An associate professor of Spanish linguistics at Brigham Young University recently published a specialized dictionary of Spanish-derived terms related to ranching and cowboys.
Robert N. Smead's dictionary, "Vocabulario Vaquero/Cowboy Talk," has sold more than 400 copies in hardcover, and more than 130 libraries in the United States now own the volume.
"Given Utah's place in the West and the large number of people today who are or whose ancestors were involved in ranching and cowboying, the book has a wide appeal," Smead says.
Richard W. Slatta, professor of history at North Carolina State University and author of many books including "Comparing Cowboys and Frontiers," says the new dictionary is an essential reference for libraries of linguistics and history.
Smead completed his bachelor's and master's degrees at BYU and later finished his doctorate in Iberoromance philology and linguistics at the University of Texas in 1988.
For information, contact Robert Smead at 422-2636, rob_smead@byu.edu.
