10

COMPREHENSIVE

PRONOUNCING AND EXPLANATORY

DICTIONARY

OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE,

WITH

PRONOUNCING VOCABULARIES

OF

CLASSICAL AND SCRIPTURE PROPER NAMES.

By J. E. WORCESTER.

BURLINGTON, VT.

PUBLISHED BY CHAUNCEY GOODRICH.

BOSTON TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY.

92.44.20.5"

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF THE

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

JUL 14 1926

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS....to wit:

District Clerk's Office.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the fourth day of September, A. D. 1830, in the fifty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, J. E. WORCESTER, of the said District, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit:

"A Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language, with Pronouncing Vocabularies of Classical and Scripture Proper Names. By J. E. Worcester."

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, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled,An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

JNO. W. DAVIS,

Clerk of the District of Massachusetts.

REMARKS.

BUT few remarks are deemed necessary in order to render the above Key, or system of notation, well understood. The words which are used as examples for illustration, when pronounced by correct speakers, exhibit accurately the different sounds of the several vowels.

Some distinctions are here made, which are not found in other systems; but they are not intended to introduce any new sounds, but merely to discriminate such as are now heard from all who speak the language with propriety.

The peculiar sound of the letter a which is indicated by this mark (å), is never heard, except when it precedes the letter r, and is the sound which we daily hear in the words care, fair, pair, share, differing plainly from the long, slender sound of a in fate, pain, payer, player, slayer.

The letter a, with this mark (a), has an intermediate sound between the shor sound of a, as in fat, man, and the Italian a, as in far, father. The a in the words to which this sound is given in this Dictionary, is generally marked, by Perry, Jones, and some other orthoepists, as having the same sound as a in far father; and by Walker, Jameson, and some others, as having the proper short sound of a, as in fat, man.

The peculiar sounds of the letters e, i, u, and y, which are indicated when marked thus (8, 1, u, y), occur only when these vowels are succeeded by r final, or by r followed by some other consonant, as in the words her, herd, sir, bird, cur, curd, myrrh. The sound is as short as these vowels, thus situated, readily or naturally receive; yet it differs from their proper short sound, in met, merry, pin, mirror, hut, hurry, lyric, in a manner analogous to the difference between the sound of a and o in far and for, and the proper short sound of these vowels, as in fat, not.

Vowels marked with the dot underneath (thus, a, e, i, o, u), are found only in syllables which are not accented, and over which the organs of speech pass slightly and hastily in pronouncing them. This mark is employed rather to indicate a slight stress of voice than to mark a particular quality of sound. If the syllables on which the primary and secondary accents fall are uttered with a proper stress of voice, these comparatively indistinct syllables will naturally be pronounced right.

When the pronunciation is prefixed to the words in their proper orthography, without recourse to respelling, the vowels which are not marked, with the exception of y (and, in some cases, of words in Italics), are silent: thus a in beat, fear, e in able, give, härden, i in päin, heifer, o in măson, famous, and w in

This mark (†), prefixed to a word or definition, shows that it is obsolete, or not now in use.

The asterisk (*) is prefixed, in many instances, to two or more words of the same class or family, to show that their pronunciation is governed by the same general rule. In cases of this sort, the different modes in which orthoepists pronounce the leading word are inclosed in brackets; or the leading word is respelled for pronunciation; and the others follow the same rule. The pronunciation of acceptable, for example, determines the pronunciation of acceptably and acceptableness.

With respect to words of doubtful or disputed pronunciation, the different modes of different orthoepists are exhibited after the words in brackets, the name, or an abbreviation of the name, of the orthoepist, following his pronunciation. Thus it may be seen, for example, that the word decorous is pronounced de-ko'rus by Sheridan, Walker, Jones, Fulton and Knight, Jameson, Johnson, Dyche, Barclay, and Rees; and děk'ọ-rŭs by Perry, Enfield, Webster, and Ash.

Words printed in Italics belong to foreign languages, and are not properly anglicized. A*