The Living Dialect of Orrell, Lancashire

Description

A study of the dialect spoken in Orrell, near Wigan in Lancashire, based on interviews with two local residents. An introduction to the village and the two informants is followed by five chapters which present an account of the sounds of the dialect recorded in 19[59], describe the development of Middle English sounds in the living dialect (vowels of stressed and unstressed syllables), describe changes in consonantal sounds from the Old and Middle English periods down to 19[59], and present a tabular summary of the Old English, Middle English, Old French and Old Norse equivalents of stressed vowels in the living dialect of Orrell. The first of three appendices presents a history of the Orrell nail and bolt industry, illustrated with photographs of a smithy owned by the collector's male informant, a nail maker of seventy-two years. These show the interior of the smithy and associated nail making tools and equipment. Two further appendices concern parasitic syllabic nasals, and the survival of Middle English plural endings -en in Orrell. A fourth appendix refers to a gramophone disc of unscripted speech, recorded in Orrell in the summer of 1959, submitted with the study. No such disc has been traced within the LAVC. A Word List is included.

Metadata

Identifier vyfbsgm5
IRN 410274
Class Mark LAVC/SRP/2/238
Level File
Type of Record Archives - ISAD(G)
Peristent Link http://prototype1.library.leeds.ac.uk/vyfbsgm5
Collection(s) Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Category Archive
Parent Record Undergraduate Dissertations
Creator(s) Wilson, Elaine
Date 1960
Size and Medium xv, 176 bound ms. leaves; 8 b/w photographs.

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