Dictionary of American Regional English. Vol. IV: P-Sk (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Dictionary of American Regional English. Vol. IV: P-Sk T.K. Pratt Joan Houston Hall , chief ed. Dictionary of American Regional English. Vol. IV: P-Sk. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 2002. Pp. xx + 1014. US$89.95 (hardcover). This volume is the second-last of a projected five for the magnificent DARE; the preceding volumes have also been reviewed in the Canadian Journal of Linguistics by the present writer (Pratt 1986, 1994, 1998). To take a fresh look at this dictionary's continuing strengths and minor weaknesses, I concentrate this time on a single illustrative entry, skid road, chosen for its well-known Canadian connections. The first skid road was "Yesler('s) Way", built in Seattle in 1852 for the purpose of dragging logs down to the port by skidding them on the top of other logs laid crossways. [End Page 127] The earliest date in DARE for the term itself is 1880, which pre-dates by nine years the first citation for the same term in Avis et al., A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles (1967, hereafter DCHP). That a dictionary of Canadianisms and one of (regional) Americanisms can claim the same word is unremarkable, given their respective selection criteria. For DARE, a regional Americanism is, chiefly, "[a]ny word or phrase whose form or meaning is not used generally throughout the United States but only in part (or parts) of it" (vol. I, p. xvi) , while for DCHP a Canadianism is either native to Canada or "distinctively characteristic of Canadian usage though not necessarily exclusive to Canada" (p. xiii). But we might question how this non-native entry in DCHP is distinctively Canadian when its American counterpart boasts twelve sources for the primary meaning alone, including Atlantic Monthly, American Speech, the U.S. Forestry Service, a western folklore collection, two DARE fieldwork recordings, and what looks like a novel.1 Both Scargill (1977) and Parkin (1989) identify skid road as a British Columbia expression, with no hint of American usage other than the Seattle origin of the invention itself, while the Gage Canadian Dictionary (1997) calls the item "Cdn. Lumbering". Similarly, DARE's extensive citations for two other popular west-coast words—saltchuck 'sea water' and skookum 'strong'—contradict claims of distinctive Canadian-ness by DCHP, Gage, Orkin (1971), and McConnell (1979).2 Of course, none of these authors could know what has now been made available in DARE.3 My point is simply that anyone wishing to describe the vocabulary of Canadian English must consult DARE.4 At the same time, the trust engendered by this dictionary's carefully presented evidence carries assurance that such words as parkade, pogey, poutine, Red River cart, safety touch, screech, and separate school can still be labeled "Canadian", since they are not found in DARE. Skid road has a second and better-known meaning: 'disreputable area of town'. Such a district would initially have sprung up around the end of a literal skid road, to help loggers part with their earnings in hotels, bars, and brothels. Later the term was applied to any such district in any town or city. Both DARE and DCHP cover this second meaning also, but, curiously, both cite the same first source, Log of the 'Columbia' (1906), listed in the latter's bibliography as an "[i]rregular" periodical from Rock Bay, B.C.5 DARE can be faulted here, since a Canadian source is not evidence of American usage. A larger problem, albeit still a minor one in the context of the whole work, is that, far more often than it does, [End Page 128] DARE should be directing the reader to parallel evidence in other dictionaries. Without such direction one is led to infer that all the linguistic wonders on display are wholly and solely American. At some entries, to be sure—skookum is one—DCHP is noted. But it should be noted also at an entry like skid road, where the overlap is great (with the added benefit in this case of correcting the mistaken source). Another such example is the delightful entry ride and tie, describing a system whereby two people can travel cheaply using a single horse, each...