled "A Linguistic Patriot"
Webster's great work, which ap-
peared in 1928, was called AN Amer
ican Dictionary Of the English Ian
guage." Prof. Malone remarks that
Webster might not inappropriately
| have called his work "A Patriotic
Dictionary of the American Ian
guage."
Some Of the things the intense Web
ster fought for have come to pass,
many of them have not. nor ever will
The spirit OF the man, however, de-
serves only praise. He was the ear
! liest of the spelling reformers, and
| many of our spellngs common today
are his. Our use Of color" instead Of
| colour" is due to him. His spelling
books sold into the millions OF copies
1t may be interesting to give some
of Noah Webster's own ideas Of IRE
formed spelling" as quoted in the
| magazine.
In the essays ritten within the last
yeer considerable change Of spelling
liz introduced by way OF experiment" !"
wrote Webster. This liberty was
| taken by the writer's before the age
of Queen Elizabeth, and to this we are
| indicted for the preference of modern
spelling over that Of Cover and
| Chaucer.
The man who admits that the
| change OF housbonde, mynde, ygone,
moneth into husband, mind, gone,
! month. IL an improvement, must
acknowledge also the riting Of helth.
! breth. rong, tung, munth to be an
! Improvement.
| There IL no alternative cried Web
ster. Every possible recon that
could ever be offered for altering the
! spelling Of wurds still exists in full
force; and if a gradual reform should
| not be made In our language, II will
| proov that we are less under the in
| fiuence of recon than our ancestors" ."
! Time has proved, evidently. that the
American people, in their writing and
talking. are infinitely more under the
| influence OF custom than of reason.
We still write lis and reason" and
words and alternative" just as
| they did in Websters day, for. as the
spell Of the mother country remained
over America. despite the Revolution.
| so today the charm of our ancient
| tongue still works its will with US.
Yet the sturdy pioneer work of
| Noah Webster remains. 1t Is to be
| hoped that the magazine WILL from
| time TO time, tell US more and more
about this man whose name is famil-
! lar TO every man, woman and child
| in the United States, and yet about
| whom the average person knows sur
prisingly little.
In this very direction, II would
seem, lies much of the value Of such
a magazine. To conffne it solely to
scholars. to render its articles of
| technical, but little human interest,
would be to miss a real opportunity
That American Speech is deter
mined to maintain a proper balance
! between popular and scholarly mate
rial seems evidenced by the material
| in the very fine sinitial number. May
| IL continue so.