MOE, or mo, adj. An obsolete term still employed in the Scotch dialect, and by them pronounced mae, denoting a greater number, and nearly synonymous with more; but it differs in this respect, that in the Scotch dialect, mae and mair (English more) are each employed in their distinct sphere, without encroaching upon one another, mae being employed to denote number, but never quantity or quality, and mair to denote quantity and quality, but never number; thus they say mae, not mair, apples, men, &c. and mair, not mae, cloth, earth, courage, &c. See MAIR. Both these terms are supplied by the word more, which in the English language is applied indiscriminately to denote quantity, quality, and number. See MORE.
As the English language is so exceedingly irregular in the pronunciation, the same letter in the same situation often assuming sounds totally different in different words, it is impossible to establish any general rules on this subject which do not admit of many exceptions; therefore a
Dictionary. dictionary is the best means of ascertaining and pointing out the proper pronunciations of words. For, if the writer first pointed out all the different sounds which the same letter could ever be made to express, and assigned to every particular sound which each letter could be made to assume, a particular mark, appropriated to denote that particular sound of the letter whenever it occurred, by placing these particular marks above the letters in the dictionary, the sound of each letter would be pointed out in all cases with the utmost certainty. It is impossible to illustrate this by examples, without first ascertaining all the sounds of each letter, which would lead into a discussion too long for this place.
We shall only further observe, that besides having the accented syllable of every word properly distinguished in a dictionary to assist in the pronunciation, the English language requires another essential improvement, namely, the use of accents to distinguish the meaning of words and phrases, which, although it is not so properly confined to a lexicographer, yet it is not quite without his sphere. Thus, the word as admits of two very different sounds, as well as different significations; for example, "Cicero was nearly as eloquent as Demosthenes;" in which the first as is pronounced ass, and the last is pronounced az. Now it often happens that, in reading, the particular way in which it ought to be understood is not pointed out by the context till after the word itself is pronounced, which has an equal chance at least of being pronounced wrong; whereas, if it were always accented when employed in the one sense, and not in the other, it would free the reader from this perplexity. There are other cases in which the proper use of accents in writing would be of great consequence; as at the beginning of a sentence when it is put as a question, or used ironically. But this does not so properly belong to the lexicographer as the grammarian.
The above examples, we hope, will be sufficient to give the reader some idea of the plan which we would propose, and will enable him to determine whether or not a dictionary, executed in this way, would convey to his mind a more perfect knowledge of the English language than those dictionaries which have hitherto been published. These examples are given rather with a view to show the manner in which a work of this kind may be conducted, than as perfect and unexceptionable explanations of the several articles there enumerated; and therefore we have not thought it necessary to produce any authorities, although we are sensible that they would be requisite in such a work.
The following is a list of the principal dictionaries in the various ancient and modern languages:—
Aegyptian.—Sharpe (Lond. 1837); Birch (Lond. 1838); J. F. R. Champollion (Paris 1841); Tattam (Lond.)
Ethiopian.—Wemmers (Rome 1638); Ludolf (Frankf. 1699).
Afghan.—Dorn (St Petersburg 1845).
Albanian.—Blanchus (Rome 1635); Kaballioti (Venice 1770); Xylander (Frankf. 1835).
Amharic.—Ludolf (Frankf. 1698); Bruce (Lond. 1805); C. W. Isenberg (Lond. 1841).
Anglo-Saxon.—Somner (Oxon. 1659); Benson (Oxon. 1701); Lye (Lond. 1772); Bosworth (Lond. 1838).
Angola.—De Cannechtim (Lisb. 1804).
Arabic.—Gleharrius (Scutari 1802); Richardson and Johnson (Lond. 1829); Baretti (Calc. 1806); Freytag (Halae 1837); Cladyrgy (Milan 1832); De Biberstein Kazimirski (Paris 1846).
Vulgar Arabic.—Germanus de Sillesia (Rome 1639); Caffes (Madrid 1787).
Aramaic.—Buxtorf fil. (Basil 1648).
Armenian.—Aucber (Venice 1817); translated into English by Brand (Venice 1825).
Bengalee.—Forster (Calc. 1802); W. Carey (Seramp. 1826); J. C. Marshman (Seramp. 1827); Ch. Haughton (Lond. 1833); Ram Comul Sen (Lond. 1835).
Bisayan.—Anonymous (Bayonne 1706); De Larrimandi (St Sebastian 1745).
Bohemian.—Tomša (Prag. 1791); Jungman (Praze 1839).
Burman.—Hough (Seramp. 1825); Judson (Calc. 1825).
Chaldee.—Elias Levita (Col. Agr. 1599); Buxtorf (Argentum 1639); Landau (Prag. 1820).
Chinese.—Morrison (Macao 1823); Medhurst (Batav. 1842); Biot (Paris 1842); Callery (Macao 1845).
Cinghalese.—Cough (Colombo 1830); Callaway (Colombo 1821).
Cochín Chinese.—De Rhodes (Rome 1651); Taberd (Serampore 1838); De Ponceau (Philad. 1838).
Coptic.—Kircher (Rom. 1644); Lacroze (Oxon. 1775); Parthey (Berlin 1844).
Danish.—Anonymous (Leipzig 1844).
Dutch.—Hexham & Manley (Rotterd. 1675); Werninck (Lond.)
English.—Phillips (Lond. 1678); Bailey (Lond. 1764); Johnson (Lond. 1755); Sheridan (Lond. 1789); Ash (Lond. 1795); Booth (Lond. 1835); Webster (Lond. 1842); Richardson (Lond. 1836).
Esquimaux.—Egede (Hafn. 1750); Fabricius (Copen. 1804).
Finnish.—Renvall (Aboe 1826).
French.—Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française; Boyer; Cham-baud; Fleming and Tibbins; Spiers; Tarver.
Gaelic.—Macfarlane (Lond. 1816); Armstrong (Lond. 1825); Highland Society (Edin. 1828); M'Leod and Dewar (Glasgow 1831); M'Alpine (Edin. 1845).
Georgian.—Kisproth (Paris 1827).
German.—Bailey (Jena 1823); Hillpert (Karlsr. 1839); Flügel (Leipzig 1838); Grieb (Lond. 1847).
Gothic.—Lye (Lond. 1772); Ulfilas (Leipzig 1843).
Greek.—Hesychius (Lug. Bat. 1746); Saisas; Hederich; Passow; Pape; Danbar; Liddell and Scott.
Hawaii.—Andrews (Cahinaluna 1836).
Hebrew.—Buxtorf (Basil 1735); Cocceius by Schulz (Leip. 1777-95); Gesenius (Leip. 1846), Edited by Tregelles (Lond. 1846); Parkhurst (Lond. 1823); Robinson (Boston 1844); Lee (Lond. 1840); Fürst (Leip. 1842).
Hindee.—Rousseau (Lond. 1812); Adam (Calc. 1833).
Hindustanee.—Roberts (Lond. 1800); Taylor (Calc. 1808); Gilchrist by Roebuck (Lond. 1825); Shakespeare (Lond. 1834).
Irish.—Maccurtin (Paris 1732); Shaw (Lond. 1780); O'Reilly (Dublin 1822); O'Brien (Dublin 1832).
Icelandic.—Haldorsonius (Copen. 1814).
Italian.—Venerani; De la Crusca; Baretti; Graglia; Meadows.
Japanese.—Medhurst (Batav. 1830); De Sibold (Lugd. Bat. 1835); Medhurst (Lond.)
Latin.—Forcellini and Faciolati; Schiller (Leip. 1805); Freund (Berlin 1845); Georges (Leip. 1843); Riddle (Lond. 1851); Andrews (Lond. 1852).
Lettish.—Steuder (Riga 1791).
Malay.—Anonymous (Amster. 1802); Arnheim 1803).
New Holland.—Meyer (Adelaide 1843); Schürmann (Adelaide 1844).
New Zealand.—Kendal (Lond. 1820).
Norwegian.—Hallager (Copen. 1802); Hansson (Copen. 1840).
Oordoo.—Thompson (Lond. 1842).
Persian.—Richardson and Johnson (Lond. 1820); Burhani Katl (Calc. 1818); Rousseau (Lond. 1802); Baretti (Calc. 1806); Cladyrgy (Milan 1802); Samachacharius by Wetstein (Leip. 1845).
Polish.—Schmidt (Breslau 1834); Troyanski (Berlin 1838); Czarniecki (Krotoshin 1843).
Portuguese.—Vieyra, ed. by Canda (Lond. 1840); Wagener (Leip. 1812).
Provençal.—Raynouard (Paris 1843).
Rabbinic.—Buxtorf (Basil 1735); Otho (Altona 1757); Hornhelm (Halle 1807); Landau (Prag. 1819-24).
Russian.—Schmidt (Breslau 1836); Reiff (St Petersburg 1836); Constantinen (Lond.)
Samaritan.—Castelli; Cellarius (Frankf. 1705); Otho (Frankf. 1735); Uhlemann (Leipzig 1837).
Sanscrit.—Wilson (Calc. 1832); Yates (Calc. 1820); Haughton (Lond. 1833); Johnson (Lond.)
Scotch.—Brown (Edin. 1845); Jamieson (Edin. 1846).
Swedish.—Granberg (Orebro 1832).
Semitic.—Hottinger (Frankf. 1661); Castelli (Lond. 1669); Otho (Frankf. 1702).
Spanish.—Real Academia Española (Madrid 1844); Neumann and Baretti (Lond. 1823); Meadows (Lond. 1843).
Syriac.—Schaaf and Leusden (Lugd. Bat. 1717); Castelli by Michaelis (Göttingen 1788); Kirschius (Lipsiae 1835-41); Rodiger (Hal. Sax. 1838).
Tamil.—Rottler (Lond.)
Telugu.—Campbell (Madras 1821); Morris (Madras 1835).
Tibetan.—Schroeter by Carey (Serampore 1826); Crona de Körös (Calc. 1834); Schmidt (St Petersburg 1841).
Dictynna Turkish.—Ciadyrgy (Milan 1834); Kieffer (Paris 1837); De Haubler (Moscow 1842).
Diderot. Welsh.—Owen (Lond. 1803); Lewis (Caermerthen 1805); Roberts (Lond. 1827); Peghe (Lond. 1832); Richards (Lond. 1839); Jones (Lond. 1840); Walter (Lond.).
See J. S. Vater's Litteratur der Grammatiken, Lexica und Wörtersammlungen aller Sprachen der Erde; zweite ausgabe von B. Jülg. Berlin 1847.