Noah Webster was not only a signer to the Constitution and a plain old wordsmith, he went far beyond and wrote the American dictionary. From what I have read it was clear to Webster it needed to be done to provide a basis for a common language for Americans to make English easier to read and write. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1758, it was Webster’s two-volume American Dictionary of the English Language that truly earned him his place in linguistic history and the reputation as the leading linguist of American English. Webster mastered twenty-six languages including Old English, Greek, and Hebrew. He finished the dictionary while working in Paris at the University of Cambridge. The book was over seventy thousand words, thousands of which were all new words.
It took 28 years for Webster to write it. By this time he was 70 years old. The colonies contained a multitude of languages. He wanted his work to make American English pronunciations and spelling to be solely the American way; dropping the British form. Webster added words unique to the colonies, many taken from the continent’s Native Americans. He added new words that were not in other dictionaries making the language unique. Some of them include Constitution, Federal and patriot.
Both Benjamin Franklin and Webster thought to make life easier in the new colonies. They knew how hard it was to spell words in English, sounds didn’t match letters for one thing and that the problem was an inconvenient English alphabet. He wanted to do this so “all persons of every rank, would speak with some degree of precision and uniformity, putting everyone on the same footing.” – Noah Webster.
Franklin did work to improve the American English language in his own way. In 1736 at age 30, he wrote a somewhat saucy reference work published titled, The Drinkers Dictionary, a list of 228 common terms for being drunk. In the end it would be Webster who was willing the complete the work on a dictionary.
Franklin would work on many other endeavors as we all have learned while Webster lovingly persevered to improve communication for the new country that would bare fruit. He would also organize the Pennsylvania militia, raised the funds to build a city hospital and plan to pave and light city streets, create the Franklin stove, and bifocals, he negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War… and well, you know, I could go on and on about Franklin. But I won’t.
Webster did correspond with the likes of Franklin, and many others, even Washington on the topic of language. Webster, like many of the men who signed the Constitution, was extremely busy. He created his own version of an American Bible. He also worked for copyright laws, on a strong federal government, universal education, and the abolition of slavery along with the likes of Franklin and Hamilton and he helped found the Connecticut Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1791.
Part of Webster success was due to his willing to change something when he believed it needed improvement. So in 1828, living in an apartment in Paris Webster’s Dictionary was published in North America. He had to mortgage his house to do it. Needless to say it became very influential. Webster’s legacy has continued to impact us in ways most of us would not even consider.
I’ve heard people say Webster was commissioned to write his dictionary by Benjamin Franklin. And though he was recruited 1793 by Alexander Hamilton to become an editor for a Federalist Party newspaper, I could not find history to back up that claim of a recruitment about the dictionary. When reading about Webster’s life you would have to think Noah Webster made that trip by himself.
You can read more at these links:
languagemuseum.org/noah-webster-an-american-dictionary-for-an-american-english/
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster’s_Dictionary
https://www.merriam-webster.com/about-us/americas-first-dictionary
Franklin’s The Drinkers Dictionary:
http://www.drinkingcup.net/1737-benjamin-franklin-publishes-228-terms-for-being-drunk/
