DARE to host conference on language

The Dictionary of American Regional English, a project of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, will hold a mini-conference to celebrate the publication of its fifth volume.

Guest speakers will include Simon Winchester, author of “The Professor and the Madman,” “The Meaning of Everything,” “Krakatoa” and “The Man Who Loved China,” among many other books; Michael Adams, a professor at Indiana University, lexicographer and editor of “American Speech;” and Erin McKean, founder of the electronic dictionary “Wordnik” and a language columnist for the Boston Globe.

The conference will be on Thursday, May 3, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St. It is free and open to the public.

The conference is being funded by the Lectures Committee and the Anonymous Fund. Co-sponsors include the Departments of English, Linguistics and Communication Arts; the School of Journalism and Mass Communications; the School of Library and Information Studies; the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures; the Max Kade Institute; and the Applied Linguistics Student Association.