F DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT, 85. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the tenth day of July, in the fifty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, NOAH WEBSTER and JOSEPH E. WORCESTER, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "An American Dictionary of the English Language; exhibiting the Origin, Orthography, Pronunciation, and Definitions of Words: by Noah Webster, LL.D.: abridged from the Quarto Edition of the Author: to which are added, a Synopsis of Words differently pronounced by different Orthoepists; and Walker's Key to the Classical Pronunciation of Greek, Latin, and Scripture Proper Names." In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein men. tioned;" and also to the act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled, An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." CHAS. A. INGERSOLL, Clerk of the District of Connecticut, DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit: District Clerk's Office. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the thirteenth day of July, A.D. 1829, in the fifty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, NOAH WEBSTER and JOSEPH E. WORCESTER, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "An American Dictionary of the English Language; exhibiting the Origin, Orthography, Pronunciation, and Definitions of Words: by Noah Webster, LL.D.: abridged from the Quarto Edition of the Author: to which are added, a Synopsis of Words differently pronounced by different Orthoepists; and Walker's Key to the Classical Pronunciation of Greek, Latin, and Scripture Proper Names." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled, An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." JNO. W. DAVIS. Clerk of the District of Massachusetts, Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, by CHAUNCEY A. GOODRICH, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Connecticut. EDITOR'S PREFACE. WALKER'S Key was inserted for the first time, as an appendix to an English Dictionary, in the edition of this work published in 1829; and it is proper that whatever improvements have since been made in respect to the pronunciation of classical or scripture proper names, should be introduced into this Revised Edition. These improvements are contained chiefly in a revised edition of Walker's Key by the Rev. W. Trollope, M.A., late of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and one of the masters of Christ's Hospital, and in the "Classical Pronunciation of Proper Names," by Thomas S. Carr, of King's College School, London. The revision of Trollope is made the basis of the Key as here presented. It contains more than five hundred additional words, which were inserted by Trollope, and which are here indicated by a † prefixed. Carr's work contains nearly twenty-five hundred words which are not found in Walker or Trollope. These, also, have been inserted, and are indicated by an asterisk prefixed. The whole work has been carefully revised, and no efforts have been spared to render it accurate in every respect. There are some words in regard to which Carr differs from Walker. This is owing, in part, to the deference which he uniformly pays to classical authority, and his rejection of all modern innovations in respect to accent and quantity. Some of the words, also, as given in Carr, are the names of different persons or things from those contained in Walker. That the reader may have the advantage of both modes of pronunciation, that of Carr is usually inserted in connection with that of Walker and Trollope. It has not been thought necessary or desirable to carry the notation of the preceding Dictionary into this Key, but to leave the subject, in this respect, where it was left by Walker and Trollope. The rules for pronouncing Latin and Greek, as laid down by Walker, are easily understood and applied; and if the words are properly accented and divided into syllables, nothing more seems necessary as a guide to the student. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. THE Critical Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language naturally suggested an idea of the present work. Proper names from the Greek and Latin form so considerable a part of every cultivated living language, that a dictionary seems to be imperfect without them. Polite scholars, indeed, are seldom at a loss for the pronunciation of words they so frequently meet with in the learned languages; but there are great numbers of respectable English scholars, who, having only a tincture of classical learning, are much at a loss for a knowledge of this part of it. It is not only the learned professions that require this knowledge, but almost every one above the merely mechanical. The professors of painting, statuary, music, and those who admire their works-readers of history, politics, poetry-all who converse on subjects ever so little above the vulgar-have so frequent occasion to pronounce these proper names, that whatever tends to render this pronunciation easy, must necessarily be acceptable to the public. The proper names in Scripture have still a higher claim to our attention. That every thing contained in that precious repository of divine truth should be rendered as easy as possible to the reader, can not be doubted; and the very frequent occasions of pronouncing Scripture proper names, in a country where reading the Scripture makes part of the religious worship, seem to demand some work on this subject more perfect than any we have hitherto seen. I could have wished it had been undertaken by a person of more learning and leisure than myself, but we often wait in vain for works of this kind from those learned bodies which ought to produce them, and at last are obliged, for the best we can get, to the labors of some necessitous individual. Being long engaged in the instruction of youth, I felt the want of a work of this kind, and have supplied it in the best manner I am able. If I have been happy enough to be useful, or only so far useful as to induce some abler hand to undertake the subject, I shall think my labor amply rewarded. I shall still console myself with reflecting, that he who has produced a prior work, however inferior to those that succeed it, is under a very different predicament from him who produces an after work inferior to those that have gone ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITΙΟΝ. THE favorable reception of the first edition of this work has induced me to attempt to make it still more worthy of the acceptance of the public, by the addition of several critical observa tions, and particularly by two Terminational Vocabularies, of Greek and Latin, and Scripture Proper Names. That so much labor should be bestowed upon an inverted arrangement of these words, when they had already been given in their common alphabetical order, may be matter of wonder to many persons, who will naturally inquire into the utility of such an arrangement. To these it may be answered, that the words of all languages seem more related to each other by their terminations than by their beginnings; that the Greek and Latin languages seem more particularly to be thus related; and classing them according to their endings seemed to exhibit a new view of these languages, both curious and useful; for, as their accent and quantity depend so much on their termination, such an arrangement appeared to give an easier and more comprehensive idea of their pronunciation than the common classification of their initial syllables. This end was so desirable as to induce me to spare no pains, however dry and disgusting, to promote it; and if the method I have taken has failed, my labor will not be entirely lost, if it convinces future prosodists that it is not unworthy of their attention. J. W INTRODUCTION. THE pronunciation of the learned languages is much more easily acquired than that of our own. Whatever might have been the variety of the different dialects among the Greeks and the different provinces of the Romans, their languages, now being dead, are generally pronounced according to the respective analogies of the several languages of Europe, where those languages are cultivated, without partaking of those anomalies to which the living languages are liable. Whether one general, uniform pronunciation of the ancient languages be an object of sufficient importance to induce the learned to depart from the analogy of their own language, and to study the ancient Latin and Greek pronunciation, as they do the etymology, syntax, and prosody of those languages, is a question not very easy to be decided. The question becomes still more difficult when we consider the uncertainty we are in respecting the ancient pronunciation of the Greeks and Romans, and how much the learned are divided among themselves about it.* Till these points are settled, the English may well be allowed to follow their own pronunciation of Greek and Latin, as well as other nations, even though it should be confessed that it seems to depart more from what we can gather of the ancient pronunciation than either the Italian, French, or German. For why the English should pay a compliment to the learned languages, which is not done by any other nation in Europe, it is not easy to conceive; and as the colloquial communication of learned individuals of different nations so seldom happens, and is an object of so small importance when it does happen, it is not much to be regretted that when they meet they are scarcely intelligible to each other.‡ But the English are accused not only of departing from the genuine sound of the Greek and * Middleton contends that the initial c before e and i ought to be pronounced as the Italians now pronounce it; and that Cicero is neither Sisero, as the French and English pronounce it, nor Kikero, as Dr. Bentley asserts, but Tchitchero, as the Italians pronounce it at this day. This pronunciation, however, is derided by Lipsius, who affirms that the camong the Romans had always the sound of k. Lipsius says, too, that of all the European nations the British alone pronounce the i properly; but Middleton asserts that, of all nations, they pronounce it the worst.-Middleton, De Lat. Liter. Pronun, Dissert. Lipsius, speaking of the different pronunciation of the letter G in different countries, says: Nos hodiè quâm peccamus? Italorum enim plerique ut Z exprimunt, Galli et Belgæ ut Jconsonantem. Itaque illorum est Lezere, Fuzere; nostrum, Leiere, Fuiere (Lejere, Fujere). Omnia imperitè, ineptè. Germanos saltem audite, quorum sonus hic germanus, Legere, Tegere; ut in Lego, Tego, nec unquam variant: at nos ante I, E, Æ, Y, semper dicimusque Jemmam, Jatulos, Jinjivam, Jyrum; pro istis, Gemmam, Gatulos, Gingivam, Gyrum, Mutemus aut vapulemus. Lipsius, De Rect. Pron. Ling. Lat., p. 71. (That Lipsius is correct, see note on Rule 9, infra-Trollope.] Hinc factum est, ut tanta in pronunciando varietas extiteret, ut pauci inter se in literarum sonis consentiant. Quod quidem mirum non esset, si indocti tantùm à doctis in eo, ас non ipsi etiam alioqui eruditi inter se magna contentione dissiderent.-Adolph. Meker., De Lin. Grac. vet. Pronun., cap. i., p. 15. † Monsieur Launcelot, the learned author of the Port Royal Greek Grammar, in order to convey the sound of the long Greek vowel n, tells us it is a sound between the e and the a, and that Eustathius, who lived toward the close of the twelfth century, says that βή, βὴ is a sound made in imitation of the bleating of sheep; quoting to this purpose this verse of an ancient writer called Cratinus: Ὁ δ' ἠλίθιος ὥσπερ πρόβατον, βῆ, βῆ, λέγων βαδίζει. Caninius has remarked the same, Hellen., p. 26. E longum, cujus sonus in ovium balatu sentitur, ut Cratinus et Varro tradiderunt. The sound of the e long may be perceived in the bleating of sheep, as Cratinus and Varro have handed down to us. Eustathius likewise remarks upon the 499 v. of Iliad, i., that the word Βλόψ ἐστιν ὁ τὴς κλεπψύδρας ἦχος μιμητικῶς κατὰ τοὺς παλαιούς· βῆ ἔχει μίμησιν προβάτων φωνῆς. Κράτινος. Βλόψ est Clepsydræ sonus, ex imitatione secundum veteres; et By imitatur vocem ovium. Blops, according to expressive of the voice of sheep. It were to be wished that the sound of every Greek vowel had been conveyed to us by as faithful a testimony as the ἦτα; we should certainly have had a better idea of that harmony for which the Greek language was so famous, and in which respect Quintilian candidly yields it the preference to the Latin. Aristophanes has handed down to us the pronunciation of the Greek diphthong að að, by making it expressive of the barking of a dog. This pronunciation is exactly like that preserved by nurses and children among us to this day in вого wого. This is the sound of the same letters in the Latin tongue; not only in proper names derived from Greek, but in every other word where this diphthong occurs. Most nations in Europe, perhaps all but the English, pronounce audio and laudo as if written owdio and lowdo; the diphthong sounding like ou in loud. Agreeable to this rule, it is presumed that we formerly pronounced the apostle Paul nearer the original than at present. In Henry the Eighth's time it was written St. Poule's, and sermons were preached at Poule's Cross. The vulgar, generally the last to alter, either for the better or worse, still have a jingling proverb with this pronunciation, when they say, As old as Poules. The sound of the letter u is no less sincerely preserved in Plautus, in Menæch. (page 622, edit. Lambin), in making use of it to imitate the cry of an owl: "MEN. Egon' dedi? PEN. Tu, tu, istic, inquam, vin' afferri noctuam, Quæ tu, tu, usque dicat tibi? nam nos jam nos defessi sumus." "It appears here," says Mr. Forster, in his Defense of the Greek accents, page 129, "that an owl's cry was tu, tu to a Roman ear, as it is too, too to an English." Lambin, who was a Frenchman, observes on the passage: "Alludit ad noctuæ vocem seu cantum, tu, tu, seu tou, tou." He here alludes to the voice or noise of an owl. It may be further observed, that the English have totally departed from this sound of the u in their own language, as well as in their pronunciation of Latin. † Erasmus se adfuisse olim commemorat, cum die quodam solenni complures principum legati ad Maximilianum Imperatorem salutandi causâ advenissent; singulosque, Gallum, Germanum, Danum, Scotum, &c., orationem Latinam ita barbarè ac vastè pronunciasse, ut Italis quibusdam nihil nisi risum moverint, qui eos non Latinè, sed suâ quemque linguâ, locutos jurâssent.-Middleton, De Lit. Lat. Pronun. The love of the marvelous prevails over truth; and I question if the greatest diversity in the pronunciation of Latin exceeds that of English at the capital, and in some of the counties of Scotland; and yet the inhabitants of both have no Latin vowels, but of violating the quantity of these languages more than the people of any other nation in Europe. The author of the Essay upon the Harmony of Language gives us a detail of the particulars by which this accusation is proved; and this is so true a picture of the English pronunciation of Latin, that I shall quote it at length, as it may be of use to those who are obliged to learn this language without the aid of a teacher. totally different. "The falsification of the harmony by English scholars in their pronunciation of Latin, with regard to essential points, arises from two causes only: first, from a total inattention to the length of vowel sounds, making them long or short merely as chance directs; and, secondly, from sounding double consonants as only one letter. The remedy of this last fault is obvious. With regard to the first, we have already observed, that each of our vowels hath its general long sound and its general short sound tot Thus the short sound of e lengthened is expressed by the letter a, and the short sound of i lengthened is expressed by the letter e; and, with all these anomalies usual in the application of vowel characters to the vowel sounds of our own language, we proceed to the application of vowel sounds to the vowel characters of the Latin. Thus, in the first syllable of sidus and nomen, which ought to be long, and of miser and onus, which ought to be short, we equally use the common long sound of the vowels; but in the oblique cases, sideris, nominis, miseri, oneris, &c., we use quite another sound, and that a short one. These strange anomalies are not common to us with our southern neighbors, the French, Spaniards, and Italians. They pronounce sidus, according to our orthography, seedus, and in the oblique cases preserve the same long sound of the i; nomen they pronounce as we do, and preserve in the oblique cases the same long sound of the o. The Italians, also, in their own language, pronounce doubled consonants as distinctly as the two most discordant mutes of their alphabet. Whatever, therefore, they may want of expressing the true harmony of the Latin language, they certainly avoid the most glaring and absurd faults in our manner of pronouncing it. "It is a matter of curiosity to observe with what regularity we use these solecisms in the pronunciation of Latin. When the penultimate is accented, its vowel, if followed but by a single consonant, is always long, as in Dr. Forster's examples. When the antepenultimate is accented, its vowel is, without any regard to the requisite quantity, pronounced short, as in mirab'ile, frig'idus; except the vowel of the penultimate be followed by a vowel, and then the vowel of the antepenultimate is, with as little regard to true quantity, pronounced long, as in maneo, redeat, odium, imperium. Quantity is, however, vitiated to make i short, even in this case, as in oblivio, vinea, virium. The only difference we make in pronunciation between vinca and venia is, that to the vowel of the first syllable of the former, which ought to be long, we give a short sound; to that of the latter, which ought to be short, we give the same sound, but lengthened. U accented is always, before a single consonant, pronounced long, as in humerus, fugiens. Before two consonants no vowel sound is ever made long, except that of the diphthong au; so that whenever a doubled consonant occurs, the preceding syllable is short.* Unaccented vowels we treat with no more ceremony in Latin than in our own language."Essay upon the Harmony of Language, p. 224. Printed for Robson, 1774. This, it must be owned, is a very just state of the case; but though the Latin quantity is thus violated, it is not, as this writer observes in the first part of the quotation, merely as chance directs, but, as he afterward observes, regularly, and he might have added, according to the analogy of English pronunciation, which, it may be observed, has a genius of its own; and which, if not so well adapted to the pronunciation of Greek and Latin as some other modern languages, has as fixed and settled rules for pronouncing them as any other. The learned and ingenious author next proceeds to show the advantages of pronouncing our vowels so as to express the Latin quantity. "We have reason to suppose," says he, "that our usual accentuation of Latin, however it may want of many elegances in the pronunciation of the Augustan age, is yet sufficiently just to give, with tolerable accuracy, that part of the general harmony of the language of which accent is the efficient. We have, also, pretty full information from the poets what syllables ought to have a long, and what a short quantity. To preserve, then, in our pronunciation, the true harmony of the language, we have only to take care to give the vowels a long sound or a short sound, as the quantity may require; and, when doubled consonants occur, to pronounce each distinctly."-Ib., p. 228.† In answer to this plea for alteration, it may be observed, that if this mode of pronouncing Latin be that of foreign nations, and were really so superior to our own, we certainly must * This corruption of the true quantity is not, however, peculiar to the English for Beza complains, in his country: "Hinc enim fit ut in Græca oratione vel nullum, vel prorsus corruptum numerum intelligas, dum multæ breves producuntur, et contra plurimæ longe corripiuntur."-Beza, De Germ. Pron. Graca Lingua, p. 50. † By what this learned author has observed of our vicious pronunciation of the vowels, by the long and short sound of them, and from the instances he has given, he must mean that length and shortness which arises from extending and contracting them, independently of the obstruction which two consonants are supposed to occasion in forming the long and divided into Man-nus; and Pannus, as if written Pas nus, or as we always hear the word Panis (bread); for in this sound of Pannus there seems to be no necessity for pronouncing the two consonants distinctly, or separately, which he seems to mean by distinctly, because the quantity is shown by the long sound of the vowel; but if by distinctly he means separately, that is, as if what is called in French the shera, or mute e, were to follow the first consonant, this could not be done without adding a syllable to the word; and the word Pannus would, in that case, certainly have three syllables. as if written Pan-ch-nus. - Sec Observations on the Greek and Latin Accent and Quantity, sect. 24. |