A half-century’s work to collect local quirks of American language – from alamagoozlum to zydeco – is in jeopardy

A 50-year odyssey to chart the dialects of America – from the toad-stranglers (very heavy rains) of Indianapolis to rantum scooting (going on an outing with no definite destination) in Nantucket – is due to come to an end this summer when funding for the Dictionary of American Regional English runs out.

A last-ditch attempt to save a project begun in 1962 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been launched by Anna Lewis, a librarian at the university who has set up a Gofundme page to raise $25,000 (£16,000) for the dictionary. But even if Lewis’s total is reached – at the moment donations only just top $6,000 – it will be a long way from the $525,000 that makes up the dictionary’s annual budget. And without significant new funding, said chief editor Joan Houston Hall, the dictionary’s staff of five will disband “almost entirely” after 30 June this year.

“Our financial crisis is not that funding has been retracted, but rather that, in this economic climate, we have simply not been able to find ongoing support,” said Hall. “The goal of the campaign was originally $10,000, but after there was initial enthusiasm, we raised it to $25,000. That, of course, would not solve our problems, but it would fill some small gaps.”

The Dictionary of American Regional English (Dare) first began interviewing people in more than 1,000 communities across the US in 1965, with the information gleaned from a 1,600-question survey. This was used to create a 60,000-word dictionary which was completed – with a final volume ending with the word “zydeco” – in 2012. More.

See: The Guardian

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