Dictionary of Old English: 2005 Progress Report
In both the editorial and technological aspects of the project, 2005 has been a year of significant productivity. In February, the project issued a new release of the Dictionary of Old English Corpus, distributed for us on the Web by the University of Michigan Press. This release incorporates the most recent scholarly editions of the various versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. In preparation for the publication in 2006 of G (now near completion), we began to develop DOEonline, the Web-based Dictionary, a step which parallels our distribution of the Corpus on the Web. Development of this new tool has advanced to such a degree that Web access will not have to wait for the publication of H, as we initially projected. G will, therefore, be published in three formats: on the Web, on CD-ROM, and (eventually) on microfiche. Meanwhile, the drafting of entries for H, I/Y and L is progressing well.
Without question, one of the highlights of the year was a talk given in May at the Smithsonian by Antonette diPaolo Healey as part of the "Great Schools Forum" to which the University of Toronto was invited. Her talk was mainly a discussion of four F-words ('fear', 'friend', 'freedom' and 'finger'). Despite other competing talks that evening, the lecture on Old English words sold out, suggesting how deeply engaged the general public is with questions about the origins of their own language. We were especially pleased that four representatives of the National Endowment for the Humanities, one of our granting agencies, attended the talk. In connection with this event we produced a mini-CD-ROM, A Gateway to Old English (for distribution at the Smithsonian only), publicizing the research of the project to the broader public. It offers a selection of subject areas such as a basic narrative of the Anglo-Saxon period, medical texts, an audio reading by Andy Orchard from Beowulf, and an Old English riddle to be solved. A separate section explains some of the aspects of the work of the DOE, including a sample entry of the noun gamen. The CD was designed by one of our editors, Dorothy Haines, with technical production by our systems analyst, Xin Xiang. We are immensely grateful to our English colleagues, Leslie Webster and Michelle Brown, who were invaluable in helping us obtain the images of artifacts from the British Museum and manuscript pages from the British Library reproduced on the CD-ROM.
Technological Advances
Funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation for the Text Analysis Portal for Research (TAPoR) has allowed us to progress with the development of DOEonline, a tool which will allow more sophisticated searches within a field and Boolean searches across fields within an entry. For example, DOEonline will allow users to discover all words of single occurrence which appear in texts of the twelfth century and later, or explore the notion of repentance in the texts of Wulfstan or the notion of guilt in the laws. These are just a few of the productive searches that DOEonline will enable. Another advance of the past year is the hotlinking of the Latin short titles to their bibliographic references, a feature parallel to the hotlinking of the Old English short titles to their references already in place. A long-term goal of the project has been the linking of the DOE to the Oxford English Dictionary. We are at present in the early stages of developing this link and expect it will be available for the publication of G on the Web. A preview of this link is functional at our "Word of the Week" feature on the DOE website. We continue, as always, with our strategy to preserve and maintain our data and to ensure that our files adhere to the latest standards. We urge users of the DOE: A to F on CD-ROM to contact us and suggest improvements for the future. Please send comments to support@doe.utoronto.ca.
Grants and Gifts
This year, as ever, we have searched for funds to ensure the completion of the Dictionary. We are happy to report that, in the course of the year, we were awarded a five-year grant (with matching requirement) by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Our on-site assessors included Murray McGillivray (Chair, University of Calgary), Mary Blockley (University of Texas at Austin), Stephen Harris (UMass at Amherst) as well as representatives from SSHRC. We also received a most welcome one-year grant from the British Academy. Gifts from the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists and from colleagues and friends, including an anonymous gift of 317 shares of BCE Inc. have been invaluable to us in supporting our research. Finally, we were delighted and honoured when Bruce Mitchell (University of Oxford) offered to donate to the project his unparalleled collection of books, papers and research materials on Old English syntax. This resource will greatly enhance our library, and will, of course, be accessible to the scholars and students from around the world who make use of our collection for their research. A list of gifts to the project in the past year is appended.
Dissemination and Outreach
Our staff continues to represent the project at conferences and talks. In May, Antonette diPaolo Healey attended the 40th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University. She also attended the annual board meeting of the Richard Rawlinson Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies and Manuscript Research. In August, she and Dorothy Haines gave talks at the biennial meeting of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists in Munich. In September, Antonette diPaolo Healey spoke about the project to the Toronto Heliconian Club, the oldest professional club for women in the city. In December, she attended the meeting of the MLA in Washington, where she gave a report on the project to the Old English Executive committee.
Staff
- EDITOR: Antonette diPaolo Healey
- REVISING EDITOR: Joan Holland
- DRAFTING EDITORS: Dorothy Haines
- David McDougall
- Ian McDougall
- EDITORIAL STAFF: Catherine Monahan Picone
- Xin Xiang (Systems Analyst)
- Elaine Quanz
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE:
- Roberta Frank: Yale University
- Helmut Gneuss: University of Munich
- Simon Keynes: University of Cambridge
- Andy Orchard: University of Toronto
- Fred C. Robinson: Yale University
- Eric Stanley: Pembroke College, Oxford
RESEARCH ASSISTANTS:
- Emira Bouhafna
- Rob Getz
- Rachel Kessler
- Patrick McBrine
- Connell Monette
- Hilary Wynne
STUDENT ASSISTANTS:
- Lauren Greenwood
- Ma'ayan Anafi (Mentorship Student)
- Andrew Campara (Mentorship Student)
- EDITOR, Toronto Old English Series: Andy Orchard
- EDITOR, Publications of the Dictionary of Old
- English: Andy Orchard
Funding
- The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (formerly the Canada Council): Grants in Aid of Research, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975; Major Editorial Grants, 1976‑81, 1981-86, 1986-91, 1991-96; Grants from the Federal Matching Funds Policy, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991; Special Presidential Grant, 1993; Consortium Support Programme 1996-98, 1998‑2000, 2000-2003, 2003-2005, 2005-
- The British Academy
- Canada Foundation for Innovation (for TAPoR [Text Analysis Portal for Research]), 2002-
- Connaught Fund, University of Toronto, 1986‑1991
- Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, 1998-99, 1999-2000, 2000-2001, 2002-2003, 2004-2005
- Early English Text Society
- Marc Fitch Fund
- Foundation for Education and Social Development, Boston
- Jackman Foundation
- Macdonald-Stewart Foundation
- McLean Foundation, 1992, 1995, 1998, 2000
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 1985-90, 1994‑99, 2000-2005
- National Endowment for the Humanities, Research Tools Program, 1991-93, 1993-95, 1995-98, 1998-2000, 2000-2002, 2002-2004, 2004-
- Presidents' Committee, University of Toronto
- Salamander Foundation, 1998-2001, 2001-2004, 2004-
- Salus Mundi Foundation, 2002, 2004
- University of Toronto
- Xerox Corporation University Grants Committee
Friends of the Dictionary of Old English
We wish to acknowledge the very generous contributions the project has received during the past year. Donors who supported our research in honour of or in memory of individuals are also noted separately at the end of the list. All of us on the project are grateful to each one of you. We were delighted to receive an anonymous donation of 317 shares of BCE Inc. which came into the project in October. We would like to mention also the generous donation of $1,103 US from the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists. The strong support of the most important scholarly organization in our field has been invaluable to us. We are also very grateful to all those scholars who have kindly donated books to the DOE library, especially Bruce Mitchell who has given to the project his invaluable collection of books, pamphlets, and offprints on Old English syntax. Such contributions of publications, both old and new, enable us to maintain our research collection. We hope to have included all who have so generously supported our work, but must apologize to any of our donors inadvertently left off this list of acknowledgements. This list encompasses gifts given between December 15, 2004 and December 15, 2005.
Supporters
- Helen G. Balfour
- Wendy Cameron
- Wendy Cecil
- Howell Chickering
- Antonette diPaolo Healey
- †Dorothy Hertig
- E.D. & M.P. Hirsch
- International Society of Anglo-Saxonists
- Sue & Harry Jupp
- Allison Kingsmill
- Peter & Ruth Kingsmill
- James McIlwain
- Bruce Mitchell
- Linda Munk
- Hiroshi Ogawa
- Gordon Pratt
- A.G. & Jennifer Rigg
- Carol Rykert
- Anonymous (3)
Donors
- Karen Barrett
- Frank Battaglia
- Graham Bradshaw
- Jim Bradway
- Leger Brosnahan
- Alan K. Brown
- Estate of Sharon Butler
- James P. Carley
- Ruth Harvey
- Douglas Herron
- F.R. Higgins
- Joan Holland
- Ann Hutchison
- Gregory Jember
- Carol Kingsmill
- William Kretzschmar
- Charles Ludlum
- Philip & Mary Maude
- Henri & Penny Mestrallet
- Haruko Momma
- †Bill & Lucille Owen
- Carol E. Percy
- James Russell Perkin
- Richard W. Pfaff
- Pfizer Foundation
- Catherine Monahan Picone
- Elaine Quanz
- Paul & Fiona Remley
- Alan Schwartz
- Charles R. Smith
- Helen Smith
- E.G. Stanley
- William Whallon
- V.G. Wright
- Anonymous (1)
- IN MEMORY OF ST. CLAIR BALFOUR
- Helen G. Balfour
- IN MEMORY OF ANGUS CAMERON
- Wendy Cameron
- Allison Kingsmill
- Philip & Mary Maude
- †Bill & Lucille Owen
- A.G. & Jennifer Rigg
- Anonymous (1)
- IN MEMORY OF COLIN CHASE
- A.G. & Jennifer Rigg
- IN MEMORY OF ROWLAND COLLINS
- James P. Carley
- Howell Chickering
- Ann Hutchison
- IN MEMORY OF EDWARD B. IRVING
- Howell Chickering
- IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM GAULT KINGSMILL
- Karen Barrett
- Douglas Herron
- Sue & Harry Jupp
- Allison Kingsmill
- Carol Kingsmill
- Peter & Ruth Kingsmill
- Henri, Penny, Andrew, Hugo Mestrallet
- Pfizer Foundation
- Carol Rykert
- Alan Schwartz
- V.G. Wright
- Anonymous (1)
- IN MEMORY OF F.P. MAGOUN
- Leger Brosnahan
- IN HONOUR OF BRUCE MITCHELL
- Joan Holland
- IN MEMORY OF BILL OWEN
- Wendy Cameron
- Antonette diPaolo Healey
- IN MEMORY OF JOHN C. POPE
- Howell Chickering
- E.D. & M.P. Hirsch
- IN HONOUR OF FRED C. ROBINSON
- Howell Chickering
- IN HONOUR OF ANDY SILBER
- Ruth Harvey
- IN HONOUR OF E.G. STANLEY
- Haruko Momma
- Anonymous (1)
- IN MEMORY OF DELFORD SWARTZENTRUBER
- Elaine Quanz
- IN MEMORY OF RAYMOND P. TRIPP, JR.
- Gregory Jember
- Helen Smith
- IN MEMORY OF NANCY JO NOONAN VIRSIS
- Paul & Fiona Remley
