THE NORTH AMERICAN SPELLING BOOK, CONFORMED TO WORCESTER'S DICTIONARY, WITH A PROGRESSIVE SERIES OF EASY READING LESSONS. BY L. W. LEONARD, ÅND AUTHOR OF THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC CLASS BOOK, THIRTIETH REVISED EDITION. KEENE, N. H.: PUBLISHED BY GEORGE TILDEN. BOSTON: GOULD, KENDALL, AND LINCOLN. c18351 RN Lees Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of New Hampshire. BOSTON : Sted by Shepard, Oliver & Co. 3 Water Street. P RE F ACСЕ. It is important that a Spelling Book should correspond with the Dictionary, which is adopted as the standard of orthography and pronunciation. The characters for designating the sounds and powers of the letters should be the same in both works, for it must not only be a needless waste of time, but perplexing to the minds of children, to learn a new system of notation as soon as they begin to use a Dictionary. The North American Spelling Book, as is stated on the title page, is conformed to Worcester's Dictionary, a work of superior merit and accuracy, which is now extensively used in the United States, and is rapidly taking the place of other works of a similar kind. By permission of Mr. Worcester, his system of notation has been applied to the spelling lessons in this book; and in preparing the work, it has been the compiler's object to adhere strictly to the principles of the Dictionary. In a few instances, however, vowels in unaccented syllables will be found to have the mark of a distinct sound, which in the Dictionary are marked as indistinct; and the words frize and pique have been substituted in the key for field and mien, because the diphthong ie is marked with e long, and not i like long e, both in the Dictionary and in this Spelling Book. With respect to the division of words into syllables, the Dictionary has not always been followed. The object of a Spelling Book is not the same as that of a Dictionary, and the words, therefore, have been divided in such a manner as seemed most likely to lead to a correct pronunciation. In the course of the spelling lessons, a few words have been designedly inserted twice. There is no formal division of this book into Chapters or Tables. A child can find his place to spell or read far more readily by the page, than by the Chapter or Table. As each page is divided into short sections or paragraphs, the work will convenient for classes in common schools. As the reading lessons contain no words (except a few derivatives) that may not be found in the previous spelling lessons, it is recommended to teachers, who may use this book, not to permit a child to advance to a reading lesson, till the words in the spelling lessons that precede it, are so familiar that he can pronounce them at sight, without naming the letters. If a child |
