Noah Webster and American Cultural Independence

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Noah Webster and American Cultural Independence

Schoolmaster . Noah Webster was graduated from Yale College in 1778, and while he prepared himself for a career in law, he supported himself by teaching school.

Webster was admitted to the bar in 1781, but he would practice law only briefly, devoting his real energy to a career in education. As a schoolteacher Webster noted how difficult it was for children to learn spelling. “It is now the work of years for children to learn to spell; and after all, the business is rarely accomplished. A few men, who are bred to some business that requires constant … writing, finally learn to spell most words without hesitation,” but most people “make mistakes, whenever they take up a pen,” and would “never attempt to write a letter, without frequently consulting a dictionary.”

Barriers. A student’s problem with spelling also made for difficulty in pronunciation. Foreigners found it difficult to pronounce English words, as the spelling and pronunciation often varied; Americans living in different areas spoke much differently, and these regional dialects Webster saw as warning signs for a country not fully united. Unless Americans all spoke the same language and could understand one another fully, trouble was ahead.

Solution. Noah Webster had a practical solution to this problem of spelling. First, he would eliminate all silent letters. For instance, the “a” in “bread” and the “gh” in “night” and “eight” could be dropped. Second, for words such as “mean” and “near” and “speak,” he would substitute an “e” for the “a,” making them read “meen,” “neer,” and “speek.” This would bring their spelling into line with their pronunciation. Finally, for vowels with either long or short pronunciations, Webster would add a small stroke to indicate the difference. These changes would make it easier both to write and to learn the language “and would render the pronunciation uniform, in different parts of the country, and almost prevent the possibility of changes.”

Uniformity. Webster had practical as well as ideological reasons for proposing this simplicity. The most practical reason was that the reform would make it easier to learn the language, and with fewer letters books and newspapers could be shorter, thus saving paper and allowing more space for expressing ideas. (Webster estimated that his reform would eliminate one letter out of every sixteen or eighteen and thus would save one page out of every sixteen or eighteen, cutting ten pages from a 180-page book.) More importantly, Webster hoped these changes would make the pronunciation of the language as uniform as the spelling in books. This would make all Americans speak the same language and eliminate potentially dangerous regional and class differences in the spoken language, replacing prejudice and animosity with “mutual affection and respect.”

Independence. This change would foster not only unity but also national independence. It would be necessary for all books to be printed in America, rather than England, and so Americans could become intellectually as well as politically independent. A national language, Webster wrote, “is a band of national union. Every engine should be employed to render the people of this country national.… However they may boast of Independence, … yet their opinions are not sufficiently independent; an astonishing respect for the arts and literature of their parent country, and a blind imitation of its manners, are still prevalent among the Americans. Thus an habitual respect for another country, deserved indeed and once laudable, turns their attention from their own interests, and prevents their respecting themselves.”

A Grammatical Institute. Webster’s reform proposal was enthusiastically endorsed by Benjamin Franklin, who had proposed a similar measure some years earlier. Webster was unsuccessful, though, in fully purging English of silent letters and making for uniform pronunciation. His spelling book, A Grammatical Institute, of the English Language (1783), had much more success in creating a national system of education. The first edition’s five thousand copies were exhausted within a year, and by 1837 Webster estimated that fifteen million copies had been printed. A Grammatical Institute, or the “blue-backed speller,” replaced Thomas Dilworth’s A New Guide to the English Tongue (1770), written in England and full of the wrong values, Webster believed. His book was for Americans and has been called a literary declaration of independence. In it Webster advised American schoolchildren on proper pronunciation, and if he could not forge a single national dialect, he could try to purge regional variations, advising children not to drop the final “g” in “-ing,” or pronounce “spirit” as “sperei.” He also insisted on pronunciation of “-tion” and “-cion” as one syllable (“-shun”) rather than the traditional two syllables. In 1788 Webster changed the name of his speller to An American Spelling Book.

Part Two . Webster followed his speller with A Grammatical Institute of the English Language (1784), which attempted to codify and reform American grammar. Webster, with his experience as a schoolteacher, taught the language as it was spoken rather than teaching grammar through memorization of rules. Webster blasted earlier grammarians for their “stupid opinion” that the English language rested on Latin and that only by learning Latin could people understand the rules of English. Instead, English rested on a Saxon base. Webster advised reform and simplification, but his A Grammatical Institute of the English Language was less popular than his speller.

Other Activities . Webster’s speller was published in Hartford; if Webster did not secure a copyright in every other state, printers outside of Connecticut could sell the book without paying Webster a cent. He visited all thirteen states to secure copyrights; this experience convinced him that the United States needed a uniform copyright law, and to secure this law, which would be the only way to create a national community, the country needed a stronger Constitution. He was a fervent advocate for the Constitution in 1787, writing one of the first pamphlets in its defense. Webster was a staunch Federalist in the 1790s, engaging in political questions as editor of various newspapers and magazines. In the wake of the 1797 yellow fever outbreak he compiled A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases (1799), which sorted through the existing knowledge on the causes of disease. He remained fascinated by the American language, though, and in 1806 published A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, a forerunner of his 1828 An American Dictionary of the English Language. Though Webster failed to simplify American English or to create a single national community, he led the way to America’s cultural independence.