2006-2007 Speakers Bureau Catalog
JOAN HOUSTON HALL
Joan Houston Hall has been on the staff of the Dictionary of American Regional English (known as DARE) since 1975, and became chief editor in 2000. She is president of the American Dialect Society, past president of the Dictionary Society of North America, and a member of editorial advisory boards for the Journal of English Linguistics, VERBATIM-The Language Quarterly, and Oxford University Press.
Address: 6121 Helen White Hall, 600 N. Park Street, Madison, WI 53706
Phone: 608-238-7490 (home), 608-263-2744 (work)
Fax: 608-263-3817
American English Dialects Are Alive and Well!
America has always been a land of many speechways:New Englanders, New Yorkers, and Southerners, for instance, are easily recognized on the basis of their speech. Wisconsinites, too, have characteristic language features. But we often hear today that the media and our love of travel are homogenizing American English. Is that true? Hall will explain that despite the fact that some words (like "submarine sandwich") have become known nationwide through commercialization, thousands of others (such as "hero," "hoagie," "grinder," and "Cuban") retain their regional distinctiveness. Although our dialects are changing all the time, they are not on the verge of extinction. Hall also explains how DARE contributes to such other disciplines as law enforcement, medicine, psychiatry, and theater. As one reviewer has said of DARE, it is scholarly, endlessly fascinating, and enlightening. You can hear America talking from its pages.
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