Frederic G. Cassidy

Frederic G. Cassidy (October 10, 1907 – June 14, 2000) was a Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and founder of the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) where is was also the chief editor from 1962 until his death. He was an advocate for the Jamaican language and a pioneer of autonomous orthographies for creole languages.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica on October 10, 1907. His father was Canadian and his mother was Jamaican. In 1918, aged 11, Cassidy moved with his family to Akron, Ohio where he graduated from high school. He enrolled in Ohio University later tranferring to Oberlin College, where he graduated in 1930 and obtained a master's degree in 1932. By 1938, Cassidy had earned his doctoral degree at the University of Michigan, and had married Hélène Lucille Monod, a fellow student.

In 1939, Cassidy accepted a lectureship at the University of Wisconsin, and was made full professor in 1950. His first book, published in 1947, was entitled The Place Names of Dane County, Wisconsin. Cassidy then joined with Albert H. Marckwardt to produce the second edition of the Scribner Handbook of English, which was published in 1954.

In 1951 a Fulbright Research Fellowship gave Cassidy the opportunity to travel to back his native Jamaica to research a Jamaican English and Creole dictionary. He used a tape recorder to document the language and may have been the first person to use the technology in the country. In 1961 he described the language of the people of Jamaica, what he called "folk speech", in a book titled Jamaica Talk. In 1967 he edited the Dictionary of Jamaican English, co-edited with Robert B. LePage, which drew from four centuries of written and oral usage.

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