Noah webser biography

American lexicographer and journalist, Noah Webster, popularly known for his American Dictionary of the English Language, once stated that “grammar is formed on language, and not language on grammar.” To Webster, grammar and spelling should have living and breathing structures susceptible to changes in the spoken language over time.

Webster spent all his working life trying to inject American culture into spoken English and spelling in the United States.

Historians hold him partly responsible for encouraging the variations we see today between British English and American English spellings.

So the next time you come across words such as “colour”, “humour” and “analyse” in say a BBC article online, just know that had it not been for American lexicographers like Noah Webster we would probably have been spelling those words like that.

What other subjects did Noah Webster have an impact on?