English Pronunciation and Spelling - Containing a Full Alphabetical Vocabulary of the Language - Text-Book for Schools

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Mary Man

A reference manual and classroom text focused on English pronunciation and spelling, built for consultation whenever uncertainty arises about commonly used words in speech or writing. The work supplies preliminary exposition of English orthoepy and orthography, pairing an alphabetical vocabulary with a structured system of cross-references to the Introduction. It omits overly rare, technical, non-Anglicized, obsolete, and low-difficulty derived forms, while clarifying distinctions such as same-sounding but differently spelled or differently pronounced words.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages508

Reading Time13 h 2 min

AccessFree to download

Preface

Purpose and audience

Design of the reference and classroom use

Vocabulary scope and omissions

Introduction overview

Classification and referencing method

Use of authorities on pronunciation

A M ANUAL # ENGLISH PRONUNCIATIONANDSPELLING: CONTAINING A FULL ALPHABETICAL VOCABULARY OF THE LANGUAGE, WITⅡ A PRELIAINARY EXPOSITION OF ENGLISH ORTHOEPY AND 0RTHOGRAPHY; AND DESIGNED AS A WORK OF REFERENCE FOR GENERAL USE,AND AS A TEXT-BOOK IN SCIIOOLS. BY RICHARD SOULE,JR.,A.M.,AN DWILLIAM A.VHEELER,A.M. BOSTON: SOULE AND WILLI AM S,129 TREMONT ST.,CORNER OF WIXTER ST. PE1137A2S Entered,according to Act of Congress,in the year 1861,byRICHARD SOULE,Jr.,AND WILLIAM A.WHEELER,In the Clerk's Ofice of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 19558 EY.ECT ROTYPED AT TIIEBOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUN DIY. PRINTED BY △LLEN AND FARNHAM,CAMBRIDGE. PREFACE. THE design of this work is to provide a convenientmanual for consultation,whenever a doubt arises in regardto the pronunciation or the spelling of any word nowcommonly or oeeasionally used in English speech,or oftenmet with in modern writings;and also to furnish a text-book for teaching English pronunciation and orthographyin a more systematic and thorough manner than has here-tofore been possible by the use of the common spelling-books alone. So difficult is it to beeome thoroughly versed in either ofthese branehes of learning,that an English dietionary isprobably quite as often eonsulted to aseertain the pronun-ation or the spelling of a word,as to learn its meaning.As works of reference for this purpose,the smaller die-tionaries are often found to be defective in their voeabu-laries,and the larger ones are too bulky for eonvenient.use.In order that this volume might eontain a very fullvocabulary,and at the same time be kept within a smallcompass,definitions have been omitted,exeept when theyseemed to be required for some purpose of distinetion,asin the case of words pronounced alike but differentlyspelled,or of words spelled alike but differently pro-nounced. The words which it has been thought best,as a generalrule,to omit from the Voeabulary are all such as are obso-(iii) lete,most of those that are very rarely used,or are ex-clusively technical and not Anglicized,and many deriva-tives ending in-er,-ish,-ly,-less,-like,-ness,or -ship,whichpresent no difficulty either of pronunciation or of spelling.Most of the words compounded with the prefixes all-,counter-,in-,out-,over-,sub-,super-,um-,under-,as theyare attended with no difficulty that is not explained undertheir simple forms,have also been omitted. The Introduction contains a description of the organsof speech,preliminary definitions of a few terms,and anaccount of the elementary sounds of the language,witha statement of the views in respect to these sounds,heldby the most eminent orthoepists,and of the various waysin which they are represented by the letters of the alpha-bet.It also embraces,under distinct heads,a succincttreatment of the following topics;namely,syllables,theseat and the influence of the accent,the causes whichrender words liable to be mispronounced or misspelled,compound words,prefixes,and syllabication. A marked feature of the plan is,that,though the wordsof the Vocabulary are arranged in alphabetical order,themore important of them are classified according to someprominent characteristics,either of pronunciation or of spell-ing,by means of figures referring them to the sections ofthe Introduction in which those characteristics are describedand exemplified.This method of reference,so far as itrelates to pronunciation,was introduced by Nares,in his“Elements of Orthoepy,”and has been adopted by Walker,Smart,Worcester,and Goodrich. Smart remarks:“Ihave...copied from Walker the method of referring,throughout the Dictionary,to principles of pronuncia-tion laid down at the commencement;I believe his Dic-tionary owes its reputation to the obvious excellence of this plan."The attempt has not hitherto been made to applythe same method of reference,in a full alphabetical vocabu-lary of our language,to preliminary statements of the prin-ciples and difficult

FAQs

What is the primary purpose of the manual?

To serve as a convenient reference for pronunciation and spelling questions, and as a textbook for systematically teaching English pronunciation and orthography.

How are vocabulary words organized and cross-referenced?

Words are arranged alphabetically, while more important ones are also classified by pronunciation or spelling characteristics using figures that refer to relevant sections of the Introduction.

Why are some words omitted from the vocabulary?

To keep the volume within a small compass, the book omits obsolete words, very rarely used words, technical non-Anglicized terms, and many derived forms that present little difficulty in pronunciation or spelling.

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Mary Man