Webster believed in establishing cultural independence from Britain and as such he emphasized a distinct American spelling and pronunciation. His dictionary listed various unusual and shortened spellings of words. He would hardly have imagined how the tide would turn one day. According to reports, more British children today spell "color" instead of "colour", for example. Webster's suggestion of using "tung" instead of "tongue" didn't stick, though.
Today Webster's name is synonymous with dictionaries and the date of his birth is observed as Dictionary Day.
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1 comment:
I have this thing with dictionaries, well of course I do need them quite a lot, so I found it interesting enough to subscribe to this "a word a day" . I'm now looking forward to learn a new word every day! Thanks!
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