Two books by Stefan Dollinger centered on the theme of pluricentricity (national perspectives on language variation) appeared in late 2019. The first, Creating Canadian English: the Professor, the Mountaineer, and a National Variety of English (Cambridge University Press, 2019) is lexicographic-historical in focus, as it details the development, implementation, and “invention” of Canadian English from the 1940s to the present. It is an archival study of long-forgotten linguists that may still be known in the lexicographical field: Walter S. Avis, Charles J. Lovell, and other members of the “Big Six”. Geared towards the general interest reader, the book is a mixed-genre account of the making of Canadian English. Frontmatter & Chapter 1: https://www.academia.edu/35184221/. The second book, The Pluricentricity Debate: On Austrian German and Other Germanic Standard Varieties (Routledge, 2019) is focused on Austrian German, which is presented in contrastive perspective with other Germanic varieties – Flemish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Luxembourgish and, above all, English. This book critiques current practices in German dialectology, including lexicography, from epistemological, methodological, and practical perspectives. When can we say that a dialect is a national variety? What biases might names of languages carry? This book offers clear answers for the language practitioner, including any lexicographer aiming to write a dictionary of variety X. Frontmatter & Chapter 1: https://www.academia.edu/37714477/.
Erin McKean reports that Wordnik will be celebrating its undecennary this year with updates to the site and some in-person events. For more information, email Erin (erin@wordnik.com) or follow Wordnik at @wordnik on Twitter.
Jo-Anne Ferreira won a competition to name a star and exoplanet. In the article she pays a huge compliment to Lise Winer when she says:
“I entered the competition because I love our language and our languages and Caribbean linguistics. I made sure to check Lise Winer’s dictionary for the etymologies and meanings. Everyone should have one at their desk.”
https://sta.uwi.edu/news/releases/release.asp?id=22029
N. B. the following title by Linda C. Mitchell, “Travel Discourse in Eighteenth-Century British Dictionaries: Language of Discovery, Exploration, and Settlement,” in The Language of Discovery, Exploration and Settlement. Edited by Nicholas Brownlees. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2020. Linda is a professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA linda.mitchell@sjsu.edu