DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT: District Clerk's Offes. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-eighth day of January, A. D. 1828, in the fifty-second you *the Independence of the United States of America, Charles Ewer, of the said District, has deposited is office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit: "Stereotype Edition. Walker's Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language, abridged for t Use of Schools: containing a Compendium of the Principles of English Pronunciation, with the Prop Names that occur in the Sacred Scriptures: to which is likewise, added, a Selection of Geographic Proper Names and Derivatives." 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, chats, and wooks, to the actor and proprietors of such. copies during the times therein mentioned" and also to an act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to act, entitled, An Act for the encouragement of earning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, a Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned; and extendin the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching nistorica. and other prints." JOHN W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts. wed at the otype Foundry. し PREFACE. DOUBTLESS the Critical Pronouncing Dictionary of Mr. Walker is the best guide to a correct and elegant pronunciation of our language of which we can at present boast. It should not, however, be considered as a perfect standard of orthoëpy; for such it does not profess to be. Imperfection adheres to every work of man. The most finished productions of art, and the most successful works of genius, are not free from defect. The eminent orthoëpists who preceded Mr. Walker did much, but they also left much to be done. He has combined the results of their labours, and added to them the fruits of his own investi gations. And, though he has not given to the world a faultless work, it is much to be doubted whether any lexicographer will ever approach nearer than he has done to the establishing a correct standard. Mr. Walker does not claim for his work the merit of originality; but, sensible of the assistance he had derived from the labours of others, in the preface to the first edition of his dictionary, he acknowledges his obligations to Mr. Elphinston, "who, by a deep investigation of the analogies of our torgue, has laid the foundation of a just and regular pronunciation ;"-to Di Kenrick "for the improvement in which the words are divided into syllables as they are pronounced, and figures placed over the vowels, to indicate their different sounds;"-to Mr. Sheridan, "who not only divided the words into syllables, and placed figures over the vowels, as Dr. Kenrick had done, but, by spelling these syllables as they are renounced, seemed to complete the idea of a Pronouncing Dictionary, and to leave but little expectation of future improvement;"-and likewise to Mr. Nares, "who, in his Elements of Orthoëpy, has shown a clearness of method and an extent of observation which deserve the highest encomiums. His Preface alone proves him an elegant writer, as wel. as a philosophical observer of language; and his Alphabetical Index, referring near five thousand words to the rules for pronouncing them, is a new and useful method of treating the subject." Mr. Walker remarks, "Thus I have ventured to give my opinion of my rivals and competitors. Perhaps it would have been policy in me to have been silent on this head, for fear of putting the Publick in mind that others have written on the subject as well as myself: but this is a narrow policy, which, under the colour of tenderness to others, is calculated to raise ourselves at their expense. A writer, who is conscious he deserves the attention of the Publick, must not only wish to be compared with those who have gone before him, but will promote the comparison, by informing his readers what others have done, and on what he founds his pre tensions to a preference; and if this be done with fairness and without acrimony, it can be no more inconsistent with modesty, than it is with honesty and plain dealing. "The work I have offered on the subject has, I hope, added something to the publick stock; as I have endeavoured to unite the science of Mr. Elphinston, the method of Mr. Nares, and the general utility of Mr. Sheridan." PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION THE first Principles or Elements of Pronunciation are Letters. The Let ters of the English Language are. To these may be added certain combinations of letters sometimes used in printing as, fl, ff, fi, ffi, ffl, and &, or and per se and, or, rather, et per se and ; ƒ‚ ‚ƒ‚ Ñ‚ƒ3‚ fl‚ &. |