"Encourage the study of any aspect of all languages and dialects used or found in North America (including associated islands) and in the Caribbean Basin, and the languages that influence them."[3]
Since its foundation, dialectologists in English-speaking North America have affiliated themselves with the American Dialect Society, an association which in its first constitution defined its objective as "the investigation of the spoken English of the United States and Canada".[3] Over the years, its objective has remained essentially the same, only expanded to encompass "the English language in North America, together with other languages or dialects of other languages influencing it or influenced by it".[5]
The Society is perhaps best known publicly for its annual Word of the Year vote, which has been held since 1991 and is the oldest English-language word-of-the-year selection not tied to commercial interests.[6] The vote takes place each January at the Society's annual meeting, which is held in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America.[3]
History
The organization was founded as part of an effort to create a comprehensive American dialect dictionary, a near century-long undertaking that culminated in the publication of the Dictionary of American Regional English.[4] In 1889, when Joseph Wright began editing the English Dialect Dictionary, a group of American philologists founded the American Dialect Society with the ultimate purpose of producing a similar work for the United States.
Members of the Society began to collect material, much of which was published in the Society's journal Dialect Notes (1889-1939), but little was done toward compiling a dictionary recording nationwide usage until Frederic G. Cassidy was appointed Chief Editor in 1963.[7] Cassidy trained teams of fieldworkers and equipped them with a carefully worded questionnaire containing 1,847 questions grouped in 41 broad categories.[8] From 1965 to 1970, fieldworkers conducted interviews with natives of 1,002 representative communities across all fifty states, collecting approximately 2.5 million items of data.[8]
The first volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English, covering the letters A-C, was published in 1985.[4] The final volume appeared in 2012, with a sixth supplementary volume published in 2013.[8]
The other major project of the Society is the Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada.[5] Initiated in the 1930s under the direction of Hans Kurath, the Linguistic Atlas Project remains one of the most comprehensive studies of American English dialects ever undertaken.
Publications
American Speech
The Society's primary publication is American Speech, a quarterly academic journal founded in 1925 at the instigation of H. L. Mencken and Professor Louise Pound, the first woman to serve as president of the Modern Language Association.[9] The journal is concerned with all aspects of the English language in North America, as well as other languages that influence or are influenced by it. American Speech is published by Duke University Press and is not committed to any particular theoretical framework.[10]
Regular features include a book review section, a "Miscellany" section devoted to brief essays and notes, and "Among the New Words," a column introduced in 1941 by Dwight Bolinger that documents recent neologisms.[9]
Publication of the American Dialect Society (PADS)
The Society also produces the Publication of the American Dialect Society (PADS), an annual hardcover monograph series that serves as a supplement to American Speech.[9] PADS volumes feature in-depth studies on various aspects of American English dialects and linguistic variation.
Membership
The Society has never had more than a few hundred active members, with membership listed at 253.[1] With so few scholars advancing the enterprise, the developments in the field came slowly.[5] Members of the organization include "linguists, lexicographers, etymologists, grammarians, historians, researchers, writers, authors, editors, professors, university students, and independent scholars."[11]
Membership benefits include a subscription to American Speech, one volume of PADS each year, access to the online archives of both publications, and participation in the Society's annual conference and Word of the Year vote.[9]
The Society's activities include a mailing list,[12] which deals chiefly with American English but also carries some discussion of other issues of linguistic interest.[13]
Since 1991, the American Dialect Society has designated one or more words or terms to be the word of the year.[6] The tradition was initiated by Allan Metcalf, executive secretary of the ADS, who organized the first vote in January 1991 for the word of 1990.[6]The New York Times stated that the American Dialect Society "probably started" the "word-of-the-year ritual".[14] However, the "Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache" (GfdS) has announced a word of the year since 1977.
The ADS Word of the Year is notable as the oldest English-language word-of-the-year selection and the only one determined by a public vote of independent linguists rather than commercial interests.[6] The vote takes place at the Society's annual meeting each January, with participants including both ADS members and interested attendees. Words are selected based on being demonstrably new or newly popular in the year in question and widely or prominently used.
The society also selects words in other categories that vary from year to year, such as "most original", "most unnecessary", "most outrageous", or "most likely to succeed" (see: Word of the year).
"Defined as 'to undertake without usual protection, preparation, or comfort,'" a generalization of the earlier meaning, 'to have sex without a condom'."[57]
↑Hall, Joan Houston (2004). "The Dictionary of American Regional English". In Finegan, Edward; Rickford, John (eds.). Language in the USA: Perspectives for the 21st Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.94–95.
123"History of DARE". Dictionary of American Regional English. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
↑Horn, Laurence (January 29, 2003). "Re: Canadians in ADS". ADS-L. listserv.linguistlist.org. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
↑"1995 Words of the Year". Americandialect.org. American Dialect Society. January 13, 1996. Archived from the original on June 15, 2006. Retrieved February 21, 2008.
↑"1996 Words of the Year". Americandialect.org. American Dialect Society. January 13, 1997. Archived from the original on June 15, 2006. Retrieved February 21, 2008.
↑"1997 Words of the Year". Americandialect.org. American Dialect Society. January 13, 1998. Archived from the original on June 15, 2006. Retrieved February 21, 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
