Mailing Address:
Special Collections
College of Charleston Library
66 George Street
Charleston, SC 29424

Phone:
(843) 953-8016

Title: Raymond K. O'Cain Papers

Collection #: 0036

Dates: 1964-1980

Size:

14 boxes (7 linear ft.)
1 sound cassette.
52 sound tape reels.

Biographical Note: College professor and linguist. O'Cain was born in South Carolina in 1943 and graduated from the College of Charleston in 1965. He received a masters degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and was a professor of English at the University of South Carolina. O'Cain was the assistant editor of the "Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States" (Raven I. McDavid was the editor-in-chief).

Scope and Content Note: Papers consist of O'Cain's correspondence, notes, lectures and other writings, articles, printed material, photographs, clippings, linguistic maps, and sound recordings. Papers relate primarily to Raymond O'Cain and his research in linguistics.

Correspondence consists mainly of letters, postcards, and telegrams to O'Cain from other scholars. Correspondents include Raven I. McDavid, Jr., Karl J. Weintraub, A.J. Van Windekens, and S. Greenbaum.

O'Cain's writings include numerous notes, lectures, drafts and reprints of scholarly articles, bibliographies, and a dissertation (1972) entitled "A Social Dialect Survey of Charleston, South Carolina." Many of the notes pertain to various South Carolina informants who were the subjects of O'Cain's research on language and dialects.

Printed materials include issues of various scholarly journals and linguistic maps (oversized, many for the "Linguistic Atlas"). The collection also contains photocopies of articles on linguistics by various authors.

Materials relating to O'Cain's colleague Raven I. McDavid, Jr. include McDavid's notes, articles, and drafts and reprints of articles, printed materials, and biographical information.

Sound recordings are of O'Cain's interviews with informants and a conversation between O'Cain and other scholars at the University of Chicago.

Subject Headings:

McDavid, Raven Ioor.
O'Cain, Raymond K.
Weintraub, Karl Joachim, 1924-
Windekens, A. J. van (Albert J.)
English language -- Dialects -- South Carolina -- Charleston.
English language -- Dialects -- Southern States.
English language -- Maps.
Linguistics -- Research -- South Carolina.
Linguists -- United States.
South Carolina -- History -- 1865-

Inventory:

Box/Folder
Correspondence 1964-69
1/1
Correspondence 1970-74
1/2
Correspondence 1975
1/3
Correspondence 1976-78
1/4
Correspondence 1979-80
2/1
Correspondence No dates
2/2
Unpublished Ms., possibly dissertation fragment-Raymond O’Cain
2/3
Notes Transcriptions of taped interviews (for dissertation)
2/4
Notes Transcriptions of taped interviews (for dissertation)
3/1-4
Notes Transcriptions of taped interviews (for dissertation)
4/1
Notes Transcriptions of taped interviews (for dissertation)
4/2
Notes Transcriptions of taped interviews (for dissertation)
4/3
Notes Transcriptions of taped interviews (for dissertation)
5/1
Published, classpapers, dissertation fragments
5/2
Articles-Raymond O’Cain
1. Linguistic Atlas of New England
2. “Dictionaries Consult Me”
3. White Dialects in Charleston, South Carolina
4. Changing Standards of Pronunciation in South Carolina
5. Charleston, S.C.: Changing Standards
6. Pathology vs. Dialectology: A Review of the Lincolnland Conferences on Dialectology
7. Romance Language Contact with Swiss German
8. Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Geography
9. TheFallibility of Intuition
10. Southern Standards Revisited
11. Linguistic Change an Urbanized City
12. “Existential” There and It and Essay on method and interpretation of data
13. Black and English in New England
Articles-Raymond O’Cain
5/3
Diachronic View of Charleston Speech
Social Dialect Survey of Charleston, S.C.
5/4
Bibliographies—(Some also on index cards for dissertation)
6/1
Name Research
6/2
Class Notes
6/3
Lectures
6/4
Qualifying Exams-M.A. & Doctorate
7/1
Tenure & Promotion Committee Minutes & Correspondence
7/2
Linguistic Committee Memos 
7/3
Linguistic Committee Meeting Minutes
7/4
Linguistic Committee Reports
7/5
M.L.A. Seminar
7/6
12th International Congress of Linguistics
7/7
Grant Proposal to Establish American Linguistic
Historical Archives
7/8
Hans Kurath-Colleague
7/9
Raven I. McDavid, Jr.-Colleague
8/1
Raven I. McDavid, Jr.-Colleague
8/2
Raven I. McDavid, Jr.-Colleague
8/3
Miscellaneous articles and publications 
(Various authors)
9/1
(Various authors)
9/2
(Various authors)
9/3
(Various authors)
9/4
(Various authors)
10/1
(Various authors)
10/2
(Various authors)
10/3
Papers written (Various Authors)
Segmental Length in Southern States English: An Instrumental Phonetic Investigation of a Standard Dialect in South Carolina. Charles-James N. Bailey
11/1
Non-Verbal Communication. Starky Duncan, Jr.
11/2
A Beginner’s Manual For writing Transformational Grammars. Andres Koutsoundas
11/3
Transformational Outline of Marshallese Syntax.
Charles-James N. Bailey
11/4
Urdu Script
11/5
A Physiological Theory of Phonetics. Gordon Peterson & June Shoop
11/6
Segmental Length in Southern States English: An Instrumental Phonetic Investigation of a Standard Dialect in South Carolina.
Charles-James N. Bailey
11/7
Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States
12/1
Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States
12/2
Linguistic Atlas of the U.S. and Canada
12/3
Linguistic Atlas of the Upper Midwest
12/4
Linguistic Atlas of the New England
12/5
Linguistic Atlas of the North Central States
12/6
Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States
13/1
Dictionary of American Regional English
13/2
R. O’Cain con’t.
Panel Discussion-Peter Dembowski, Moderator
13/3
Panel Discussion-Development of Standard English: British and American
13/4
Panel Discussion-John Algeo, Presiding
13/5
Panel Discussion-“Non-standard variation in White Speech”
13/6
Panel Discussion-“Black-White Speech Relationships”
13/7
Panel Discussion-Language and Subcultures
13/8
Panel Discussion-Univ. of Chicago, Multi-Lingualism; Past and Present
13/9
Panel Discussion-Language, Linguistics and the Teaching of Writing
13/10
Folklore of Good Pronunciation
14/1
Linguistic Proposal for Lee County Schools
14/2
Some Notes on Maryland & Baltimore
14/3
Linguistics at the University of South Carolina
14/4
Photographs
14/5
Newspapers & Magazine Clippings
14/6
Miscellaneous
14/7
Miscellaneous
14/8
Tapes (need releases from interviews)
Maps (need releases from interviews)
Uncataloged box- notebook is restricted