2min chapter

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Webster, Worcester and the Dictionary Wars, Part 1

Stuff You Missed in History Class

CHAPTER

Worcester's Dictionary of the English Language

Worcester put out his own comprehensive pronouncing and explanatory dictionary of the English language in 1830. He also included what came to be known as the compromise vowel, a sound in words like fast and dance that was between the way A is pronounced in cat or hat and the way it's pronounced in father. In 1834, Webster accused Worcester of plagiarism, claiming that Worcester had used material from his abridgment of Webster's dictionary in his own work. This was the start of the dictionary wars that we're going to talk about in part two,. But we'll go ahead and note that Webster directed various people to come through Worcester's work, looking for evidence against him, but they

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