represents one of his most significant contributions to the field. The fundamental divisions he and Raven I. McDavid, Jr. established, and the connections they made with settlement history, continue to be validated by contemporary linguistic research.

The Linguistic Atlas Project, which Kurath founded in 1929 at the behest of the American Dialect Society, remains the most thorough and expansive study of American English undertaken to date. The project continues today at the University of