{"id":55555,"date":"2020-01-20T12:27:17","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T17:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=55555"},"modified":"2024-06-04T14:21:50","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T18:21:50","slug":"genealogy-101-using-the-dictionary-of-american-regional-english-for-genealogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/genealogy-101-using-the-dictionary-of-american-regional-english-for-genealogy.html","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy 101: Using the Dictionary of American Regional English for Genealogy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article \u2013 part of an ongoing \u201cIntroduction to Genealogy\u201d series \u2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega describes a helpful resource for genealogists, the \u201cDictionary of American Regional English,\u201d and how it can help with your family history research. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I LOVE dictionaries. As a genealogist, how could you not? Dictionaries are not just a resource that you use so that you can spell a specific word or look up a definition. Dictionaries exist for all kinds of subjects \u2013 and are good for general learning, as well as specific spelling or definition questions.<\/p>\n

I use my food dictionaries when I write about historical recipes. I take a look at one of my slang dictionaries when I want to understand how a word was used by a previous generation. One of my friends owns a dictionary printed in 1920 that he used to look up an ancestral occupation. This was vital to his understanding of that occupation, since the word for that occupation has lost its work-related meaning over time and today is a word that has a distinctly negative connotation.<\/p>\n

My love for dictionaries is probably why I was so excited to find the website for DARE. The Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) \u201cis a multi-volume reference work that documents words, phrases, and pronunciations that vary from one place to another place across the United States.\u201d (1) The dictionary is \u201cbased on face-to-face interviews carried out in all 50 states between 1965 and 1970 and on a comprehensive collection of written materials (diaries, letters, novels, histories, biographies, newspapers, government documents, etc.) that cover our history from the colonial period to the present.\u201d (2)<\/p>\n

In a 1965 newspaper article from the Charleston News and Courier<\/em>, it is explained that the Charleston area was picked for this project \u201con the basis of their settlement history and\/or geographical distribution.\u201d A student working on the project in the Charleston area explained that \u201cGeorgetown and Beaufort, like Charleston, have essentially stable populations and therefore, distinct dialects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Charleston News and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), 19 July 1966, page 11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 1960s project involved 1,000 interviews being conducted by graduate students who would go into a community that was representative of that region or state. Frederic G. Cassidy, English professor at the University of Wisconsin, explained the importance of recording regional dialects by providing the example of a young boy who fishes using worms as bait.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Wisconsin boy on his way to the fishing hole will stop to dig angleworms. A Rhode Island boy using the same bait will say he\u2019s fishing with easworms. In upstate New York they\u2019re night crawlers, and in western Connecticut, angledogs. They\u2019re all the same worms \u2013 but Americans in different parts of the United States have different names for fish bait, just as they do for frying pans, rainstorms and 1,000 other things.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"An<\/a>
Milwaukee Journal (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), 5 January 1967, page 25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DARE Surveys<\/strong><\/p>\n

The surveys the students used to better understand U.S. regionalisms asked respondents to use words that described items, events, or actions. Categories for these words included:<\/p>\n