AN INTERVIEW WITH JOAN HOUSTON Hall, CHIEF EDITOR OF THE DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONAL ENGLISH

In this interview, Joan Houston Hall responds to queries about why it was important to begin the Dictionary of American Regional English, how Frederic Cassidy formed and influenced it, and what characteristics are essential for DARE staff members. She also addresses issues regarding attitudes toward language, questions of taste, derogatory epithets, and what our language tells us about the American people. She describes how new technologies have sped the editorial process in some ways, but have also slowed it dramatically with the wealth of new digital resources. Finally, she describes the anticipated updating of the forthcoming digital edition of DARE and the beginnings of a new round of fieldwork to track changes in American English over the last 50 years.