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PUBLIC LIBRARY
152723

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
1899

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849 by

THOMAS BALDWIN,

in the clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

B. M. DUSENBERY, STEREOTYPER.

C. SHERMAN, PRINTER.

Geor

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE EIGHTH EDITION.

THE extraordinary and increasing favour with which the Universal Pronouncing Gazetteer has been received, has induced the authors to prepare, at great labour and expense, a NEW EDITION, intended to supply what has been felt by all, as a serious defect in the former editions of the work; namely, its want of fulness with respect to the number of names. When the first edition of the Gazetteer was prepared, it was absolutely impossible for the authors to obtain any reliable information respecting a multitude of foreign names, of which, therefore, if they gave any pronunciation at all, they must give one based on the most vague and uncertain conjecture. They were reduced to the alternative of choosing between the defect of incompleteness and that of inaccuracy. There was of course no room for hesitation. They believed that to ascertain and fix the pronunciation of a few hundred difficult names would be a greater service to the cause of education, than to give the pronunciation of ten times the number at random, or upon mere conjecture. They were sensible, moreover, that without accuracy they could not hope to inspire that confidence which is so essential to the permanent reputation and success of a work of this kind.

In the four years which have elapsed since the first publication of the work, many new sources of information have been opened, not to mention the assistance which greater experience, and the habit of investigating everything which could throw any light upon the subject of geographical orthoepy, must necessarily confer. Availing themselves of these new facilities, the authors have at length under

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ADVERTISEMENT TO THE EIGHTH EDITION.

taken to remedy, as far as possible, the unavoidable deficiences occur. ring in the former editions of the Gazetteer.

A SUPPLEMENT has been added, giving the pronunciation of from 1500 to 2000 additional names. For the convenience of reference, all the difficult names contained in the Gazetteer, and those now added for the first, are given together in the Supplement, each in its alphabetical place. Hence, as a mere pronouncing vocabulary, the Supplement will be found to be complete in itself.

It should be observed that the Appendix has been added chiefly for the purpose of giving the small towns, &c., of the United States. The pronunciation of the names, in this portion of the work, has rarely been given, partly because the larger number of them can readily be pronounced by any one who knows how to read, and partly on account of the insuperable difficulties inherent in the task itself. (See Preface to the Supplement, p. 649-50.) It has been the aim of the authors to concentrate, in the Appendix, a large amount of information, into the smallest possible compass. By the employment of small-sized type and a few additional abbreviations, they have generally been able to condense the notice of the smaller places into a single line so that; without greatly increasing the size of the work, there has been a most important and extensive addition to its matter.

If the inquirer seeks the pronunciation of any difficult name, let him look for it in the Supplement, where it will be found if it occurs in the book at all. If he is desirous of obtaining any other information respecting the town, river, &c., and should not find a brief notice in the Supplement, he must refer to the body of the work-unless the name has an asterisk prefixed, in which case he will find it in the Appendix.

The attention of teachers is particularly invited to the Table at the end of the Introduction, exhibiting the diversity which prevails in the mode of writing geographical names;—also to the List of geographical names most frequently mispronounced, at the end of the Supplement.

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