My First Clip: Ha!
I was doing a New Year’s cleaning of my computer files when I ran across my very first clip: a review of a text on dialectology for the journal Language, which I wrote while a grad student in Slavic Linguistics at UC Berkeley. In my first query letter sometime later, I mentioned that I had a clip from Language, but didn’t include it in the query package. (Can you imagine why?) That first query (which I unfortunately can’t find) landed me an assignment with EEO Bimonthly magazine for $500. [lf]
Speaking in our Tongues: Medieval Dialectology and Related Disciplines. Ed. by Margaret Laing and Keith Williamson. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1994. Pp xi, 231.
This volume contains edited versions of the papers and transcriptions of the discussions which took place at the Colloquium on Medieval Dialectology and Related Disciplines held at the University of Edinburgh, April 10 – 12, 1992, hosted by the Institute for Historical Dialectology, School of Scottish studies. This conference examined the place of medieval dialectology not only within the fields of dialectology and medieval history, but also within the broader, non-linguistic framework of medieval studies. More particularly, the two major themes of the Colloquium were ‘problems and concerns common to the investigation of different medieval vernaculars’ and ‘how the study of language variation might be more fully integrated with the divers related disciplines which contribute to define its historical, cultural and social context’ (Introduction).
This interdisciplinary approach to medieval dialectology is reflected in the range of paper topics presented at the Colloquium, from the expected investigation of medieval vernaculars to such interrelated disciplines as palaeography, medieval literature and local history. The breadth of interests represented is rivalled by the range of the contributors’ languages of expertise: English, Dutch, French, Latin, Scots, and the Scandinavian and Celtic languages.
The papers are arranged in four panels. Panel I, ‘Taxonomy and Typology in Medieval Dialect Studies’ (17-66), is represented by Hans F. Nielsen’s ‘On the Origin and Spread of Initial Voiced Fricatives and the Phonemic Split of Fricatives in English and Dutch’ and Pieter van Reenen’s ‘The Study of Medieval Language in the Low Countries: the Good, the Bad and the Future.’ ‘Panel I Revisited’ (169-187) contains Michael Benskin’s ‘Descriptions of Dialect and Areal Distributions.’ The papers presented in Panel II, ‘Manuscript Studies and Literary Geography’ (67-116), are ‘Middle English Texts and their Transmission, 1350 – 1500: some Geographical Criteria’ by Richard Beadle; ‘A Palaeographer’s View’ by A. I. Doyle; and Jeremy J. Smith’s ‘A Philologist’s View.’ Under the heading of Panel III, ‘Languages in Contact’ (133-168), appear contributions by Angus McIntosh, ‘Codes and Cultures’; William Gillies, ‘The Celtic Languages: some Current and some Neglected Questions’; and Helmut Gneuss, ‘Language Contact in Early Medieval England: Latin and Old English.’ Panel IV, ‘Word Geography’ (195-231) contains Terry Hoad’s ‘Word Geography: Previous Approaches and Achievements’; Robert E. Lewis’ ‘Sources and Techniques for the Study of Middle English Word Geography’; and Gillian Fellows-Jensen’s ‘Place-names and Word Geography: some Words of Warning.’ Also included is the keynote address on ‘Historical Dialectology and Literary Text Traditions’ by Anthonij Dees.
The volume also assesses the current state of medieval dialectology and prepares the discipline for the future, with contributors offering new perspectives, calling for new research methods and discussing future outlooks for the field. For instance, in his paper ‘The Study of Medieval Language in the Low Countries: the Good, the Bad and the Future’ (31-49), Pieter van Reenen argues for a redefinition of how research in the field is conducted and for the appropriate utilization of auxiliary sciences, especially computer science and statistics, to handle large quantities of data. Michael Benskin’s ‘Descriptions of Dialect and Areal Distribution’ (169-187) also calls for the utilization of statistical methods, arguing for their employment in the comparison of areal distributions of linguistic forms. In ‘Sources and Techniques for the Study of Middle English Word Geography’ (205-214), Robert E. Lewis assesses the data collections now available for word geography, including machine-readable Middle English texts. And Hans Friede Nielsen offers a new perspective ‘On the Origin and Spread of Initial Voiced Fricatives and the Phonemic Split of Fricatives in English and Dutch’ (19-30).
Although the focus of this book is on medieval dialectology, it can serve as an example for contemporary dialectology and other fields as well.
Speaking in our Tongues: Medieval Dialectology and Related Disciplines is a well edited volume that successfully brings together representatives of the divers disciplines included in the Colloquium, and serves as a jumping off point for future interdisciplinary collaboration on the study of medieval dialectology. [Linda Formichelli, University of California Berkeley.]
Well Linda, thanks for sharing your first clip. I can see why you didn’t include it in your first query package. Very technical. lol My first clip was on Absolute Write – a spoof poem to make writers laugh. I made a copy of the check. lol I was so excited about it that I shared the news with everyone I knew. I was now a paid and published writer. It’s a very exciting time in a writer’s life when he or she is published for the first time.
Thanks for sharing it. I think I’ll share my first clip too. 
Heiddi, I wish I had thought to make a copy of my first check! I wasn’t paid for the Language piece, but I was paid for what I consider my first “real” clip.