DARE Needs Your Support The Dictionary of American Regional
English (DARE) is the crown jewel of North American
lexicography. It’s a six-volume dictionary of regionalisms
gathered from across the United States. The sixth and final
volume was published this year, but its work is not yet done.
The dictionary’s staff is hard at work creating a digital
version that will not only make the work more accessible, but
will be the home for future updates and additions. Or would be
except DARE’s work has been threatened by a sudden loss of
funding. The foundation that has long funded the project has
declined to renew the grant, and the University of Wisconsin,
where the dictionary is housed, is itself in severe financial
straits due to cuts in government funding. DARE editor Joan
Houston Hall reports that the staff will be laid off as of July
and that her own position disappears in January. The dictionary
is on life support and reduced to begging for scraps in order to
stay alive long enough to win another grant. If you