On this episode of Linglab we talk to Caroline Myrick, a Sociology and Sociolinguistics doctoral student at N.C. State, about her work compiling a dictionary on Saban English, a variety of English spoken on the island of Saba. Joining us in the lab is Teddy Johnson, Caroline’s co-writer and a local Saban, who initially started collecting Saban words and expressions over fifteen years ago.
We also talk about how creating local dictionaries challenge dominant prescriptivist ideologies about language and what sort of language varieties are worth documenting. The question at the heart of our discussion: what makes a word valuable? The larger question: what makes a word real?
Story and Reporting by: Caroline Myrick
Written, Edited and Narrated by: Cadwell Turnbull
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