alkitottle, batterfanged, cheeping-merry, deepooperit, ernful . . .
Why are dialects so fascinating? I’ve never met anyone who isn’t intrigued by the extraordinary diversity of the English language, as it changes from place to place. Dialect words, in particular, capture the imagination. They give us an insight into the way people think who are both like us – in that they speak the same language – and yet not like us. And when we encounter old dialect words and expressions, it’s like travelling back in time.
People who speak a regional dialect are usually very proud of the fact. This is because a dialect, like an accent, is a powerful expression of identity. An accent shows where you come from by the pronunciation you use. A dialect shows where you come from by the words and grammar you use. The two complement each other in this book, which celebrates Joseph Wright’s magisterial English Dialect Dictionary.
Dialects are both national and international. British people notice the differences in the words Americans use, and vice versa. Cars/automobiles have boots/trunks and bonnets/hoods. But when people talk about dialect they usually mean the local variations in grammar and vocabulary within a country. ‘Local’ of course can mean many things. We can talk about the words that are used in a major political unit, such as Scotland or England, or within a major geographical area, such as ‘the West Country’, or within a particular county or city. Some words may be very local indeed, used only by people from a town or village. In the days when regular contact between communities was difficult, it was a natural consequence to find words and idioms emerging that were different from those used even a few miles down the road.
And nowhere was this diversity more apparent than in Britain. It’s often said that there are more dialects in the British Isles than in any other part of the English-speaking world. We have to take such statements with a pinch of salt, because many parts of that world have had little or no dialect study at all. But Britain certainly takes some beating because of the range of influences on the development of the language over the past 1,500 years. The entries in this book show the varying impact on vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxon, Danish, and French invasions as well as of the indigenous Celtic communities. And there seems to be something special about the British readiness to engage in language play: many entries display a cheeky inventiveness in coining words and expressions. At times, it’s almost as if localities were competing to see who could come up with the most idiosyncratic way of talking about something. Several of the items in this book reflect this irreverent, down-to-earth temperament.
The challenge facing any would-be dialectologist is thus immense. With such a long history, displaying such remarkable geographical diversity and periods of rapid change, where does one start? And how to devise a procedure to cover the country as a whole? The words and expressions are ‘out there’, certainly, but how to get at them? Enter Joseph Wright.