This Is Great Stuff

Anyone know where I can find an online style guide that covers southern dialect? I've spent way too much time searching for one. Ah, but I've uncovered so many riches irrelevant to that particular quest! Who cares if the dialect in the novel I'm editing isn't just exactly so? I'm having a great time bookmarking all these cool language sites I've found! I know, I know—"cool" isn't the first word most people think of when it comes to language. But get this:

In its 17th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted “plutoed” as the word of the year, in a run-off against "climate canary." To pluto is to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened to the former planet Pluto when...[it] no longer met [the] definition of a planet.

Now, I knew about Pluto being demoted and all, but how I missed the verb "to pluto" is beyond me. I love it. Yes! It deserved the award. Here are some other contenders for word of the year:

* murse: man’s purse (yuck)
* climate canary: "an organism or species whose poor health or declining numbers hint at a larger environmental catastrophe on the horizon"
* flog: a blog that flacks product (thumbs up on this one, down on the flog itself)
* YouTube: as a verb, to use the YouTube web site or to have a video of one’s self be posted on the site (eh; seems hard to use)
* macaca/macaca moment: an ethnic or racial gaffe caught on video (oh, yeah-I do like this one)
* boomeritis: afflictions or injuries of Baby Boomers, caused by their age (I can relate)

Oh, and in case you're wondering just who this "American Dialect Society" is, it's the august association that chose "truthiness" as the 2005 word of the year. Can't get much smarter than that.