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Lepore's look at the origins of American language

By Brian Fitzgerald

Did you ever wonder why the American spelling of certain words is different from the British? We didn't drop the u from such words as colour and favour simply for the sake of brevity, according to Jill Lepore. Language was used in the early American republic to help define the young nation's character.

	Noah Webster, painted by Samuel Morse in 1823.

We write "honor." They write "honour." We write "fetal." They write "foetal." It may be logical to assume that Americans have been shortening English words over the years in a gradual process of making writing easier - convenient abbreviations for a country that loves its information condensed. But that assumption is wrong. In her new book, A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), Lepore, a CAS professor of history, writes that American variations in spelling were a concerted effort by the new country to cast off all things British.

"Language, as well as government, should be national," said Noah Webster in 1789. "America should have her own, distinct from all the world. Such is the policy of other nations, and such must be our policy." Lepore says that Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary, advocated "American spelling," insisting that the country could never be fully independent from England without its own peculiar but common tongue.

"Americanized spelling, he believed, would help Americanize Americans," writes Lepore. "By making American spelling different from English spelling, Webster hoped to cultivate orthographical independence; by eradicating spelling variations within the United States, he hoped to build Americans' fragile sense of national belonging."

Webster was also the first to document a distinctly American vocabulary, words such as chipmunk and hickory (actually Native American words), and chowder (from the French chaudiere, meaning stew pot). To be sure, he was ridiculed for some of his more radical spelling proposals, such as writing "dawter" for "daughter," and "tung" for "tongue." Still, by and large, Webster succeeded. Between 1783 and 1801, his American Spelling Book was reprinted 50 times for a total of 1.5 million copies, and his American Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1828, was felt by many to surpass Samuel Johnson's 1755 masterpiece not only in scope, but in authority.

"The idea that languages define nations remains a prevailing, if controversial, political idea in our times," says Lepore. "In the face of globalization of English, the French have tried to preserve their Frenchness by keeping Americanisms, from 'weekend' to 'CD-ROM,' out of their lexicon."

Lepore, who calls her book "a collection of character sketches," also writes about other language innovators. such as Samuel Morse, the inventor of Morse code, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a pioneer in teaching the deaf, and Sequoyah, a Cherokee Indian who invented an alphabet to promote Cherokee nationalism.

Lepore's first book, The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity (Alfred A. Knopf, 1998) won the Bancroft Prize - one of the most prestigious honors historical literature can receive - and her second book has been awaited with considerable interest. 'A' Is for American' is also generating praise. According to a recent review by Newsday, "her engaging, unpretentious prose, for one thing, invites lay readers as well as academics. And her desire to make things new has led to an unconventional approach to history."

Lepore has been busy these days with public readings her latest book, including one at a Food for Thought Luncheon at Marsh Chapel on February 19, at the Barnes and Noble at BU Bookstore in Kenmore Square on February 25, and at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on February 26. For those who missed her local appearances, the Library of Congress reading and discussion will be televised on C-SPAN 2 on Saturday, March 30, at 11 p.m., and on Sunday, March 31, at 8 p.m.

8 March 2002
Boston University
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