NEW NATIONAL SPELLING BOOK, AND PRONOUNCING TUTOR; ON AN IMPROVED PLAN : EXHIBITING THE PRECISE SOUND OF EACH SYLLABLE IN EVERY WORD, ACCORDING TO THE MOST APPROVED PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH ORTHOEPY; WITH PROGRESSIVE READING LESSONS: DESIGNED FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES. BY B. D. EMERSON. LATE PRINCIPAL OF THE ADAMS GRAMMAR SCHOOL, BOSTON. BOSTON: G. W. PALMER AND COMPANY. 1838. KD32935 HARVARD 046*172. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, BY B. D. EMERSON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED AT THE PREFACE. AT the period of the publication of the “National Spelling Book,” the orthography of certam classes of words in our language, was so far from being settled, that I believed it most expedient to adopt that mode of spelling, which was in accordance with Walker's Dictionary, then generally used in the schools of our country. Since which time, the increased use of other school dictionaries, sustaining a different orthography of these words, the usage of a great proportion of our most respectable public journals, and not a few of our best writers, furnish conclusive indication that these changes are fast becoming established as improvements, and, at no distant day, will obtain general prevalence. From these considerations, and at the suggestion of several valued Teachers, I have been induced to revise that work, and offer it to the public in its present form, principally for the sake of giving what is called the "modern orthography" of the words alluded to. In the mean time, the publication of the "National Spelling Book” will be continued; so that those instructors, who yet adhere to the old mode of spelling, and others, who may be reluctant to derange their classes by the sudden introduction of a new spelling book, may still obtain a supply of that work. The New National Spelling Book is compiled on the plan of its predecessor, so far as respects the principles of pronunciation, and the preciseness with which the sound of each syllable of words in the spelling columns is exhibited. Those words, whose orthogra phy has been changed, chiefly belong to two classes. 1. Words of more than one syllable, ending in ck; in these the final k is omitted. 2. In such words as favour, honour, labour, the u is omitted. The Key to the vowel sounds has been simplified, by the omission of the character which indicated the vicarious sound of short u. The use of this character is superseded by the formation of a distinct class of those words in which such vowels occur. The chapter containing words of similar sound, but of different spelling and signification, has been enlarged, so as now to comprise an ample vocabulary. Some words not of common use, together with several hundred proper names, have been expunged from the spelling columns, and their places filled with Reading Exercises. In the preparation of these, I have sought to furnish such as are adapted to the capacity of those for whom they are designed, and I trust none of them will be deemed puerile, when it is remembered they are intended for very young children in the first efforts at reading. Most of these exercises are selected; and having found it necessary, in order to fit them for my purpose, materially to alter some of them, and abridge others, I have thought it not best, in any case, to quote the author's name. May, 1833. B. D. E. |