Language and Vernacular Culture: Why Folklorists Should Read the <em>Dictionary of American Regional English</em>

Abstract

It took fifty years to conceptualize and complete the unsurpassed Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE). Renowned philologist Frederic G. Cassidy (1907–2000) served as chief editor, and Joan Houston Hall was associate editor for the first three volumes (I [A–C], 903 pages, 1985; II [D–H], 1175 pages, 1991; III [I–O], 927 pages, 1996); after the death of the untiring Cassidy at the age of ninety-three, Hall naturally became chief editor of the final two volumes (IV [P–Sk], 1014 pages, 2002; V [Sl–Z], 1244 pages, 2012). Now that this magnum opus of 5263 pages (each printed in two columns) is finished, its five massive volumes represent a unique compendium of the amazingly rich treasure trove of American regional English. Most volumes in the series appeared about every six years, though the last and largest took about ten years to produce. As Hall explains, this was primarily due to the fact that she and her co-workers decided to make extensive use of electronic sources for historical references of individual words, word pairs, and entire phrases. Be that as it may, the publishing process spanned nearly thirty years; during this slow gestation, DARE became a classic in the lexicographical registration of American regional English. The study of the American language is simply unthinkable without this unique and invaluable resource, and scholars and students