American Spelling Book

Noah Webster's book is fascinating reading for today's students and teachers alike, as well as for the average citizen, as there is much to learn from it. While it may be inappropriate to resurrect it as an official school text, it certainly has a place in every school library. One of the most notable features is the comprehensive phonetic system used, with diacritical marks (accents) applied to all relevant vowels and consonants; words are divided according to syllables and stress. It also spells the names of letters of the alphabet; something which tends to be ignored in modern teaching. The terminology of traditional grammar is used, and there are copious word lists, with words grouped according to common factors. I have no hesitation in recommending this book to all students of the English language for the above reasons and for many other interesting aspects (now-archaisms:thy/thou...; foreign words and phrases; abbreviations explained; punctuation; etc). This book should remain a spelling classic.