WALKER'S CRITICAL Pronouncing Dictionary AND EXPOSITOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. ABRIDGED. BY THE REV. THOMAS SMITH, LONDON. TO WHICH IS ADDED, A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, CONTAINING THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF THE LATE WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND ALBANY: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY E. & E. HOSFORD STEREOTYPED BY A. W. KINSLEY. 1823. There SINCE the scientific labours of Mr. Walker have rescued English orthoephy froze the arbitrary dictates of pedantry, and the fluctuations of caprice, a correct pronunciation seems almost to have become a criterion of good breeding and a liberal education. will always be, it is probable, some words of a pronunciation so ambiguous, that even among polite speakers, a difference will prevail, and each must be left to the guidance of nis own ear: but, it is much to be doubted, whether any lexicographer will ever approach nearer than Mr. Walker, to the establishing of a correct standard. He has exhibica suda philosophical knowledge of language, such extensive observation, such profoun invest gation of analogy, with such clearness of method and perspicuity of style, as to render any material improvement, at present, rather to be wished than expected. Although we do në consider Mr. Walker's Dictionary infallible, yet it appears to us eminently the best guide to a correct and elegant pronunciation of our language.-Critical Review. FE EW subjects have of late years more employed the pens of every class of criticks, than the improvement of the English Language. The greatest abilities in the nation have been exerted inltivating and reforming it; nor have a thousand minor criticks been wanting to add + P amendment to their native tongue. Johnson, whose large mind and just m capable of enriching and adorning the Language with original composition, ided to the drudgery of disentangling, explaining, and arranging it, and left iment of his ability, labour, and patience; and Dr. Lowth, the politest schoe, has vailed his superiority in his short Introduction to English Grammar. The ponderous folio has vindicated the rights of analogy; and the light ephemeral sheet of news has corrected errors in Grammar, as well as in politicks, by slyly marking them in Italicks. lar of the Nor has the improvement stopped here. While Johnson and Lowth have been insensibly operating on the orthography and construction of our Language, its pronunciation has not been neglected. The importance of a consistent and regular pronunciation was too obvious to be overlooked; and the want of this consistency and regularity has induced several ingenious men to endeavour at a reformation; who, by exhibiting the regularities of pronunciation, and pointing out its analogies, have reclaimed some words that were not irrecoverably fixed in a wrong sound, and prevented others from being perverted by ignorance or caprice. Among those writers who deserve the first praise on this subject, is Mr. Elphinston; who, in his Principles of the English Language, has reduced the chaos to a system; and, by a deep investigation of the analogies of our tongue, has laid the foundation of a just and regular pronunciation. After him, Dr. Kenrick contributed a portion of improvement by his Rhetorical Diction ary; in which the words are divided into syllables as they are pronounced, and figures pla ced over the vowels, to indicate the different sounds. But this gentleman has rendered his ionary extremely imperfect, by entirely omit ing a great number of words of doubtful and difficult pronunciation-those very words for which a Dictionary of this kind would be most consulted. To him succeeded 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 pronounced, seemed to complete the idea of a Pronouncing Dictionary, and to leave but little expectation of future improvement. It must, indeed, be confessed, that Mr. Sheridan's Dictionary is greatly superior to every other that preceded it; and his method of conveying the sound of words, by spelling them as they are pronounced, is highly rational and useful. But here sincerity obliges me to stop. Numerous instances of impropriety, inconsistency, and want of acquaintance with the analogies of the Language, sufficiently show that his Dictionary is upon the whole imperfect, and that ample room was left for attempting another, which might better answer the purpose of a Guide to Pronunciation. The last writer on this subject is Mr. Nares, who, in his Elements of Orthoepy, 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 well 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; but he seems, on many occasions, to have mistaken the best usage, and to have paid too little attention to the first principles of pronunciation. Thus I have ventured to give my opinion of my rivals and competitors, and I hope with out envy or self-conceit. 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 |