WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The American Dictionary of Regional English has finally reached its final word - “zydeco” - as researchers wrap up almost 50 years of work charting the rich variety of American speech.
The dictionary’s official publication date is March 20 but lexicographers and word fans have been celebrating ever since its fifth and final volume emerged earlier this year.
“It truly is America’s dictionary,” Ben Zimmer, a language columnist and lexicographer, told a Washington, D.C. news conference on Thursday.
He said when the final printed volume was delivered to its longtime editor, Joan Houston Hall, at a meeting of fellow dialect scholars: “There were audible gasps in the room.”
The Dictionary of American Regional English’s (DARE) 60,000 entries running from “A” to “zydeco,” a style of Louisiana Cajun music, serve as a comprehensive sample of how American speech changes from region to region. That space between sidewalk and curb? Depending on what part of the United States it is in, it can be called “parking,” “devil’s strip,” “swale,” “parkway” or “tree lawn.”
Hall, who has headed the DARE project since 2000, said she was convinced fears that American English was becoming homogenized through television and mass media were unfounded. “I don’t buy it. Yes, language changes at different rates and at different places,” she said.