Dictionary of American Regional English

The Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE or Dictionary) is a record of American English as spoken in the United States, from its beginnings to the present. It differs from other dictionaries in that it does not record the standard language used throughout the country. Instead, it contains regional and folk speech, those words, phrases, and pronunciations that vary from one part of the country to another, or that we learn from our families and friends rather than from our teachers and books. For DARE, a "region" may be as small as a city or part of a city, or as large as most (but not all) of the country.

The Dictionary is based both on face-to-face interviews with 2,777 people carried out in 1,002 communities across the country between 1965 and 1970, and on a large collection of print and (recently) electronic materials, including diaries, letters, novels, histories, biographies, government documents, and newspapers. These sources are cited in individual entries to illustrate how the words have been used from the 17th century through the beginning of the 21st century. Entries may include pronunciations, variant forms, etymologies, and statements about regional and social distributions of words and forms.

The first four volumes of DARE, published by Harvard University’s Belknap Press, cover the letters A-Sk. Frederic G. Cassidy was the editor of Volume I (1985). Joan Houston Hall joined him in Volume II (1991) and Volume III (1996). Dr. Hall is the editor of Volume IV (2002) and Volume V (2012). Volume V, including letters Sl-Z and a full bibliography, is now available through Harvard University Press, online booksellers, and local bookstores. A sixth volume with comprehensive background material (as more fully explained below) will appear in early 2013, with an electronic edition following in the fall of the same year.

DARE records the language of the American people. It is used by teachers, librarians, researchers, physicians, forensic linguists, journalists, historians, and playwrights.

Read more about Dictionary Of American Regional English:  History, Funding, Project Headquarters

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