March 23, 2009
The Dictionary of American Regional English
The final volume of The Dictionary of American Regional English is about to be completed.
The dictionary chronicles words and phrases used in distinct regions. Maps show where a submarine sandwich might be called a hero or grinder, or where a potluck — as in a potluck dinner or supper — might be called a pitch-in (Indiana) or a scramble (northern Illinois).
The concept dates to 1889, when the American Dialect Society was formed. But the project did not start in earnest until 1965, when English professor Frederic Cassidy dispatched workers to 1,000 carefully chosen U.S. communities to interview residents and make audio recordings of their speech.
Workers often slept in “word wagons” — vans emblazoned with the UW logo — and even were chased out of a few Southern towns. The field work alone took five years and collected 2.5 million different words and phrases.
Cassidy died in 2000, still looking toward publication of the final volume. His tombstone reads: “On to Z!”
Hall said her all-time favorite word is bobbasheely, used in Gulf Coast states as a noun meaning a good friend or a verb to hang around with a friend. It comes from the language of the Choctaw tribes.
Forensic linguist Roger Shuy said he occasionally referred to the dictionary when he studied the Unabomber’s writings in the 1990s for clues to the writer’s identity. His profile didn’t help catch Ted Kaczynski, but it turned out to be pretty accurate: He guessed the Unabomber had a doctorate, grew up near Chicago and was older than some investigators initially believed.
Hall also was sought for help by reporters who didn’t understand President Bill Clinton’s comment in 1993 that an Air Force official who had criticized him “doesn’t know me from Adam’s off ox.”
Hall said the phrase is used west of the Appalachians in place of the more popular “he doesn’t know me from Adam.” The “off ox” refers to one of the two oxen once used to plow fields.
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Wow. That’s great to learn.
The project had already been underway for quite some time when, x years ago, my own ex- worked on its staff. Frederic Cassidy was still Chief Editor. He was a delight, truly a gentleman and a scholar (to resort to cliche).
A gentleman, a scholar, and a duck–all in a row–walk into a bar….
Bells clang and whistles toot.