Date:  Thu, 14 Mar 1996 08:04:27 -0500

From:  "Dennis R. Preston" <preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PILOT.MSU.EDU>

Subject: Re: English Dialect Information Exchange



See how things are screwed up?



The 'American' Dialect Society discusses dialects of the 'Americas' (not

exclusively US, not even exclusively English -- see the 'mission statement'

of the society).



The proposed discussion list will discuss dialacts found within the

'British Isles.' The following clarification does not answer whether or not

this will be limited to



    a) dialects of the English language within the British Isles (not

at all limited to 'English English,' by the way, as speakers of Irish

English should be quick to note, although, I assume this would include

'substratally' influenced varieties from other languages or varieties of

English such as Pakistani English English, West Indian Scottish English,

etc...)



or will include



    b) Dialects of any language within the British Isles.



We should have taken Mencken's suggestion.



In spite of continuing ambiguity, I suspect the majority of contributions

will deal with 'British Isles English'; an excellent idea. I will certainly

tune in.



Congratulations.



Dennis











>> another ambiguity that puzzles me:

>>

>> is the english dialect information exchange for the exchanging of

>> info about dialects of english or dialects of england (i.e., english

>> english)?

>

>Sorry if the message was a little unclear. The forum is supposed to

>be a mailing list much like this one, but one which addresses the

>dialects which are to be found withhin the British Isles. Of course

>anyone is welcomed to subscribe, just like there are people of

>several nationalities subscribed to this one. It would be

>interesting to discover thwt perhaps a word which was thought to be

>exclusive to England is used across the waters too. I just thought it

>would be nice to allow the people of England the opportunity to

>discuss

>our native dialects, like this list allows the people in America.

>

>Hope to get lots of subscribers to get this baby off the ground!

>

>Charlotte

>

>##########################################################

>Charlotte Thomas EGP95CMT[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]Sheffield.ac.uk

>CECTAL

>Dept. of English Language and Linguistics

>University of Sheffield

>Sheffield

>S10 2TN

>UK

>

>"Why does anyone believe he ought to speak better than he

>can, and so in the end speak far worse than he might?"

>(P.Wright, 1974)



Dennis R. Preston

Department of Linguistics and Languages

Michigan State University

East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA

preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pilot.msu.edu

Office: (517)432-1235

Fax: (517)432-2736