uded distinctly American spellings of words and pronunciations. It also supported Webster’s belief in democracy. By seeking to standardize the learning of language in American classrooms, he was putting into play a belief that the semantics of a language play a key role in a person’s power to create a system of ideas, thus creating a more educated citizen able to participate in a democratic system (Noah Webster’s American Dictionary Website). This book was revolutionary not only because it sought to “Americanize” the classroom, but because of the tone of the book. Most previous grammars were prescriptive, meaning that they informed the student how the words should be spoken or spelled. The “Blue-Backed Speller,” on the other hand, was a descriptive work, meaning that it merely showed how words were actually used and pronounced by real speakers of the language (Millward 245). Although the blue-backed speller was a great success, it merely provided Webster with a paycheck that enabled him to compile what would be his greatest work: a complete dictionary of the English language that was tailored to the speakers of the United States. Webster wanted a dictionary that was not only easy to use, but wished it to follow the descriptive philosophy that he had begun with his speller. As a result, he streamlined the spellings of many words (Brett Website), and in 1806 he published his A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. With a total of 28,000 entries, he had made quite a few changes (Millward 305). Some of his changes were quite radical, and reflected the pronunciation of various words. For example, “is” became “iz,” “tongue” became “tung,” and “women” became “wimmen” (Noah Webster Gets a Website). Many of the words that he changed to reflect phonological reality did not stick, as can be seen with the examples ...
