To Teachers and School Officers. Any school book published by the AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY will be sent to any address on receipt of the published list-price. Teachers and School Officers are cordially invited to correspond with the Company upon any matter pertaining to school books. Descriptive and classified Price-lists, Bulletins of New Books, and other circulars of information will be sent free to any address on application to the Publishers: AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY, NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO. THE NATIONAL STANDARD. The Leading Series of School Books published in this Country are based upon WEBSTER, the acknowledged Standard of the English Language. THE ELEMENTARY SPELLING BOOK. BEING AN IMPROVEMENT ON THE AMERICAN SPELLING BOOK. BY NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D. THE LATEST 1.PVISEL ADITION. NEW YORK: CINCINNATI .:. CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. Sold by all the principal Booksellers throughout the United States of America and its Territories. STANDARD SCHOOL BOOKS. The AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY invites the attention of Teachers and School Officers to its large and varied list of school and college text-books, which have been prepared by leading educators and represent the most approved methods of instruction. Its list embraces standard books in every department of study and for every grade of schools. The large number and great variety of its publications offer to school boards, principals, and teachers an exceptional opportunity to make a judicious selection of text-books suitable for the different subjects of study and for all grades of instruction. Catalogues, price-lists, and other circulars of information will be sent free on application to the Publishers: AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY, NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by EMILY W. ELLSWORTH, JULIA W. GOODRICH, ELIZA S. W. JONES, WILLIAM G. WEBSTER, and LOUISA WEBSTER, (surviving children of the late Noah Webster, LL. D.) In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Connecticut. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. Copyright, 1880 and 1908, PREFACE. IN N this revision of the Elementary Spelling Book, the chief object aimed at is to bring its notation into a correspondence with that of the recently issued Quarto Dictionary, in which a more extended system of orthoëpical marks has been adopted for the purpose of exhibiting the nicer discriminations of vowel sounds. A few of the Tables, however, and a few single columns of words, are left without diacritical signs as exercises in notation, a familiarity with which is important to all who consult the dictionary. A little attention to the Key to the Sounds of the marked Letters will aid both teacher and pupil in this interesting exercise. As it has been found inconvenient to insert the whole Key at the top of the page, as heretofore, frequent reference to the full explanation of the pointed letters on page 14 may be desirable. In Syllabication it has been thought best not to give the etymological division of the Quarto Dictionary, but to retain the old mode of Dr. Webster as best calculated to teach young scholars the true pronunciation of words. The plan of classification here executed is extended so as to comprehend every important variety of English words, and the classes are so arranged, with suitable directions for the pronunciation, that any pupil, who shall be master of these Elementary Tables, will find little difficulty in learning to form and pronounce any words that properly belong to our vernacular language. The Tables intended for Exercises in Spelling and forming words, contain the original words, with the terminations only of their derivatives. These Tables will answer the important purposes of teaching the manner of forming the various derivatives, and the distinctions of the parts of speech, and thus anticipate, in some degree, the knowledge of grammar; at the same time, they bring into a small compass a much greater number of words than could be otherwise comprised in so small a book. The pronunciation here given is that which is sanctioned by the most general usage of educated people, both in the United States and in England. There are a few words in both countries whose pronunciation is not settled beyond dispute. In cases of this kind, the Editor has leaned to regular analo gies as furnishing the best rule of decision. In orthography there are some classes of words in which usage is not uniform. No two English writers agree on this subject; and what is worse, no lexicographer is consistent with himself. In this book, as in Dr. Webster's dictionaries, that mode of spelling has been adopted which is the most simple and best authorized. The Editor has followed the rules that are held to be legitimate, and has rendered uniform all classes of words falling within them. If established rules and analogies will not control the practice of writers, there is no authority by which uniformity can be produced. The reading lessons are adapted, as far as possible, to the capacities of children, and to their gradual progress in knowledge. These lessons will serve to substitute variety for the dull monotony of spelling, show the practical use of words in significant sentences, and thus enable the learner the better to understand them. The consideration of diversifying the studies of the pupil has also had its influence in the arrangement of the lessons for spelling. It is useful to teach children the signification of words, as soon as they can comprehend them; but the understanding can hardly keep pace with the memory, and the minds of children may well be employed in learning to spell and pronounce words whose signification is not within the reach of their capacities; for what they do not clearly comprehend at first, they will understand as their capacities are enlarged. The objects of a work of this kind being chiefly to teach orthography and pronunciation, it is judged most proper to adapt the various Tables to these specific objects, and omit extraneous matter. In short, this little book is so constructed as to condense into the smallest compass a complete SYSTEM |