Chapter published in:
Sociocultural Dimensions of Lexis and Text in the History of English
Edited by Peter Petré, Hubert Cuyckens and Frauke D'hoedt
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 343] 2018
► pp. 183–200

Chapter 8
Common to the North of England and to New England

British English regionalisms in John Russell Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms

This paper examines the British English dialect material behind the compilation of John Russell Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms. It focuses on evidence furnished by six historical dialect glossaries and dictionaries quoted by Bartlett, which include John Ray’s A collection of English words not generally used (1674, 1691) and James O. Halliwell’s Dictionary of archaic and provincial words (1847). My aim is to determine the function of these works in Bartlett’s dictionary, exploring their lexicographical treatment and their geographic labels, so as to ascertain whether the transatlantic link specified between varieties of American and British English relied on any of them in particular. I also examine the four editions of Bartlett’s dictionary and study the impact of the policy concerning the admission of Americanisms on the material found in British English regional sources.
Keywords: Dictionary of Americanisms , British English dialects, Americanisms, dialect lexicography, Late Modern English
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.John Russell Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms
    • 2.1General aims and sources
    • 2.2Americanisms
  • 3.British English regionalisms in the Dictionary of Americanisms
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 04 July 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.343.08rua
References

Primary sources

Anderson, Robert
1808 Ballads in the Cumberland dialect. Wigton: R. Hetherton.Google Scholar
Anonymous
1839 John Noakes & Mary Styles; or, “An Essex calf’s” visit to tiptree races: A poem. London: John Russell Smith.Google Scholar
Bartlett, John R.
1848 Dictionary of Americanisms: A glossary of words and phrases usually regarded as peculiar to the United States. New York: Bartlett & Welford.Google Scholar
1859 Dictionary of Americanisms: A glossary of words and phrases usually regarded as peculiar to the United States, 2nd edn. Greatly improved and enlarged. Boston: Little, Brown & Company.Google Scholar
1860 Dictionary of Americanisms: A glossary of words and phrases usually regarded as peculiar to the United States, 3rd edn. Greatly improved and enlarged. Boston: Little, Brown & Company.Google Scholar
1877 Dictionary of Americanisms: A glossary of words and phrases usually regarded as peculiar to the United States, 4th edn. Boston: Little, Brown & Company.Google Scholar
Boucher, Jonathan
1832 Boucher’s glossary of archaic and provincial words: A supplement to the dictionaries of the English language, particularly those of Dr. Johnson and Dr. Webster … Edited jointly by the Rev. Joseph Hunter and Joseph Stevenson. London: Black, Young & Young.Google Scholar
Brockett, John T.
1825 A glossary of North Country words, in use: From an original manuscript in the library of John George Lambton, Esq., M.P. with considerable additions. Newcastle upon Tyne: Printed by T. & J. Hodgson, for E. Charney.Google Scholar
1829 A glossary of North country words, in use; with their etymology, and affinity to other languages; and occasional notices of local customs and popular superstitions. Newcastle upon Tyne: Emerson Charnley.Google Scholar
Carr, William
1828 The dialect of Craven, in the West-Riding of the county of York, with a copious glossary, illustrated by authorities from ancient English and Scottish writers, and exemplified by two familiar dialogues, 2 vols. London: Printed for WM. Crofts.Google Scholar
Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan H. Hall
(eds.) 1985–2013 Dictionary of American regional English. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Clapin, Sylva
1902 A new dictionary of Americanisms; being a glossary of words supposed to be peculiar to the United States and the dominion of Canada. New York: L. Weiss & Co.Google Scholar
Dunglison, Robley
1931 [1829–1830] Americanisms from Virginia literary museum and journal of belles lettres, arts &c. In Mitford M. Mathews (ed.), The beginnings of American English: Texts and essays, 99–112. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Forby, Robert
1830 The vocabulary of East Anglia; an attempt to record the vulgar tongue of the twin sister counties Norfolk and Suffolk, as it existed in the last twenty years of the eighteenth century, and still exists, 2 vols. London: Printed by and for J.B. Nichols & Son.Google Scholar
Grose, Francis
1787 A provincial glossary: With a collection of local proverbs, and popular superstitions. London: Printed for S. Hooper.Google Scholar
Halliwell, James O.
1847 A dictionary of archaic and provincial words. London: John Russell Smith.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Richard Winter
1841 Nugae literariae: Prose and verse. London: Hamilton, Adams & Co.Google Scholar
Hartshorne, Charles Henry
1841 Salopia Antiqua, or an enquiry from personal survey into the druidical, military, and other early remains in Shropshire and the North Welsh borders. London: J. W. Parker.Google Scholar
Holloway, William
1838 A general dictionary of provincialisms, written with a view to rescue from oblivion the fast fading relics of by-gone days. Lewes: Sussex Press.Google Scholar
Humphreys, David
1815 The Yankey in England, a drama in five acts. [Boston, MA]: [s.n.]Google Scholar
Pickering, John
1816 A vocabulary, or collection of words and phrases which have been supposed to be peculiar to the United States of America. To which is prefixed an essay on the present state of the English Language in the United States. Boston: Cummings & Hilliard.Google Scholar
Ray, John
1674 A collection of English words not generally used. London: H. Bruges.Google Scholar
1691 A collection of English words not generally used. London: Christopher Wilkinson.Google Scholar
Todd, Henry John
(ed.) 1818 A dictionary of the English language, by Samuel Johnson. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown.Google Scholar
Twain, Mark
1872 Roughing it. Hartford: American Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Webster, Noah
N.d. An American dictionary of the English language, 2 vols. New York: S. Converse.
Willan, Robert
1814 A list of ancient words at present used in the mountainous district of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Archaeologia 17. 138–167.Google Scholar

Secondary sources

Algeo, John
2001 External history. In John Algeo (ed.), The Cambridge history of the English language, vol. 6: English in North America, 1–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Anonymous
1848 Critical notices: Dictionary of Americanisms: A glossary of words and phrases, usually regarded as peculiar to the United States, by John Russell Bartlett. The American Whig Review 8(3). 326–328.Google Scholar
1849 Review of Dictionary of Americanisms: A glossary of words and phrases, usually regarded as peculiar to the United States, by John Russell Bartlett. The North American Review 69(144). 94–110.Google Scholar
1897 Review of the English dialect dictionary, part 2, December 1896. The Nation 11 March. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. lang. c. 13: 12–13.Google Scholar
Bailey, Richard
2009 National and regional dictionaries of English. In Anthony P. Cowie (ed.), The Oxford history of English lexicography, vol. 1: General-purpose dictionaries, 279–390. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan H. Hall
2001 Americanisms. In John Algeo (ed.), The Cambridge history of the English language, vol. 6: English in North America, 184–218. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Crowell, Michael G.
1967 Richard Grant White and Americanisms. American Speech 42(2). 122–130. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1972 John Russell Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms. American Quarterly 24(2). 228–242. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, Michael & Michael Montgomery
2011 About all: Studies in nineteenth-century American English. American Speech 86(3). 340–354. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, John Hurt
2001 British and American, continuity and divergence. In John Algeo (ed.), The Cambridge history of the English language, vol. 6: English in North America, 59–85. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, William C.
1850 American dialects. In The English language in its elements and forms.With a history of its origin and development. Designed for use in colleges and schools. 91–94. New York: Harper & Brothers.Google Scholar
Krapp, George P.
1925 The English language in America, vol. 1. New York: The Century Company.Google Scholar
Lowell, James R.
1859 Reviews and literary notices. The Atlantic Monthly 4(25). 638–645.Google Scholar
Mencken, Henry L.
1937 The American language: An inquiry into the development of English in the United States. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Mueller, Jerry E.
(ed.) 2006 Autobiography of John Russell Bartlett (1805–1886). Providence, RI: The John Carter Brown Library.Google Scholar
Ruano-García, Javier, María F. García-Bermejo Giner & Pilar Sánchez-García
2015 “Provincial in England but in common use with us”: John R. Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms and the English dialect dictionary . In Marina Dossena (ed.), Transatlantic perspectives on Late Modern English, 99–116. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
White, Richard G.
1878 Americanisms. The Atlantic Monthly 41(246). 495–502.Google Scholar