The Living Dialect of Eskdale (Cumbria): A Descriptive and Historical Survey

Description

A study of the dialect spoken in Eskdale in Cumbria, based on data collected through fieldwork interviews with two principal informants, Billy Hartley and John Porter, both resident in Eskdale Green. An introduction to the area and the main informants is followed by five chapters which present a descriptive account of the sounds of the dialect recorded in 19[74], describe the development of Middle English sounds in the living dialect (vowels of stressed and unstressed syllables), describe changes in consonantal sounds from the Middle English period down to 1975, and present a tabular summary of Old English, Middle English, Scandinavian, Old French and various other equivalents of the stressed vowels in the Eskdale dialect. The first of three appendices contains a list of unusual words, with their meanings. The other appendices present a photographic record of Cumberland shoe and basket making. The first six photographs are copies made from a series taken in the mid 1930s by an Eskdale local historian, Mary C. Fair, showing the principal stages in the production of a pair of fell boots. Other photographs show a number of shoe making tools. The photographs of basket making show progressive stages in the production of a swill basket in Eskdale Green (the first five of which are copies of originals taken in 1905). Other photographs show Billy Hartley making a basket, and exterior views of his workshop. An Index of Words and an Ordnance Survey map (Wast Water, Sheet NY 10) are also included.

Metadata

Identifier ql8g3r5c
IRN 410324
Class Mark LAVC/SRP/2/288
Level File
Type of Record Archives - ISAD(G)
Peristent Link http://prototype1.library.leeds.ac.uk/ql8g3r5c
Collection(s) Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Category Archive
Parent Record Undergraduate Dissertations
Creator(s) Macdonald, Claire
Date 1975
Size and Medium vi, 112 bound typed leaves; 17 b/w photographs.

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