June 1996 newsletter

In this issue of the newsletter we have a contribution in the form of a ‘letter from South Africa’ in which Penny Silva, editor of the forthcoming Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles, reflects on the time she spent in Oxford. Fortunately for us, Penny seems to show some nostalgia for our sober British ways, so we are hopeful of a return visit. Edmund Weiner is planning to visit South Africa in July, when he will be attending a conference of the African Association for Lexicography in Johannesburg, as well as speaking alongside Penny at the launch of the DSAE at the Grahamstown Festival. He also hopes to conduct some seminars for the staff of the Dictionary Unit for South African English. Meanwhile, John Simpson visited Barbados in May, and spoke at the launch of the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage by Richard and Jeannette Allsopp, a project we hope to hear more about in a future newsletter.

We reported on our quotation competition in the last newsletter, but although the deadline has passed and the prize been awarded, we must mention a spectacular late entry from Dr Roland Torkar of Neufahrn in Germany. Alongside earlier examples of abbatess, book, and pillar, he drew our attention to the almost 600-year antedating of column to be found in the Supplement to Bosworth and Toller's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, and in the Toronto Dictionary of Old English. OED's earliest example in the original architectural sense is 1481, from Caxton.

For those of you who have become ‘net-surfers’, OEDNEWS is now available on the Web at www.oup.co.uk/newoed, where you can see all issues in the present series. It is, however, gratifying to see how many readers still wish to receive a printed copy, and we would like to thank all who responded to our mailing-list request. We have had many offers of help and information, and feel immensely encouraged by this ever-growing network of support.