Glossary for Hall Transcripts
Note to the Reader: The entries in this section document words and phrases highlighted in the transcripts from Joseph Hall's recordings. Each includes a definition, cross-references to historical dictionaries (using the abbreviations below), and further dated quotations are keyed to a chronological list of sources.
In the etymologies, Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) refers to the period of the English language lasting until A.D. 1100; Middle English refers to the period from 1100-1500.
The Midland speech region was based originally on patterns of settlement in the 18th century, especially by Germans and the Scotch-Irish. It consists of most of Pennsylvania and a fan-shaped territory to the south and southwest. Tne North Midland encompasses Pennsylvania, much of West Virginia, western Maryland, and so forth. The South Midland (or Upper South) region consists of Central and Southern Appalachia and surrounding parts of Kentucky, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
For further information and quotations on all terms, see Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English, ed. by Michael B. Montgomery and Joseph S. Hall (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2004) or the forthcoming Dictionary of Smoky Mountain and Southern Appalachian English, ed. by Michael B. Montgomery and Jennifer N. Heinmiller (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press).
Abbreviations used in Glossary Entries:
CUD = Concise Ulster Dictionary, ed. by C. I. Macafee, 1996. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
DARE = Dictionary of American Regional English, ed. by Frederic G. Cassidy and Joan Houston Hall, 1985-2013. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
EDD = English Dialect Dictionary, ed. by Joseph S. Wright. 1898-1905. Oxford: Henry Frowde.
HT = The Hamely Tongue, ed. by James Fenton, 2010. Belfast: Ullans Press.
OED = Oxford English Dictionary, ed. by James A. H. Murray et al. 1888-1928. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
SND = Scottish National Dictionary, ed. by William Grant and David Murison, 1931-1976. Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] [FULL LIST]
blue-back speller/spelling book
let the latch down in one’s barn