The Dialects of England

This text celebrates the rich variety of regional and social dialects of English in all its forms, ancient and modern.

In this new, revised and extended edition, Trudgill includes phonetic symbols along with the orthographic representations of speech sounds. Zummerzet and Scouse, Cockney and Cumberland, Brummie and Berkshire, Nottingham, Norfolk and Estuary English are all covered.

English dialects are the result of 1500 years of linguistic and cultural development. Written in non–technical language, this book outlines their history and their geography. It describes and delights in the diversity of vocabulary, accent, grammar and literature to be found among the dialects of England.

List of Maps.

Preface to the Second Edition.

Acknowledgements.

1. Language Variety in England.

2. The Pronunciation of Traditional Dialects.

3. The Pronunciation of Modern Dialects.

4. The Grammar of English Dialects.

5. Dialect Words.

Notes.

Sources and Further Reading.

Index.

Peter Trudgill is Chair of English Linguistics at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. His interest in dialects extends throughout the English–speaking world and he is author of Accent, Dialect and the School, Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society, and many other books on dialectology. He is editor of the Blackwell series ′ Language in Society′.