Frederic G. Cassidy

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Frederic Gomes Cassidy (October 10, 1907 – June 14, 2000) was a Jamaican-born

creole languages
.

Early life and education

He was born in

doctoral degree at the University of Michigan, and had married Hélène Lucille Monod, a fellow student.[2]

Career

In 1939, Cassidy accepted a lectureship at the University of Wisconsin, and was made full professor in 1950. His first book, published in 1947, was entitled The Place Names of Dane County, Wisconsin. Cassidy then joined with Albert H. Marckwardt to produce the second edition of the Scribner Handbook of English, which was published in 1954.

Cassidy started as Chief Editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English in 1962, and saw Volume I (covering A-C) published by Harvard University Press in 1985. Volume II, in which Joan Houston Hall joined him, covered letters D-H and followed in 1991. They continued their collaboration with Volume III (I-O), published in 1996. Since Cassidy's death, Joan Houston Hall has carried on Cassidy's work as Chief Editor of what has come to be known as the DARE project. Volume IV, covering P-Sk, came out in 2002, and Volume V, covering Sl-Z,was published in 2012. Volume VI, subtitled "Contrastive Maps, Index to Entry Labels, Questionnaire, and Fieldwork Data," was released in 2013. Joining Hall for that volume was Luanne von Schneidemesser who served as Senior Editor. Late that same year, the digital version was launched.

Jamaican and other creole languages

In 1951 a

Jamaican creole dictionary.[3] He used a tape recorder to document the language and may have been the first person to use the technology in the country.[2] In 1961 he described the language of the people of Jamaica, what he called "folk speech",[4] in a book titled Jamaica Talk. In 1967 he edited the Dictionary of Jamaican English, co-edited with Robert B. LePage, which drew from four centuries of written and oral usage.[5]

Orthography for creole languages

Main article: Cassidy/JLU orthography

Cassidy advocated for creole languages to use an orthography, or writing style, that did not rely on European spelling conventions.

The more the creole differs phonemically from the lexicalizing language (English, French, Dutch - whatever), the more it must differ in its orthography. It should be taught and learned in a system of its own ... Paramount should be a phonemically accurate, consistent, autonomous system

— Cassidy (1993)[6]

Cassidy pioneered an orthography, initially proposed in 1961 and known as the Cassidy System, developed specifically for Jamaican that uses a phonemic system that closely reproduces the sound of the language. The Cassidy System was later adopted and modified by the Jamaican Language Unit (JLU) at University of the West Indies,[7] and is now known as the Cassidy/JLU orthography.

In 2012 the Bible Society, in collaboration with JLU, translated the New Testament into Jamaican using the Cassidy orthography, it was published as Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment.[8]

Awards and honours

He was awarded three medals from the Institute of Jamaica; the Centenary Medal in 1979, the Silver Musgrave Medal in 1962 and the Gold Musgrave Medal in 1983.

He has honorary doctorates from the Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of West Indies.[9][10]

References

  1. ^ "Frederic G. Cassidy, Founder of DARE | Dictionary of American Regional English". dare.wisc.edu. Archived from the original on 2019-01-22. Retrieved 2017-05-04.
  2. ^
    ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2017-05-04.
  3. ^ "Frederic G. Cassidy" (PDF). DARE Newsletter. 3 (2/3). Spring–Summer 2000.
  4. ISBN 9781107027473
    .
  5. ISBN 9780199691630
    .
  6. ISBN 9781139462020
    .
  7. ISBN 978-9027255105
    .
  8. ^ Tomlinson, Rhoma (5 February 2012). "Some churches, schools now using Patois Bible". Jamaica Observer. Retrieved 2017-05-04.
  9. ^ "Musgrave Awardees". Institute of Jamaica. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  10. ^ "Interview with Frederic Cassidy with Verma Pollard". Jamaica Journal. 16 (2): 10–19. 1983. Retrieved 4 May 2017.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frederic_G._Cassidy&oldid=1208210727"