Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage

The Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, abbreviated DCEU, is a dictionary of Caribbean English, compiled by the University of the West Indies lecturer, Richard Allsopp, and first published by Oxford University Press in 1996. It is deemed a landmark publication, being the first regional dictionary for the Commonwealth Caribbean.^{[n 1]}

Cover page, 1st ed / by OUP, 1996 / via Amazon
Editor	Richard Allsopp
Subject	Caribbean English
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Publication date	1996
Publication place	UK
Media type	Print
Pages	777
ISBN	0198661525

Background

In 1967, the Caribbean Association of Headmasters and Headmistresses, recognising 'the inadecuacy of imported British and American dictionaries,' resolved to 'request the appropriate department of the University of the West Indies to compile a list of lexical items in each territory and to circulate these to schools for the guidance of teachers.'^{[1][n 2]} The request was forwarded to Richard Allsopp, a UWI English lecturer, who by that time 'already had some ten shoe-boxes each of about 1,000 6 × 4 cards and many loose unfiled cuttings, notes and other material' on Guyanan, Eastern Caribbean, Belizean, Jamaican, and Trinidadian English usage.^{[2][n 3]} In order to build a proper regional dictionary from said collection, Allsopp founded the Caribbean Lexicography Project in 1971 at Cave Hill, Barbados, with Ford Foundation funding.^{[3][n 4]} Data collection extended to 1982, with subsequent editing taking a further ten years.^[4] The completed manuscript was submitted to Oxford University Press in 1992, where it underwent a number of revisions over the next three years.^[4]

The DCEU was first published by OUP in early 1996, and reprinted by UWI Press in 2003.^[5]

Contents

The DCEU is a descriptive, rather than historical, dictionary, in that it is 'not a chronicle of [the Caribbean's] linguistic past, but a careful account of what is current.'^[6] Despite this, it is also a prescriptive dictionary, in that it '[omits] the mass of Caribbean basilectal vocabulary and idiom in favour of the mesolectal and acrolectal, and [uses] a hierarchy of formalness in status-labelling the entries throughout.'^[7]

Over 20,000 English and Creole entries form the main body of the dictionary, though it further contains a French and Spanish supplement, and an introductory survey of Caribbean English.^[8]

Reception

Prescriptive aspects of the DCEU have been criticised, with one reviewer noting they serve to 'reinforce a notion that creoles are only suitable for joking, insulting, and cursing,' and another noting that they exclude 'many lexical items which form part of the vibrancy of the Caribbean English lexicon.'^[9] The DCEU 's English phonology, characterisation of Creoles, inclusion of non-aglicised loanwords, and exclusion of non-Commonwealth Caribbean Englishes have been further criticised.^[10]

Legacy

Allsopp deemed the DCEU a 'landmark' publication, comparable to regional dictionaries like Webster's in 1828, Dictionary of Canadian English in 1967, and Australian National Dictionary in 1988.^[11] Reviewers have largely concurred.^{[n 5]}

See also

• Webster's Dictionary – 1828 landmark regional dictionary of American English
• Macquarie Dictionary – 1981 landmark regional dictionary of Australian English