A Table Alphabeticall

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A Table Alphabeticall was the first monolingual dictionary of the English language . It was published in London in 1604 by the school teacher Robert Cawdrey , assisted by his son Thomas .

dictionary

intention

The front page states what Cawdrey intended:

“ A Table Alphabeticall, conteyning and teaching the true writing, and understanding of hard vsuall English wordes, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine, or French. & c. ”

“ An alphabetical list that contains and teaches the true spelling and understanding of difficult common words in English derived from Hebrew , Greek , Latin, or French , etc. ”

“ With the interpretation thereof by plaine English words, gathered for the benefit & help of Ladies, Gentlewomen, or any other vnskilfull persons. ”

"With an explanation in simple English words, collected for the benefit and help of ladies, gentlemen or any other inexperienced person."

“ Whereby they may the more easilie and better understanding many hard English wordes, which they shall heare or read in Scriptures, Sermons, or elswhere, and also be made able to vse the same aptly themselues. ”

"Which will make it easier and better for you to understand many difficult English words that you will hear or read in scriptures, sermons, or elsewhere, and that you can then use appropriately yourself"

In the dedication he also names foreigners as potential users, as well as school children who could understand Latin words better. Cawdrey also had the right to determine the spelling of foreign words .

An innovation: the alphabetical order

In the English-speaking world, for the first time, the words in the concordance to the translation of the Bible by John Wyclif were completely alphabetized. However, the process was still unfamiliar to the users; even Cawdrey made mistakes. In the foreword, he advised his readers to learn the alphabet first in order to benefit from his dictionary. So you have to look for the letter b towards the beginning, n in the middle and t towards the end. You have to do the same with the second letter of a word. As natural as it sounds today, Cawdrey deviated from its predecessors with this innovation. In previous glossaries , all of the words were grouped together on a , but these words were then printed out of order. In Cawdrey's version, the alphabet is 20 letters. J, which is written I, and U, which is written V, are missing. No word begins with K, W, X or Y.

scope

In the previous half century, numerous foreign words had entered the English language. A Table Alphabeticall was rather short with 2521 entries (other sources speak of 2543). By combining two or more entries with a definition (e.g. abbreviat / abbridge ; "abbreviate") or cross-references ( heathen , see Gentile ; "Heide"), the total number of defined words is reduced to 2449. Whether all the words were actually to the then Time was “difficult” is controversial among linguists. Cawdrey also did not always stick to his principle of explaining difficult words with simpler ones (for example, he explained affirme , "affirm", through auouch, acertaine ). The dictionary also contained abbreviations. Words of Greek origin marked with (g) Cawdrey, words of French origin with §. Most of the rest came from Latin. (k) stands for kind of (“a kind of”), for example in barbell, (k) fish . The definitions, however, are usually more carefully worked out than in the Latin-English dictionaries that were customary up to that point.

A Table Alphabeticall quickly became popular and saw four editions, expanded to 3264 entries in the last edition of 1617. As a result, numerous other dictionaries for difficult words ( dictionaries of hard words ) soon appeared .

Web links

literature

  • David Crystal: The Stories of English . Penguin, London 2005, pp. 280-284.