The Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies received an Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment Grant for the project "Language Matters for Wisconsin." Professors Thomas Purnell (Linguistics) and Eric Raimy (English), together with Joe Salmons (Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures), will work with community partners across Wisconsin to hold public forums addressing local and regional language-related issues and concerns.
They are also producing language maps, developing community-linked Web sites and producing a general-interest book exploring languages and dialects across the state. This project builds on the highly successfulWisconsin Englishes Project.