Category: Linguistic History

The Rise and Fall of Shorthand in Victorian-Era America

.Reading time 8 minutes.

Shorthand experienced its heyday in the years immediately following the Civil War.  As the end of the 19th century approached, many reporters began to swear off its usefulness, saying that shorthand’s time had passed, and that it was no longer worth the significant effort required to learn it.  By the early 1890’s, the century’s practice […]

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If Ancestors Could Talk: Their History Captured in Our Words.

.Reading time 10 minutes.

This weekend, I’ll venture outside the borders of New England and write some words about, well . . . words.  History resides everywhere – in the fieldstone foundations of our cellars, in the names we carry, and in the genes and traits we pass from generation to generation.  History also resides in the very words […]

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If Ancestors Could Talk: The Words of Nineteenth-Century New England

.Reading time 7 minutes.

Eastern Massachusetts has its own way of saying things. Whether you’re drinking a tonic, or slurping a frappe, or quenching your thirst with water from a bubbler, you know you’re near Boston when the letter “r” starts migrating within sentences (think ‘supah idear’).  To linguists, New England breaks into two dialect regions:  Eastern New England […]

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