Encyclopedia of the Midwest

[Dennis R. Preston]

Dear Colleagues,

I am the editor for the "Language" section of the forthcoming
"Encyclopedia of the Midwest."  This project, organized by a group of
scholars at The Ohio State University, to be published by Indiana
University Press, has now engaged numerous specialists in many areas.
Its most obvious parent is the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.
Luckily, I was able to convince the chief editors that one short
essay on language would hardly do justice to the topic, and you can
see below the areas selected and the authors recruited so far for
this endeavor.
I have, however, now worn out my ability to track down the best
persons suited to several of the categories below (noted as "AUTHOR
BEING SOUGHT"). Some of these items represent extremely important
language groups in the Midwest, and I cannot imagine this project
being completed without these entries.
As you can see, these entries are very short - 1000 or 500 words, and
some may feel that that is not enough space to give a quick
structural description of the language, its impact on surrounding
varieties and their impact on it, and its historical and current
demographic facts - how many speakers, what sorts of public uses
(newspapers, radio, TV) and functions (schooling, religious uses),
and the like.
I appeal to you, however, to try your hand at this; as you can see
below, many of your colleagues have risen to the task, and I consider
it an important contribution from linguists to a more general
audience. We often bemoan our inability to impress nonlinguists with
our science and its findings, but we also often shirk our duties to
provide comprehensible accounts of those very things we have studied.
Please help me complete this venture. Although the Encyclopedia
cannot give you several years to write, a reasonable date can be
negotiated, and the Encyclopedia staff will provide you with
technical and editorial assistance as you develop your entry. The
geographical area covered is South of the US-Canadian border, West of
the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, North of the Ohio River, and Kansas,
Nebraska, and the Dakotas to the West. (We all recognize the
arbitrariness of this division; and I assure you that many of the
language entries focus not only on the diversity within this region
but also on the similarity between varieties in this region with
others outside it.) For more information about the general plan of
the Encyclopedia, please visit its website at www.allmidwest.org.
Please let me know by e-mail (preston at msu.edu) if you are willing to
tackle one of the entries still marked AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT below  (or
if, in fact, a language area which has been ignored in this list
should be added). I can only threaten you that, if you do not
identify yourself and take on this small but important  task, I may
have to write the entry myself, and it will be difficult for me to
accept criticism later.

Dennis R. Preston

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE MIDWEST
CONTENTS:  LANGUAGE

Overview (3000): Dennis R. Preston

Varieties of English:
The Pronunciation of English in the Midwest (2000): Charles Boberg

The Dialect Vocabulary of the Midwest (2000): Luanne von Schneidemesser

The Dialect Grammar of the Midwest (2000): Timothy Frazer

Language and Society in the Midwest: English and Gender, Social
Class, Profession,
Ethnicity, and the Rural/Urban Division (2000): Michael Linn

African American Language in the Midwest:  The Structure of the
Language (1000): Walter Edwards

African American Language in the Midwest:  Ways of Talking (1000):
Geneva Smitherman

Midwestern Tales: Language Practices and Norms in English
Storytelling of the Midwest (2000): Barbara Johnstone

Slang, Metaphor, and Turns of Phrase in Midwestern English (2000):
Thomas Murray

The Personal, Geographical, and Institutional Names of the Midwest
(2000): Edward Callary

Native American Languages:
The History and Current Status of Native American Languages of the
Midwest (2000): John Nichols

Other Languages:
Bilingualism and Language Contact in the Midwest (2000): Donald Lance

European
Finno-Ugric:
Finnish (and other Finno-Ugric languages of the area, e.g., Estonian)
(500): Pekka Hirvonen
Hungarian (500): Miklos Kontra

Slavic:
East Slavic Languages  (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
South Slavic Languages (500): Brian Joseph
Polish (and other West Slavic languages) (1000): Bartek Plichta

Romance:
French (500): Roger Shuy
Italian (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
Mexican Spanish (1000): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
Puerto Rican Spanish and Other Caribbean Varieties (e.g., Cuban,
Dominican): Michelle Ramos-Pellicia
Other Varieties of Spanish (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
Other Romance languages (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
Greek (500): Panayiotis Pappas

Germanic:
Dutch (500): Jaap Van Marle
Immigrant German  (1000): Joseph Salmons
Religious Immigrant German (1000): Steven Hartman Keiser
Yiddish (500): Neil Jacobs
Norwegian (1000): Armstein Hjelde
Swedish (500): Staffan Klintborg
Danish (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT

African, Middle Eastern, Asian, and Pacifica
Horn of Africa (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
Sub-Saharan Africa (500): Deogratias Ngonyani
Pidgin and Creole Varieties (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
Arabic (1000): Aleya Rouchdy
Armenian (500): John Greppin
Farsi (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
Chinese (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
Japanese (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
Korean (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
Southeast Asia (500): Martha Ratliff
South Asia (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
Turkik and Central Asia (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT
Pacifica (500): AUTHOR BEING SOUGHT

Romany (500): William Duna
American Sign Language (500): Charles Gramly and Christine Evenson
--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office - (517) 353-0740
Fax - (517) 432-2736